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Politics : War -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epsteinbd who wrote (17009)	9/7/2002 10:41:32 PM
From: lorne	Respond to of 23908

N-bomb for Saddam in three years The dossier on Iraq which Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, has promised to print in the next few weeks will be his case for war. Fraser Nelson and Alison Hardie SADDAM Hussein has the capability to make an atomic bomb within three years, and has stockpiled enough chemical and biological weapons to wipe out the world’s population, according to the file on Iraq due to be released by Downing Street. The dictator is understood to control enough chemicals to make more than 200 tonnes of VX, a powerful nerve agent. This is understood to be the most potent element in a full complement of weapons, which is missing only the enriched uranium needed to complete a nuclear bomb. Intelligence sources say the final piece in the jigsaw could be available by 2005. The contents of the dossier implicating Saddam as a world criminal will be at the top of Tony Blair’s agenda when he meets George Bush at the US President’s Camp David retreat today. The war summit takes place as tension mounts in advance of the anniversary of the 11 September attacks. The head of Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorist squad, David Veness, warned lone terrorists could view the day as offering a "world stage" for their own cause. Mr Bush and Mr Blair have so far failed in diplomatic attempts to bring Russia, China and France on board to support a strike against Iraq. Significantly yesterday, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, refused yet again to be moved by diplomatic overtures from the White House. Yet Mr Bush and Mr Blair are determined to agree the form of words of a damning catalogue of evidence they will say proves Saddam is a threat to the rest of the world. The Scotsman has compiled an 11-page dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, drawing on intelligence sources in the US and testimonies by Iraqi defectors. The main body of evidence is provided by the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) which, when it left Iraq in December 1998, drew up a file of weapons it could not find. This suggests that some 810 tonnes of chemicals needed to make VX was imported into Iraq, but that inspectors have only been able to account for 191 tonnes of it. An intelligence report says the remaining 619 tonnes of so-called precursor chemicals is enough to produce 200 tonnes of VX - which it says could "theoretically obliterate the entire global population." The Scotsman dossier, published in full on the internet, shows the CIA now has evidence to suggest that Iraq is converting an L-29 trainer jet into an unmanned aircraft which could spread such weapons. There is also evidence suggesting that his chemical production has been stepped up as Saddam’s trade links with its former Arab enemies begin to strengthen. Mr Blair’s dossier is not expected to have any evidence to prove categorically that Saddam has biological or chemical weapons. It will, instead, seek to provide enough circumstantial evidence to argue that a pre-emptive strike is now vital to secure world peace. Yet opposition to a war continued to grow on both sides of the Atlantic. In Britain, a BBC poll of 100 Labour MPs found only four who thought there were sufficient grounds to declare war on Iraq, compared with 88 who did not. And, in an interview, Robin Cook, the Leader of the Commons, said he believed it was imperative that Mr Blair recalled parliament to debate the issue. In the US, former president Bill Clinton led fresh demands for any action to topple Saddam to be delayed until Osama bin Laden is caught. Mr Bush will outline his ideas on how to deal with Saddam when he addresses the UN General Assembly on 12 September. Meanwhile, Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera said it has interviewed two wanted al-Qaeda members who disclose how the terrorist network planned and carried out the atrocities. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is said to be one of the most senior al-Qaeda leaders still at large, while Ramzi Binalshibh was a member of a Hamburg-based cell led by Mohammed Atta. thescotsman.co.uk