What the experts say now

Denis Healey, Labour ex-Foreign Secretary
I don't think there are any weapons - and the case for war was quite unnecessary. Blair shouldn't have said there were. He followed the Bush line. The really criminal thing was that they wouldn't let Blix go back. Here is a man of outstanding ability and honesty. I think this will be very damaging in Britain. Unfortunately, less so in America where the public doesn't care as much.

Dr. Glen Rangwala, Politics lecturer at Cambridge University
If Saddam Hussein had a chemical and biological capability, as we were assured that he did have prior to the invasion, and Saddam is obviously still at large, it is difficult to imagine what could be a more urgent priority than finding and eliminating those weapons. Either the evidence was deeply flawed, or the present policies are highly reckless.

Lee Feinstein, Director for strategic policy at the US Council for Foreign Relations
The search for WMDs is a very sensitive issue and one that the Bush administration is very concerned about. There is grave concern over the potential politicisation of intelligence. Throughout the Clinton administration Republicans in Congress continually criticised the President over the fact that intelligence was used for political purposes. Potentially the issue of WMDs could be much worse.

Peter Singer, Co-ordinator of the Brookings Institution's project on US policy towards the Islamic world
The inability to find weapons of mass destruction is highly disturbing. If you accept that they did exist, then you have to ask where are they now and who has them. Part of the original argument in favour of war was that we needed to act quickly in order to prevent these weapons getting into the hands of terrorist groups. There is now a very real possibility that, through our failure to secure the country quickly, we have made this fear a reality.

Marc Ginsberg, Former American ambassador to Morocco and expert on the Middle East
The failure to find WMDs will clearly change global opinion about the war. Although the Democrats have already criticised President Bush on the issue, my own perception is that American public opinion toward the war won't be overly swayed by failure to find biological or chemical weapons.

Trevor Findlay, Executive director, The Verification Research, Training and Information Centre, London
The admission by Donald Rumsfeld that the alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction may never be found is astounding. The only legal case under the UN Charter for going to war against Iraq was to enforce Security Council resolutions demanding that Baghdad disarm itself of such weapons. If the weapons never existed to the extent or manner portrayed by the US and UK, then the war was illegal on even more grounds than before.
Interviews: Thomas Reilly and Burhan Wazir

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