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WMD evidence will be found: Austrilian PM *LINK*
Posted By: wtnf In Response To: CIA plays down hopes of finding Saddam's WMD *LINK* (wtnf)
Date: 25, September 03, at 6:57 a.m.
September 25, 2003
Evidence was likely to emerge that Saddam Hussein at least possessed programs for acquisition of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), Prime Minister John Howard said today.
Mr Howard said there was credible intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capability in the leadup to the war.
He said the Iraq Survey Group, which is now scouring the country for evidence of Saddam Hussein's weapons programs, had now delivered an interim report although it had not yet finished its work.
Mr Howard said he had not seen that report and media reports on its contents could only be treated as speculation.
"I would imagine that the Iraq Survey Group would do more work and when I get details of that and I am in a position to say so I will have something to say," he said.
"I repeat this very strongly, that the intelligence we had at the time about their capability was very credible and very strong and I don't retreat one iota from the decision that we took."
Asked if he still believed WMD would be found, Mr Howard replied: "I would like to see the Iraq Survey Group's work but I certainly believe that there will be evidence found that they had programs."
Mr Howard said it was inevitable that there would be public scepticism about the reasons for going to war because there weren't immediate and large discoveries of weapons.
A poll in yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers revealed almost 70 per cent of respondents believed Mr Howard misled them about the reasons for going to war.
Mr Howard said that didn't alter the validity of what was done.
"Interestingly 70 per cent of people in that poll ... believe that I acted in good faith," he said.
"No it wasn't the wrong thing to do. A number of reasons - we have rid Iraq of somebody who was responsible for mass murder and torture over three to four decades.
"The people who continue to criticise our involvement, if their advice had been followed, Saddam Hussein would still be running Iraq."
Mr Howard said the principal reason for going to war was to remove Iraq's WMD capability not to get rid of a dictator.
"But that doesn't mean I can't point to that fact," he said.
- AAP
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