Former British FM calls for parliamentary probe over Iraq's WMD

LONDON (AFP) May 28, 2003
Former British foreign secretary Robin Cook called Wednesday for an inquiry after the United States said Iraqi forces may have destroyed the country's alleged weapons of mass destruction before war broke out.

"If (US Defence Secretary) Donald Rumsfeld is now admitting the weapons are not there, the truth is the weapons probably haven't been there for quite a long time," Cook, who resigned from the government over the war, told the BBC.

"I think that has to be investigated. A (parliamentary) select committee is one way of doing it," Cook later told Channel 4 News.

Cook's appeal came as London and Washington appeared to be uttering mixed messages on Iraq's alleged chemical and biological weapons, on which Britain, the United States and Spain pinned their case for war.

Asked why the weapons were not used, Rumsfeld told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York late Tuesday that the Iraqis may have been caught off guard by the speed of the US assault.

"It is also possible that they decided they would destroy them, prior to a conflict. I don't know the answer," he said.

But British Prime Minister Tony Blair, speaking to journalists Wednesday as he headed for Kuwait, insisted: "I have said throughout and I just repeat to you, I have absolutely no doubt at all about the existence of weapons of mass destruction."

WAR.WIRE