US promises WMD soon

2003-07-04 08:22

Washington - US intelligence is making headway in finding Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, Senator Pat Roberts, Senate intelligence committee chairperson, said on Thursday.

"We are making progress. Every day we find someone who leads us to another piece of the puzzle," the Kansas senator said after a three-day trip to Iraq with eight Republican and Democrat collegues.

"My judgment is that there's going to be breaking, positive news on that front in a very near term.

"It's classified information now. I am urging the administration and the intelligence community to make at least portions of that public."

Roberts said it would take some time to find what he said were Saddam's multiple weapons programs.

Pentagon teams that have yet to discover chemical or biological weapons are working from information provided by Iraqis to find evidence of the weapons programs, he said.

Like many of his collegues, Robert insists that Saddam and his sons must be captured or proven to be dead so that the fear they generate does not discourage people having information on the arms from coming forward.

"You can't dig up every rosebush in Iraq," Roberts said. "We need people who are familiar with the program to show us where they are hidden."

- AFX