NEWS: Australian troops were told Iraq threat was limited

Yet more detriment has been piled on the validity of pre-war WMD intelligence, or more precisely its political exaggerations, with revelations from Australia's most experienced weapons inspector, Roger Hill. In an interview with The Age Mr. Hill told reporters that Iraq had possessed the remnants of weapons of mass destruction but its ability to use them on the battlefield was "almost zero". Adding; �There is no question Iraq possessed materials, documents and possibly products� But it did not have the ability to conduct attacks on its near or regional neighbours."

www.theage.com.au
"I told our troops that. I also told people in the other coalition forces. But I was a lone voice."

Mr Hill said most of Iraq's stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons were destroyed or hidden before the war. But he said that Saddam did not have the missile systems to deliver them anyway.

"It is all very well having weapons of mass destruction, like a chemical round, but you still have to have the ability to deliver them," Mr Hill said. "They had not been able to bring the systems out of storage, to practise with them or to transport them," he said. "None of these sorts of things were functioning."


Despite being widely acknowledged as Australia's top expert on Saddam's weapons programs, Mr Hill claims he was asked only once in eight years for his assessment of the threat posed by Saddam, and was not consulted in the run up to war.

"Was there a conspiracy or was it just poor assessment? That is the issue," Mr. Hill said. "I am still not sure."

Shades of Hans Blix there? Or is he trying to cover his own behind in some way?
Looking at some of his comments before the war, he did seem to view Saddam as a threat of some sort, but just not what the U.S made it out to be?

I know this may be old news to some of the Aussies among us, but if you've got any light to shed let's hear it.

One thing�s for sure, so far the British and Australian Governments have been getting a far harder time over the war and intelligence than the originators of it all.

So far.

[Edited on 18-2-2004 by SkepticOverlord]