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I know he isn't very popular right now, but this article indicates that Tony Blair believes we have a smoking gun.
Saddam is guilty without a doubt, says PM
FRASER NELSON WESTMINSTER EDITOR
TONY Blair yesterday launched a staunch defence of his hardline position on Iraq, suggesting he already has the "smoking gun" evidence needed to prove the case for war with Iraq.
The Prime Minister said he is "quite sure" Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction even though Hans Blix, the chief United Nations weapons inspector, has so far found no hard evidence.
This fuelled speculation that the United States has shown Mr Blair documents and photographs which prove Iraq has been ordering chemical weapons - and that they may be soon handed to Mr Blix.
Mr Blair used his monthly press conference to say he has "no doubt" that the UN Security Council will authorise force against Iraq if faced with solid evidence that Saddam has violated its Resolution 1,441.
Iraq, he said, has already made a "false declaration" in the list of weapons and scientists provided last December. The hawks in the US have argued that this, in itself, is enough for war.
Mr Blair suggested far harder evidence could soon arrive. "I am quite sure that he has these weapons," he said. "The people and the documents exist to show that."
He would not go into further detail: "All I’m saying is, if what they find amounts to a breach of the UN mandate, then Saddam will be disarmed by force."
The Prime Minister confirmed he would not be bound by a decision of the Security Council, whose five veto-wielding members include Russia and France, which have trade links with Iraq.
If any country puts an "unreasonable or unilateral" block on such a resolution, he said, "we have said we can’t be in a position where we are confined in that way".
But Mr Blair continued to play for time, apparently contradicting comments attributed to Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, that the UN inspectors’ report on 27 January represents a "final phase".
"None of us are putting speculative or arbitrary timeframes on this," said the Prime Minister. "Let the inspectors do their task. I don’t think there is any point putting an arbitrary timescale on it."
The head of the International Atomic Energy Authority, a UN body looking for nuclear plants in Iraq alongside Mr Blix’s team, said their task needed several more months.
Mohamed ElBaradei, the IAEA executive director, said the timeframe hinges on Baghdad’s willingness to supply documents and agree to interviews. "We still need a few months to achieve our mission," he said, adding that Iraq’s co-operation so far has been merely "passive".
White House officials said last week that they may soon release spy satellite photographs which would convince the "Labour Party" and other critics of the war about the need to disarm Saddam.
An aide said they are in a position to repeat the tactic used in the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, where US intelligence showed the UN photographs proving the importation of Soviet missiles into Cuba.
Mr Blix, who is visiting Downing Street later this week, yesterday made a plea for help. "In the past, sometimes the intelligence agencies were a bit like librarians who had books that they didn’t want to lend to the customer but I think that is changing," he said.
Mr Blix has already told the UN Security Council that Saddam has airbrushed out names of scientists involved in his 1990 weapons of mass destruction programme.
He will travel to Iraq on Sunday to confront officials about the gaps and half-truths he believes he has found in its 12,000-page declaration.
A contingent of British logistics experts arrived in Kuwait yesterday for military exercises as HMS Ark Royal, the aircraft carrier leading the British force, was berthed at the Glen Douglas defence munitions base on Loch Long before beginning its journey to the Gulf.
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