Saddam's $5 Billion-A-Year Arsenal:
Uk Dossier Details Links With Firms For Chemical, Biological Weapons

September 23, 2002
By LEO SCHLINK in London and PHILLIP COOREY in Canberra

IRAQI leader Saddam Hussein has been spending more than $5 billion a year on chemical and biological weapons, according to a dossier to be debated tomorrow in an emergency session of the British Parliament.

Prime Minister Tony Blair will say the Iraqi dictator has used a string of obscure companies – bankrolled by secret oil sales – to provide the cash to buy weapons from a network of sources, including the Russian mafia.

Mr Blair's comprehensive report warns Saddam could use his arsenal of poisonous gases and nerve agents against Middle East enemies by unleashing Russian-built rockets that have remained hidden since Iraq expelled UN weapons inspectors in 1998.

The 50-page dossier says Iraqi agents maintain clandestine links with 500 companies throughout the world, including Europe and Asia.

The paper – already treated with scepticism by those within Mr Blair's own party – says Saddam has bankrolled the purchases from smuggling and the illicit sale of oil.

Saddam is accused of stockpiling huge reserves of biological weapons, including anthrax, botulinum toxin, sarin and mustard gas and the lethal VX nerve gas.

Mr Blair and the US hope the UN will issue a resolution approving military action against Saddam unless he agrees to deadlines on weapons inspections and the elimination of weapons of mass destruction.

Prime Minister John Howard will meet Mr Blair this week to detail the case to Australia.

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer accused Saddam of provocation by refusing to abide by the proposed UN resolution.

Baghdad has agreed to readmit inspectors in accordance with existing, weaker UN resolutions, but was defiant at the weekend following a meeting of Saddam and his senior officials.

"Iraq declares it will not deal with any new resolution that contradicts what has been agreed upon with the UN Secretary General," an Iraqi statement said.

Mr Downer said that "by pre-empting any Security Council resolution and saying that he simply won't accept it, that's a provocative thing to say".

Britain and the US are pushing the UN Security Council to pass the resolution by the end of this week.

The US and Britain are yet to convince fellow Security Council permanent members France, China and Russia to back their view that military action is necessary now.

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