LONDON, 28 December 2003 — The US civil administrator for Iraq Paul Bremer has denied the existence of laboratories in Iraq making weapons of mass destruction for which British Prime Minister Tony Blair says US-led teams have massive evidence.
But in a pre-taped interview scheduled for transmission here today, Bremer retreated when he learned that it was Blair who had made the claim.
Asked about the claim without being told first of the source, Bremer said: “I don’t know where those words come from but that is not what (Iraq Survey Group chief) David Kay has said.”
The US-led Iraq Survey Group is hunting for weapons of mass destruction.
“I have read (Kay’s) reports so I don’t know who said that,” Bremer said in an interview on the British ITV1 channel with Jonathan Dimbleby.
“It sounds like a bit of a red herring to me,” the American continued. “It sounds like someone who doesn’t agree with the policy sets up a red herring then knocks it down.”
But Bremer retreated when told the claims were made by none other than President George W. Bush’s staunchest ally Blair.
“There is actually a lot of evidence that had been made public,” he said.
Blair said this month the Iraq Survey Group had found “massive evidence of a huge system of clandestine laboratories” in Iraq.
Bremer said the group had found “clear evidence of biological and chemical programs ongoing.
“Weapons of mass destruction or no weapons of mass destruction, it’s important to step back a little bit here, to see what we have done historically,” he said.
In an interview with the British Forces Broadcasting Service on Dec. 16, Blair said: “The Iraq Survey Group has already found massive evidence of a huge system of clandestine laboratories, workings by scientists, plans to develop long range ballistic missiles.”
Blair did not go into detail, but a spokesman for the prime minister said that the findings were part of the interim report produced by the survey group several months ago.
