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Excerpts from UK's dossier of evidence
24/09/2002 11:38 - (SA)
London - Summary of main points from British dossier of evidence about Iraq's development of weapons of mass destruction.
The British government judges that Iraq has:
continued to produce chemical and biological agents;
military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons, including against its own Shia population. Some of these weapons are deployable within 45 minutes of an order to use them;
command and control arrangements in place to use chemical and biological weapons;
developed mobile laboratories for military use;
pursued illegal programs to procure controlled materials of potential use in the production of chemical and biological weapons programs;
tried covertly to acquire technology and materials which could be used in the production of nuclear weapons;
sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa, despite having no active civil nuclear power program that could require it;
recalled specialists to work on its nuclear program;
illegally retained up to 20 al-Hussein missiles, with a range
of 650km, capable of carrying chemical or biological
warheads;
started deploying its al-Samoud liquid propellant missile, and has used the absence of weapons inspectors to work on extending its range to at least 200km, which is beyond the limit of 150km imposed by the United Nations;
started producing the solid-propellant Ababil-100, and is making efforts to extend its range to at least 200km,
which is beyond the limit of 150km imposed by the United
Nations;
constructed a new engine test stand for the development of missiles capable of reaching the UK Sovereign Base Areas in
Cyprus and Nato members (Greece and Turkey), as well as all Iraq's Gulf neighbours and Israel;
pursued illegal programs to procure materials for use in its illegal development of long range missiles;
learnt lessons from previous UN weapons inspections and has already begun to conceal sensitive equipment and documentation in advance of the return of inspectors. - Sapa-AP
- SAPA
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