Saddam Hussein refused to order a counterattack against US troops when war erupted in March because he misjudged the initial ground thrust as a ruse and had been convinced earlier by Russian and French contacts that he could avoid or survive a land invasion, former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz reportedly told his interrogators. Aziz, who surrendered on April 24, has also said Iraq did not possess stocks of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons on the eve of the war. However, Saddam personally ordered several secret programs to build or buy long-range missiles in defiance of international sanctions, according to Aziz’s reported statements. White House to aid probe, says Senator Peter Kaplan WASHINGTON, NOVEMBER 3 Reversing its earlier resistance, the White House has promised to turn over intelligence documents on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction that were used to justify the US invasion, the chairman of Senate Intelligence Committee said on Sunday. ‘‘In a spirit of cooperation the White House has agreed to supply us with the documents and the interviews that we want,’’ Sen Pat Roberts, Kansas, said on CNN’s Late Edition. White House spokesman Trent Duffy said on Sunday there had been ‘‘productive conversations about ways we can assist the committee. Roberts added: ‘‘Every document we want will be made available, (but) whether or not it is available on Monday or Tuesday is another thing,’’ he said. Among the materials sought were copies of the President’s daily brief which the CIA prepares about national security. The White House has not provided them in the past, citing executive privilege. (Reuters) ‘‘We know the regime had the greatest problem with the 150-km limit on missile ranges,’’ said Hamish Killip, a former UN arms inspector now working with the Iraq Survey Group, a CIA-supervised body appointed by President Bush to lead the hunt for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Saddam and his senior military commanders saw the range limit ‘‘as an invasion of their sovereignty,’’ Killip added. Yet investigators have found no evidence to date that Saddam was willing, after 1999, to risk being caught in major defiance of UN bans on nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, officials involved in the weapons hunt said. ‘‘They seem to have made a mental separation between long-range missiles and weapons of mass destruction,’’ Killip said. Aziz’s statements about the Iraqi missile program have been largely corroborated by documents and interviews with engineers and scientists, officials said. As the hunt for finds of chemical or biological arms has turned cold, US-led investigators are trying to understand why Saddam acted as he did if he truly had no sizable arsenal. Once the war began, Saddam fulfiled few of his threats. The CIA had warned that Saddam might use chemical weapons. Instead, after an initial resistance, the army melted away. Investigators have considered the possibility that Saddam intended all along to make a strategic withdrawal from Baghdad and fight a guerrilla war, but they haven’t found any evidence. American and British interrogators have asked dozens of generals why Saddam did not use chemical weapons to defend Baghdad. A number of these generals have said that they, too, believed chemical weapons would be deployed for the Capital’s defence. Yet none of the officers admitted receiving such weapon himself. This has led some American interrogators to theorise that Saddam may have bluffed not only neighbouring governments and the United States, but his own generals. ‘‘He would not hesitate to deceive even his hand-chosen commanders if he thought that by this he could achieve success,’’ agreed Jubouri, a former general. The investigators’ most significant new discovery over the last month, officials said, was that Saddam made a secret deal to purchase Nodong missiles from North Korea. However, the deal never materialised. Saddam had reportedly asked scientists how long it might take to reconstitute chemical arms (sarin and mustard gas). This has led some investigators to conclude that Saddam wanted to build or buy long-range missiles before he restarted banned programs to make weapons of mass destruction. Yet as the war approached, Saddam took no step to speed the manufacture of special weapons. Perhaps, as Aziz reportedly has said, this was because he believed he could survive the coming war. (LAT-WP)
