Iraq Had No Capability To Deliver WMD, Inspector S
Lisa Ashkenaz Croke | 14.02.2004 06:27 | Anti-militarism | World
WASHINGTON (NFTF.org) -- A top Australian weapons inspector says he never believed Saddam Hussein had the ability to attack his neighbors with chemical or biological weapons, but the Australian government failed to properly consult with the inspector before deploying troops into Iraq.
In an interview with the Aussie publication The Age, senior inspector Roger Hill said that in March he was sent to debrief members of Australia's SAS headed into Iraq. He told them that Iraq had no means to deliver an attack with any weapons of mass destruction into neighboring countries, though he was certain weapons could be successfully used against coalition forces.
"I told the troops that. I also told people in the other coalition forces, but I was a lone voice," Hill told The Age.
A former SAS officer, Hill spent eight years as a senior weapons inspector with the U.N. and headed the 1998 inspection team in Iraq. He said he believed that war and inspections had made deployment of any remaining WMD almost impossible.
Hill to The Age: "It is all very well having weapons of mass destruction, like a chemical round, but you still have to have the ability to deliver them. … They had not been able to bring the systems out of storage, to practice with them or to transport them. … Not one of these sorts of things were functioning."
To date, WMD have not been found in Iraq.
YellowTimes.org correspondent Lisa Ashkenaz Croke drafted this report.
"I told the troops that. I also told people in the other coalition forces, but I was a lone voice," Hill told The Age.
A former SAS officer, Hill spent eight years as a senior weapons inspector with the U.N. and headed the 1998 inspection team in Iraq. He said he believed that war and inspections had made deployment of any remaining WMD almost impossible.
Hill to The Age: "It is all very well having weapons of mass destruction, like a chemical round, but you still have to have the ability to deliver them. … They had not been able to bring the systems out of storage, to practice with them or to transport them. … Not one of these sorts of things were functioning."
To date, WMD have not been found in Iraq.
YellowTimes.org correspondent Lisa Ashkenaz Croke drafted this report.
Lisa Ashkenaz Croke
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