Iraqi WMD threat 'misrepresented'
US search team withdrawn for finding nothing of substance
Reuters/AFP, Washington
Bush administration officials "systematically" misrepresented the danger of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programmes, which were not an immediate threat to the United States and the Middle East, a report from a US think tank said Wednesday.The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said in its study, "WMD IN IRAQ: Evidence and Implications," that there was "no convincing evidence" Iraq had reconstituted its nuclear programme and that UN weapons inspectors had discovered that nerve agents in Iraq's chemical weapons programme had lost most of their lethal capability as early as 1991. There was greater uncertainty about Iraq's biological weapons, but that threat was related to what could be developed in the future rather than what Iraq already had, the study by the liberal-leaning think tank said. Meanwhile, a 400-strong US military team that has been searching for illicit weapons in Iraq have been withdrawn after finding nothing of substance, although a separate group looking for weapons of mass destruction still remains in the country, The New York Times reported yesterday. The missile programme appeared to have been in active development in 2002 and Iraq was expanding its capability to build missiles with ranges that exceeded UN limits, it said. The United States justified going to war against Iraq last year citing a threat from Baghdad's weapons of mass destruction.
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