I wasn’t going to discuss this, as I consider Insight magazine about as credible as The Weekly World News, however Kenneth Timmerman is someone who is more credible than most. He writes that The Iraqi Survey Group has definitive evidence of WMD programs in Iraq.
There have been many tantalizing hints about evidence of Iraqi WMDs, but nothing that can be considered conclusive in any way. Timmerman indicates that the pattern of evidence has shown that Iraq did indeed have a significant WMD capability, including nuclear, chemical, and biological laboratories. But Timmerman argues that because large “stockpiles” of weapons were never found the true significance of what has been discovered has been largely ignored.
I’m not sure of the significance of this – however I am sure that Iraq did have a clandestine weapons program. On a prima facie basis it seems unlikely that he did not. We know that he had chemical weapons. We know he used them. We know he had the capability to produce more. We know he had time to do so. We also know he had months in which to hide such weapons before his regime was toppled. We know there was significant cross-border traffic between Iraq and Syria.
If Saddam did destroy his WMDs, when and where did he do it? Why isn’t there a single piece of conclusive evidence or documentation to show for it. The Mukhabarat and the Iraqi Army kept meticulous records of nearly everything they did, from tortures to illicit oil shipments. Why then has there not been a “smoking gun” document that states that X amount of chemical weapons material was destroyed at time Y in location Z?
Given all these facts, the case for Saddam’s WMD programs seems strong on the surface – however, even the strongest prima facie case isn’t necessary the truth. The ISG is continuing to work to get to the bottom of what Saddam really had and where it may have gone. Until there is definitive evidence that shows that Saddam did have weapons of mass destruction, it is simply too early to say that he did or did not.
What is certain is that Saddam Hussein violated the terms of UN Resolution 1441. His missile program was clearly in violation of that dictate. He did not give a full and complete report of his weapons program to the UN, and even Hans Blix said that the Iraqis were not cooperating. We also know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Saddam Hussein did fund terrorism worldwide, sheltered terrorists from Abu Abbas to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. There is no doubt that he was terrorizing his own people. Even if no further evidence on Iraq WMDs is found, the causus belli for the war in Iraq remains strong.
