Saddam had WMDs on war eve says Israeli general
A retired Israeli general claimed today that on the eve of the US-led war on Iraq a year ago, Saddam Hussein had chemical and biological weapons and was in the early stages of producing nuclear arms.
Major General Amos Gilad, who was heavily involved in Israel’s preparations for the US attack on Iraq, provided no proof to back up his statements, but said weak American intelligence was the reason the arsenal was not uncovered.
“Unequivocally, Saddam had such weapons,” Gilad told the Israeli newspaper Maariv. "In checking with very reliable sources around the world, I found that on the eve of the war, Iraq had a military plan for biological weapons, and it had chemical weapons,” he said.
“ Regarding nuclear weapons, they were in the first stages of development.”
Gilad, previously a government adviser on Palestinian affairs, served as a spokesman during the Iraq war and was responsible for preparing Israelis for the possibility of an Iraqi attack.
Faulty US intelligence and a low level of preparation made it almost impossible for the American soldiers to find weapons of mass destruction, Gilad said.
At the time of the US-led invasion, there were ”suspicious objects, such as chemical and biological weapons,” in different parts of Iraq, he said.
However, the United States did not immediately enter the areas where these objects were spotted, Gilad said.
