- (AFP) -- Inspectors have found no evidence that Saddam
Hussein tried to transfer chemical or biological technology or weapons
to terrorists, according to a report quoting US military and intelligence
experts.
-
- This report is according to the Washington Post newspaper.
-
- Anthony Cordesman, a senior fellow at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies, provided new details about the weapons
search and Iraqi insurgency in report released Friday.
-
- His report was based on briefings over the past two weeks
in Iraq from David Kay, the CIA representative who is directing the search
for unconventional weapons in Iraq, US civil administrator in Iraq Paul
Bremer, and military officials.
-
- "No evidence of any Iraqi effort to transfer weapons
of mass destruction or weapons to terrorists," Cordesman wrote of
Kay's briefing.
-
- During the recent Baghdad briefing, Cordesman noted that
Kay said Iraq "did order nuclear equipment from 1999 on, but no evidence
(has turned up) of (a) new major facility to use it."
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- While there was no evidence of chemical weapons production,
Kay said he had located biological work "under cover of new agricultural
facility" that showed "advances in developing dry storable powder
forms of botulinum toxin," Cordesman wrote, according to the Washington
Post.
-
- The White House last year justified the US-led invasion
of Iraq by saying that there was a significant risk that then-president
Saddam Hussein would provide chemical or biological agents or weapons to
al-Qaeda or other terrorists.
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