The United States intends to make public soon its evidence that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction, Secretary of State Colin Powell was quoted as saying on Monday.
"The United States possesses several pieces of information which come from the work of our intelligence that show Iraq maintains prohibited weapons," Powell told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera in an interview.
"Once we have made sure it can be done safely, I think that in the next week or soon after we can make public a good part of this material," he told the newspaper.
Powell added that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein would be able to use the weapons soon. "We already have shown that Saddam Hussein is acting in bad faith and that his regime is not cooperating with (U.N.) inspectors, and that Iraq has no intention of dismantling its arsenal of weapons of mass destruction," he was quoted as saying.
Powell was quoted as saying that without the active cooperation of the Iraqi government, the inspectors would have to "look under every brick and look in the back of every truck."
Powell said war was not around the corner but that Washington was losing its patience. "I repeat, the war is not on for tomorrow but the longer we wait, the greater the possibility that this dictator, who has clear links to the al Qaeda terrorist group, will move his weapons or technology elsewhere," he was quoted as saying. (Albawaba.com)
