Washington, Oct 07: Secretary of State Colin Powell has claimed that the findings in the interim report by David Kay justify the war on Iraq, despite the weapons inspector's assertion that he could not find any weapons of mass destruction in that country. "The interim findings of chief inspector David Kay and the Iraq survey group makes two things abundantly clear: Saddam Hussein's Iraq was in material breach of its United Nations obligations before the Security Council passed Resolution 1441 last November, and Iraq went further into breach after the resolution was passed," Powell wrote in an article appearing today in ‘Washington Post’. The findings offer detailed evidence of Hussein's efforts to defy the international community to the last. The report "describes a host of activities related to weapons of mass destruction that 'should have been declared to the UN.' it affairms that Iraq's forbidden programmes spanned more than two decades, involving thousands of people and billions of dollars," he added. "What we now know as a result of David Kay's efforts," says Powell, "confirms that Hussein had every intention of continuing his work on banned weapons despite the UN inspectors, and that we and our coalition partners were right to eliminate the danger that his regime posed to the world." Powell also noted that Kay's team found that elaborate efforts to shield illicit programmes from inspection continued even after the collapse of Hussein's regime.
Bureau Report