The Hindu : Cool response to dossier on Iraq

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 25, 2002

International

International

Cool response to dossier on Iraq

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON SEPT. 24. The British Government's keenly-awaited and heavily-trailed dossier on Iraq, published on Tuesday morning to justify the Prime Minister, Tony Blair's backing for a possible military intervention, warns that Baghdad has "military plans'' to use chemical and biological weapons, and is in a position launch an attack at 45 minutes' notice.

But despite its chilling note, portraying Iraq as a threat to British "national interests'', the 50-page document was greeted with widespread scepticism with experts dismissing it as simply old wine in new bottle. The prestigious London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies, which published its own dossier a few weeks ago, did not find anything significantly startling and described it as "much the same as our own report''.

Given the hype that preceded its release, shortly before an emergency debate in Parliament on the issue, the dossier came as an anti-climax and clearly failed to win Mr. Blair any new converts for his aggressive stance. Labour MPs were not convinced that it offered sufficient evidence to warrant a military attack on Iraq — a view repeatedly voiced during the acrimonious debate in the Commons — despite Mr Blair's warning that Iraq's programme of weapons of mass destruction posed a "serious threat'' to British interests.

In a foreword to the dossier, he said it was "unprecedented'' for the Government to publish this kind of document. "I wanted to share with the British public the reasons why I believe this issue to be a current and serious threat to the U.K. national interest,'' he said, claiming that Iraq had the ability to inflict "real damage upon the region and the stability of the world.''

The document, dismissed as a "fiction'' by the pro-Iraqi Labour MP, George Galloway, says Saddam Hussein has plans to use the weapons even against his own population and some are deployable within 45 minutes of an order to use them. Among other things, it says that Iraq sought to acquire "significant quantities'' of uranium from Africa and that it is capable of developing nuclear weapons within a year or two — a more conservative estimate than that of the IIS which said that it could do "within months'' if it could acquire the necessary fissile material. The dossier also claims that Iraq has retained up to 20 Al-Hussein missiles, with a range of 650 km, capable of carrying chemical or biological warheads and has developed mobile laboratories for military use "corroborating earlier reports about the mobile production of biological warfare agents''.

"Intelligence also shows that Iraq is preparing to conceal evidence of these weapons, including incriminating documents, from renewed inspections,'' it says, warning that its missile programme is well-funded. It specifically warns that Iraq is planning nuclear missiles which can hit British bases in Cyprus.

Iraq, however, was quick to dismiss it as "baseless'' and a part of a "Zionist campaign''.

The publication of the dossier was preceded by hectic efforts to quell a simmering revolt in the Cabinet over Mr. Blair's support for U.S. war aims in Iraq.

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