- Jerusalem - A government critic said on Tuesday that
Israel was aware before the war against Iraq that Saddam Hussein did not
possess weapons of mass destruction, but Israel did not inform the United
States.
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- Israel put itself on war footing before the US invasion
last year, passing out gas mask kits to its citizens and then ordering
them to open the kits, a step that eventually will cost millions, since
components would have to be replaced.
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- But lawmaker Yossi Sarid, a member of the Foreign Affairs
and Defence Committee, said on Tuesday that Israeli intelligence knew beforehand
that Iraq had no weapons stockpiles and misled US President George Bush.
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- 'Israel didn't want to spoil President Bush's scenario'
- In contrast, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
Likud Party said Israel had shared its doubts with the Americans.
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- During the first Gulf war in 1991, Iraq fired 39 Scud
missiles at Israel, all with conventional warheads. Last year Israel appointed
a stern general, Amos Gilead, as its liaison with the population. Gilead
filled the airwaves with dire warnings of possible chemical or biological
attacks from Iraq.
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- Sarid, who represents the dovish opposition Meretz Party,
said it was just a costly show - Israeli intelligence knew the threat was
"very, very, very limited."
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- "It was known in Israel that the story that weapons
of mass destruction could be activated in 45 minutes was an old wives'
tale," said Sarid, regarding a claim leading up to the war.
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- Israeli critics say the government of Sharon maintained
the state of alert for its own political reasons, to help galvanise public
opinion in favour of harsh steps against the Palestinians.
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- The United States and Britain have launched inquiries
into intelligence reports about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, used
by leaders of both nations as part of their justification for the invasion.
So far such weapons have not been found.
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- Likud lawmaker Ehud Yatom said Israel told the Americans
that it was not sure that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.
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- "Israel said apparently there are weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq, but we haven't seen anything with our own eyes,"
Yatom said. "But the great United States didn't have to rely on Israel."
Yatom had a career in Israeli security before entering the parliament last
year.
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- Another view came from Scott Ritter, who led United Nations
weapons inspections in Iraq for seven years before resigning in 1998. He
told an Israeli newspaper this week that Israel knew for years that Iraq
did not have weapons of mass destruction.
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- "The Israeli intelligence reached this conclusion
many years ago," Ritter told the Ynet Internet site, affiliated with
the Yediot Ahronot newspaper. "Despite this, the security establishment
instructed citizens to open their gas masks, a move that cost Israel billions."
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- Ritter, an ex-Marine officer, has been a vocal critic
of Bush's Iraq policies.
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- When Ritter met with Israeli intelligence officials in
1998, they told him that Iraq had been reduced to the number six threat
down from number one four years before, he said.
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- "In the end, if the Israeli intelligence knew that
Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction, so the CIA knew it and thus
British intelligence too," Ritter told Ynet. - Sapa-AP
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- http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=3&art_id=qw1075852801225B262&set_id=1
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