‘WMD now secondary issue’
WASHINGTON: Finding the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that President George W. Bush cited as his main justification for going to war is now a secondary issue, says Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.
In an interview on Monday night aboard an Air Force jet en route to Washington following a five-day tour of Iraq, Wolfowitz said the task of settling the weapons question is in the hands of US intelligence agencies.
“I'm not concerned about weapons of mass destruction,'' Wolfowitz told a group of reporters travelling with him. “I'm concerned about getting Iraq on its feet. I didn't come (to Iraq) on a search for weapons of mass destruction.''
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Paul Wolfowitz |
“If you could get in a relasxed conversation with Iraqis on that subject they'd say why on earth are you Americans fussing so much about this historical issue when we have real problems here, when Baathists are killing us and Baathists are threatening us and we don't have electricity and we don't have jobs. Those are the real issues.
“I'm not saying that getting to the bottom of this WMD issue isn't important. It is important. But it is not of immediate consequence.''
The CIA has put David Kay, a former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq, in charge of the search for illegal weapons.
Wolfowitz said Kay told him on Sunday that US officials were having difficulty getting Iraqi prisoners to tell what they know about Saddam Hussein's chemical, biological or nuclear programmes.
The Iraqi government claimed prior to the war that it had destroyed all the weapons of mass destruction it once held, and UN inspectors were unable to find evidence of any.
“I pushed him (Kay) a bit on why aren't these people talking. Why don't you, in effect, plea bargain with them,'' Wolfowitz said. “He said there is no concept of plea bargaining in this place. If you confessed you just got executed faster or tortured less.''
Administration officials had hopedto find evidence of chemical or biological weapons on the battlefield in the aftermath of the war, but so far nothing has turned up.
Pentagon officials have said they believe the key is getting lower-level Iraqi officials to help. – AP
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