There is no doubt that under Saddam Hussein, Iraq had biological and chemical weapons and the ability to produce more. Iraq used chemical weapons when it fought Iran from 1980 to 1988. Saddam Hussein even used chemical weapons against the Iraqi people, including the March 1988 attack on the Kurdish city of Halabja.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell says that the Saddam Hussein regime had chemical and biological weapons long before Iraq was liberated by the U.S.-led coalition:
“They have admitted that they had biological weapons. And they never accounted for all that they had or what they might or might not have done with it. And this is the considered judgment not only of this administration, it was the judgment of President Clinton’s administration. It’s the judgment of a number of nations around the world, that [Iraq] had these weapons. And when we passed [United Nations] Resolution 1441 unanimously, it was the unanimous judgment of the Security Council that Iraq was in violation of its obligations.”
The U.S., said Mr. Powell, is sending a large group of experts to Iraq to find Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons:
“They will be looking in all the places. They will be exploiting all the documents. They will be interviewing people. And I would put to you Exhibit A, the mobile biological labs that we have found. People are saying, ‘Well, are they truly mobile biological labs?’ Yes, they are.”
The regime of Saddam Hussein was well practiced at deception. But Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons will be discovered. And if the chemical and biological weapons have been removed from Iraq, they will be found, and destroyed.
