This post is from February 2006. Facts and links may have changed since. See more from that month

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What Declaration?

Four years ago, U.N. inspectors concluded that Iraq had failed to .. account for large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, weapons capable of killing millions. In last month’s declaration, Iraq again failed to account for those weapons.

The Iraqi dictator did not even attempt to submit a credible declaration. We can now be certain that he holds the United Nations and the U.N. Security Council and its resolutions in contempt.

President George W. Bush, Fort Hood, Texas, January 3, 2003

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U.S. intelligence indicates that Saddam Hussein had upwards of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents. Inspectors recently turned up 16 of them—despite Iraq’s recent declaration denying their existence. Saddam Hussein has not accounted for the remaining 29,984 of these prohibited munitions. He’s given no evidence that he has destroyed them.

President George W. Bush, State of the Union Address, January 28, 2003

In response to a FOIA request for Iraq’s Full, Final and Complete Declaration, the CIA refuses to confirm or deny the existence of the document.

This is a rare instance of irony.

Jeffrey Lewis

Writing on ACW 2004–2026

Dr. Jeffrey Lewis is the founding publisher of Arms Control Wonk.com. He is the Director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. His also a non-resident affiliate at Stanford's Center for Security and International Cooperation and a Contributing Editor to Survival.

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