Making The World Safe From Swimming Pools And Distilleries

Bush defended the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq on Thursday and pledged that “we’ll reveal the truth” on Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.

Troops hunting for Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction have searched 87 “prime” sites in Iraq – and have found nothing. Nineteen were “highest-priority” zones identified by US Central Command, military sources revealed yesterday. But instead of chemical or biological weapons, searchers uncovered a training facility for Iraq’s Olympic swimming and diving teams, a drinks distillery and a factory making car licence plates … A military source said: “They found precisely nothing.” … The Al Hayat site, ranked 26th out of 87 and described as a possible Saddam-run Special Security Organisation facility, turned out to house a collection of vacuum cleaners. Another target was the Al Salk chemical site. A raiding party discovered it was a family-owned distillery, making a liqueur … A feared weapons store was, in fact, a US artillery HQ. Even an intelligence tip on a secret hoard of documents backfired. Files reported removed from a chemical lab were simply a thesis by a graduate student frightened his work might be destroyed.