This is a favorite of Bush – make an ambiguous reference to Saddam’s weapons programs. It is beyond dispute that Iraq had a robust nuclear and chemical weapons program before the first Gulf War. To which are you referring now Mr. President? That program which is already on the record, or the one you allege existed after inspectors left in 1998? Bush is being disingenuous. What he said is technically accurate. Iraq had a weapons program. But Bush makes this assertion in the context of the current search for WMD as if it's a fact that evidence of a weapons program has already been discovered. Of course then he follows it up with the usual “gassed his own people” mantra. Wasn’t that back when Saddam was a guy we could do business with?
So what about that weapons program?
Despite vigorous efforts, the U.S. government has been unsuccessful so far in finding key senior Iraqi scientists to support its prewar claims that former president Saddam Hussein was pursuing an aggressive program to develop nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, according to senior administration officials and members of Congress who have been briefed recently on the subject.
The sources said four senior scientists and more than a dozen at lower levels who worked for the Iraqi government have been interviewed by U.S. officials under the direction of the CIA. Some scientists have been arrested and held for months, others have made deals in return for information and at least one has agreed to be interviewed outside Iraq.
No matter the circumstances, all of the scientists interviewed have denied that Hussein had reconstituted his nuclear weapons program or developed and hidden chemical or biological weapons since United Nations inspectors left in 1998. Several key Iraqi officials questioned the significance of evidence cited by the Bush administration to suggest that Hussein was stepping up efforts to develop new weapons of mass destruction programs.
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