WORDS OF MASS DECEPTION
Jul 8 2003
By Alexandra Williams And Justine Smith
These are the words the Government used to mislead us into war on Iraq. For months before Britain and the US invaded, Tony Blair, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon insisted Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.
TONY BLAIR
-IN speeches to MPs, the media and politicians around the world, our leaders said Iraq posed a serious and immediate threat.
-SINCE the war ended, ministers have vowed to prove Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.
- BUT, more than two months on, despite tens of thousands of coalition forces and US inspectors, no evidence has been found.
April 4, 2002: I do believe there is a real danger with weapons of mass destruction - on US NBC TV.
May 1: Saddam Hussein is developing weapons of mass destruction, he is in breach of UN Security Council resolutions and he should come back into compliance with those - Daily Mirror.
September 10: If we do not deal with the threat from this international outlaw and his barbaric regime, it may not erupt and engulf us this month or next; perhaps not even this year or the next. But it will at some point. And I do not want it on my conscience that we knew the threat, saw it coming and did nothing - TUC conference in Blackpool.
September 24: The dossier...concludes that Iraq has chemical and biological weapons, that Saddam has continued to produce them, that he has existing and active military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons, which could be activated within 45 minutes.
We know that Saddam has been trying to buy significant quantities of uranium from Africa - House of Commons.
November 18: I have got no doubt either that the purpose of our challenge from the UN is disarmament of weapons of mass destruction, it is not regime change - Radio Monte Carlo.
November 30: Not only do we know that Saddam has weapons of mass destruction, we also know he is capable of using them. It is solely because of the threat he poses - and for this reason alone - that the international community has decided that Saddam must disarm or face the consequences - in an interview.
January 13, 2003: I don\'t think the British intelligence services would be advising me this if they weren\'t doing it honestly and properly - press conference.
February 1: We know that these terrorist networks would use any means that they can to cause maximum death and they will do whatever they can to acquire the most deadly weaponry they can, and that is why it is important to deal with these issues together - press conference.
February 3: If having made a demand backed up by a threat of force, we fail to enforce that demand, the result will not be peace or security. It will simply be returning to confront the issue again at a later time with the world less stable, the will of those repressive states or terrorist groups who would destroy our way of life, emboldened and undeterred.
CLAIMS: Hoon
Facilities formerly used for biological weapons have been rebuilt. Saddam was trying to recover mobile biological weapons facilities. Present intelligence confirms it has now got such facilities - House of Commons.
February 6: I have never said Iraq is about to launch an attack on Britain, but there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein is a threat to his region - BBC 2\'s Newsnight.
February 18: The stance that the world takes now against Saddam is not just vital in its own right, it is a huge test of our seriousness in dealing with the twin threats of weapons of mass destruction and terrorism - House of Commons.
February 25: They say the time is necessary to search out the weapons...to enter Iraq to find the weapons... That is emphatically not the inspectors\' job. They are not a detective agency. It is not a question of time. It is a question of will - House of Commons
March 6: There is no rush, after all we\'ve been waiting 12 years for Saddam to disarm himself of chemical and biological and, potentially, nuclear weapons. We can\'t wait forever.
If we don\'t act now, then we will go back to what has happened before and then, of course, the whole thing begins again and he carries on developing these weapons and these are dangerous weapons, particularly if they fall into the hands of terrorists who we know want to use these weapons. It\'s unlikely at this very moment in time that Saddam is going to do anything; that\'s true. What I\'m saying is he certainly is a threat - MTV.
March 18: We are now seriously asked to accept that in the last few years, contrary to all history, contrary to all intelligence, he decided unilaterally to destroy the weapons. Such a claim is palpably absurd - House of Commons
March 20: Tonight, British servicemen and women are engaged from air, land and sea. Their mission: to remove Saddam Hussein from power, and disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction - national address on the outbreak of war.
March 25: Our aim remains as has been stated: to remove Saddam as the route to disarming Iraq of weapons of mass destruction - press conference.
April 28: Before people crow about the absence of weapons of mass destruction, I suggest they wait a little bit. I remain confident that they will be found - press conference
May 30: We have only just begun the process of investigating all the various sites...It is not the most urgent priority - press conference.
May 31: Those people who are sitting there saying \'Oh, it is all going to be proved to be a great big fib got out by the security services. There will be no weapons of mass destruction\'. Just wait and have a little patience - interview.
June 4: In addition to the weapons of mass destruction issue, as I saw for myself in Iraq, the people of Iraq, whatever the problems of rebuilding that country, are delighted a brutal dictator who murdered hundreds of thousands of their people has gone - G8 Summit.
June 4: The allegation that the 45-minute claim provoked disquiet among the intelligence community, which disagreed with its inclusion in the dossier - I have discussed it, as I said, with the Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee - is also completely and totally untrue. Instead of hearing from one or many anonymous sources, I suggest that if people have any evidence, they actually produce it - G8 Summit.
June 18: I always made it clear that the issue was not whether he was about to launch an immediate strike on Britain. The issue was whether he posed a threat to his region and the wider world - House of Commons.
JACK STRAW
March 12, 2002: (Iraq is) a severe threat to international and regional security (for) its continuing development of weapons of mass destruction. (There is) overwhelming and compelling evidence of such weapons - House of Commons.
March 15: The whole world has made a decision that Iraq poses a very serious threat to the security of the region and to the security of the international community - BBC.
March 24: Iraq poses a threat to the world because of its manufacture and development of weapons of mass destruction. We know it above all from the fact Saddam Hussein has used these weapons against the Iranians and his own people - House of Commons.
