World News 10-09-2002 Saddam Months Away From Nuclear Threat who: Saddam Hussein what: Is months away from posing nuclear threat, says think tank report where: Iraq when: Yesterday snippet: "The newest, most detailed investigation into Iraq`s arsenal of weapons of mass destruction concluded yesterday that Saddam Hussein could be only `months` away from launching a nuclear bomb," reports The Scotsman. "The Iraqi leader possesses almost all the technology needed to build his own A-bomb and join the super-league of nuclear powers," says The Evening Standard following the publication of a 78-page report by london-based think tank the International Institute of Strategic Studiess (IISS). Weapons-grade nuclear material - plutonium or highly enriched uranium - is the "vital missing ingredient for an Iraqi bomb", according to the report. But actually launching a missile would take significantly longer and The Independent vigorously argues that while the report is being used "by the hawks in Washington and their supporters in Whitehall" as proof of an Iraqi threat, it in fact shows that "Iraq is far weaker in weapons of mass destruction and every other military field than it was in 1991 before the Gulf War." Downing Street called the report a "very serious piece of work" and promises to publish its own dossier soon. But Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, dismisses the report as "nothing startling, nor anything that could not have been inferred from Iraq`s previous behaviour". [... more]

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