Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction

Abstract

P resident saddam hussein of iraq (1937–2006) was a brutal and aggressive tyrant in a volatile part of the world. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, decision makers in Washington and London were especially concerned that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, which he might use himself or give to terrorists. Saddam's record showed that there was cause for concern. In 1981, Israel had bombed the Osirak reactor at Tuwaitha out of concern that it could be used to produce materials for nuclear weapons. It was well documented that the Iraqi government had chemical weapons and that it had used them against the Kurdish minority in March 1988 and on numerous occasions during the war with Iran in the 1980s. Moreover, after the First Gulf War in 1991, investigators found that, because of successful denial and deception operations, Iraq had been able to conduct biological weapons programs of which the U.S. intelligence agencies had not been aware and to push forward a nuclear weapons program that was much further advanced than had been suspected. In the years that followed, United Nations (UN) teams caught Iraqi officials in the act of moving sensitive equipment, personnel, and documents around to avoid inspections. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, there was widespread concern that economic sanctions and UN inspections might not be enough to keep Iraq from pushing ahead with its weapons-of-mass-destruction programs.