WASHINGTON -Contradicting the main argument for a war that has cost more than 1,000 American lives, the top U.S. arms inspector said yesterday he found no evidence that Iraq produced any weapons of mass destruction after 1991. He also concluded that Saddam Hussein's capabilities to develop such weapons had dimmed -not grown -during a dozen years of sanctions before last year's U.S. invasion.
Contrary to prewar statements by President Bush and top administration officials, Saddam did not have chemical and biological stockpiles when the war began, and his nuclear capabilities were deteriorating, not advancing, said Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group.
The findings come fewer than four weeks before an election in which Bush's handling of Iraq has become the central issue. Democratic candidate John Kerry has seized on comments by the former U.S. administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, that the United States did not have enough troops in Iraq to prevent lawlessness after Saddam was toppled.
The inspector's report could boost Kerry's contention that Bush rushed to war based on faulty intelligence and that United Nations sanctions and U.N. weapons inspectors should have been given more time.
But Duelfer also supports Bush's argument that Saddam remained a threat. Interviews with the toppled leader and other former Iraqi officials made clear that Saddam had not lost his ambition to pursue weapons of mass destruction and hoped to revive his weapons program if U.N. sanctions were lifted, his report said.
Campaigning in Pennsylvania, Bush defended the decision to invade.
There was a risk
a real risk that Saddam Hussein would pass weapons or materials or information to terrorist networks Bush said in a speech in Wilkes Barre, Pa. In the world after Sept. 11
that was a risk we could not afford to take.
But a top Democrat in Congress, Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, said Duelfer's findings undercut the two main arguments for war: that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and that he would share them with terrorists like al-Qaida.
We did not go to war because Saddam had future intentions to obtain weapons of mass destruction
said Levin, ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Under questioning from Levin, Duelfer said his report found that aluminum tubes suspected of being used for enriching uranium for use in a nuclear bomb likely were destined for conventional rockets and that there is no evidence Iraq sought uranium abroad after 1991. Both findings contradict claims made by Bush and other top administration officials before the war.
He also found no evidence of trailers being used to develop biological weapons, Duelfer said, though he said he could not flatly declare that none existed.
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Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group, gestures during a Senate Armed Services committee meeting yesterday in Washington. Duelfer, the top U.S. arms inspector, said yesterday he found no evidence that Iraq produced any weapons of mass destruction
