National News

U.K. releases dossier making a case for attack on Iraq over weapons threat

Iraq has military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons and is trying to acquire nuclear weapons, Britain said Sept. 24 in a dossier of evidence about Iraq's development of weapons of mass destruction.

The dossier also argues that Iraq has extended the range of its ballistic missiles and that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has direct control over Iraqi weapons.

The report outlined Iraqi efforts to rebuild facilities that could be used to make weapons of mass destruction.

"I am in no doubt that the threat is serious and current, that (Saddam Hussein) has made progress on (weapons of mass destruction), and that he has to be stopped," Prime Minister Tony Blair said in an introduction to the dossier.

"Unless we face up to the threat, not only do we risk undermining the authority of the United Nations ... but more importantly and in the longer term, we place at risk the lives and prosperity of our own people."

Iraq rejected the dossier. "The British prime minister is serving the campaign of lies led by Zionists against Iraq. Blair is part of this misleading campaign," Iraqi Culture Minister Hammed Youssef Hammadi told reporters in Baghdad.

The dossier was released hours before Parliament gathered for a special session to debate possible military action against Iraq.

Within minutes of the release of the dossier, antiwar protesters outside Parliament began playing John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance."

Blair also faced opposition from leftwing lawmakers at home who said he had provided little new information.

"Tony Blair will have to do better than this if he wants to convince the British public to go to war," said Labour lawmaker Diane Abbott.

Shukan ST: Oct. 4, 2002

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