August 27: The prime objective, I think, on both sides of the Atlantic is to reduce and then eliminate the threat posed by the Iraqi regime by its possession and potential use of weapons of mass destruction - House of Commons.
August 28: We are determined to deal with the threat posed by Iraq\'s possession of weapons of mass destruction - House of Commons.
August 30: There is widespread agreement across Europe and indeed the world about Iraq and the threat it poses - European foreign ministers in Denmark.
September 6: No other country but Iraq has the same appetite both for developing and using weapons of mass destruction - European Research Institute, University of Birmingham.
September 14: The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction poses the greatest current threat to global security. No country has deceived every other country in the world as systematically and cynically as Iraq - speech in New York.
September 15: (The UN has to give Saddam) a very clear choice: either he deals with those weapons of mass destruction or his regime will have to end - US press.
September 15: The choice is his (Saddam\'s) and he hasn\'t got much time to make up his mind. They (the Iraqis) have been playing games with us for long enough, played games with world peace for long enough - Sky.
GEOFF HOON
September 18: (Iraq\'s claim that it has no weapons of mass destruction) is a blatant untruth. Iraq does retain the capacity to use chemical and other weapons of terror against its neighbours and its own people, as it has done before - House of Commons
October 8: We are agreed about the objective, which has to be the disarmament of Iraq\'s weapons of mass destruction and the end to the defiance by Iraq of the UN - Middle East media.
December 4: It would be extremely sensible from (Saddam\'s) point of view and from the Iraqi people\'s that he abandons the habit of a lifetime of lying and deception and begins to tell the truth - The Independent.
January 27, 2003: He (Saddam) is practising concealment. There\'s clear evidence that he has made this a charade of an inspection, co-operating on process but not on substance - UK press.
April 28: I\'m not certain where it is. I am absolutely certain that Iraq had illegal weapons of mass destruction and had them recently and therefore there is every reason why these ought to be found - House of Commons.
May 13: I hope there will be further evidence of literal finds. The Blix report suggested that it still existed. (But finding them is) not crucially important - Radio 4\'s Today programme.
June 24: Neither the PM nor I have ever used the word \'immediate\' or \'imminent\' in relation to the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. What we talked about in the dossier was a \'current and serious threat\' which is very different - Foreign Affairs Select Committee.
July 1: (The decision to take military action) was justified. What we have seen subsequently is proof positive... including development of illegal weapons systems, a lot of circumstantial evidence about chemical and biological weapons capability - BBC Radio 4.September 18, 2001: We have to guard against this (the threat of chemical or biological attack). We weren\'t prepared for the kinds of fanaticism people were prepared to use - Radio 4 Today programme.
September 26: The point has been made that there are some links between countries that harbour terrorists and those that allow the development of weapons of mass destruction - Nato defence ministers.
March 20: Britain could come within range of missiles within the next few years - House of Commons.
March 24: Those weapons of mass destruction might well be capable of posing a threat to the United Kingdom, in which case we would be entitled to act in self-defence - ITV\'s Jonathan Dimbleby programme.
September 9: (Saddam) will do all he can to acquire these weapons. And history shows that Saddam Hussein will not hesitate to use weapons of mass destruction - to the TUC.
September 11: It is important that we set out a clear case as to why there should be disarmament in Iraq, why they should no longer threaten the safety of the world with weapons of mass destruction - Radio 4 Today programme.
January 15, 2003: It is the combination of ballistic missiles and the possession of these weapons of mass destruction, together with the demonstrated willingness to use these capabilities, that makes Iraq the immediate state threat to global security - House of Commons.
January 19: It\'s not literally a smoking gun (that we need to find). It is persuasive evidence that confirms that there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - Sunday Telegraph.
January 22: Weapons of mass destruction have been a central pillar of Saddam\'s dictatorship since the 1980s ... Iraq was found guilty 12 years ago. Yet they built up their WMD, and lied and lied again - House of Commons.
February 25: Inevitably, to ensure that Iraq no longer poses a threat of WMD, we will have to see Saddam Hussein removed from his position in Iraq - to troops in Kuwait.
March 20: It is the leadership in Iraq which controls Iraq\'s weapons of mass destruction. That is what we are trying to deal with - House of Commons.
March 26: We do have evidence the Iraqi regime is prepared to use weapons of mass destruction. UK forces have made significant discoveries which show categorically that Iraqi troops are prepared for the use of such horrific weapons - at a press briefing.
April 7: We have been aware for some time that the regime had removed many of the more obvious elements of its weapons of mass destruction and had sought to hide them. I have no doubt that those weapons of mass destruction will be found - House of Commons.
April 13: I\'m absolutely convinced that they (WMD) are there - Radio 4 The World This Weekend.
April 23: We will increasingly be able to find weapons of mass destruction as we get co-operation, as we are doing from individuals who are part of the regime - to troops in Umm Qasr.
April 24: I believe the reason for (Saddam not using WMD) is because military action followed fairly quickly on the end of the weapons inspections programmes, and having hidden away those weapons ... it was then extremely difficult for him in time to be able to reassemble them - Radio 4 Today programme.
May 14: (The existence of WMD was) ... the sole justification for war - House of Commons.
May 14: We were aware from the moment the weapons inspectors went into Iraq that Iraq had been engaged in a very determined programme of concealment. It will inevitably take time in a country the size of France to locate that equipment, but I am confident we will - Defence Select Committee.
May 23: They couldn\'t (use their WMD)because of the rapid advance of the allies - House of Commons.
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