|
'Proof' of Iraqi WMD programme
07/05/2003 19:20 - (SA)
Washington - Documentary evidence gathered by US forces suggests Iraq had an active chemical and biological weapons program before the war even though it did not use the banned arms against a US-led invasion force, a top US military commander in Iraq said on Wednesday.
Lieutenant General William Wallace, the commander of the US Army's V Corps, said much of the information on weapons of mass destruction is coming from low-ranking Iraqi officials with only partial knowledge of the programme.
"We have collected evidence, much of it documentary evidence, that suggests there was an active programme," he said. "It's taken a while, as you might expect, to sort through that documentary evidence."
"A lot of the information that we are getting is coming from lower-tier Iraqis who had some knowledge of the programme but not full knowledge of the program, and it's just taken a while to sort through all that," he said.
US commanders had what they regarded as "solid information" before the war that Iraq had tactical chemical and biological weapons, but there is no evidence that the Iraqi military attempted to use them during the war, he said.
"One theory is we moved so fast they couldn't get their hands on it to deploy it, and secondly, I would like to believe our information operations campaign had an impact on those commanders that might have had an opportunity to pull the trigger," he said.
Noting that UN inspectors had left the country just days before the fighting started, Wallace speculated that Iraq may not have time to bring its tactical chemical and biological weapons out of hiding. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA
|
News
