WASHINGTON - The final report of the chief U.S. arms inspector for Iraq (news - web sites) is expected to undercut a principal Bush administration rationale for removing Saddam Hussein (news - web sites): that Saddam's Iraqi government had weapons of mass destruction. Weapons hunter Charles Duelfer will provide his findings Wednesday to the Senate Armed Services Committee (news - web sites).
In drafts, Duelfer concluded Saddam's Iraq had no stockpiles of the banned weapons but said he found signs of idle programs that Saddam could have revived once international attention waned.
Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group, and his team has compiled a 1,500-page report; it is unclear how much will be made public. Duelfer's predecessor, David Kay, who quit last December, also found no evidence of weapons stockpiles.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Tuesday the report will conclude "that Saddam Hussein had the intent and the capability, that he was pursuing an aggressive strategy to bring down the sanctions, the international sanctions, imposed by the United Nations (news - web sites) through illegal financing procurement schemes."
Saddam was importing banned materials, working on unmanned aerial vehicles in violation of U.N. agreements and maintaining industrial capability that could be converted to produce weapons, officials have said. Duelfer also describes Saddam's Iraq as having had limited research efforts into chemical and biological weapons.
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