AP, A new study by an independent military and intelligence expert who toured Iraq recently found no evidence that Saddam Hussein tried to transfer weapons of mass destruction to terrorists.
Anthony Cordesman, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, met with top U.S. officials in Iraq, including David Kay, the CIA representative leading the search for chemical, biological and other unconventional weapons.
President Bush, in justifying the invasion and occupation of Iraq, said he feared Saddam, then Iraq's authoritarian president, would supply weapons of mass destruction to terrorist organizations such as al-Qaida.
“No evidence of any Iraqi effort to transfer weapons of mass destruction technology or weapons to terrorists. Only possibility was Saddam's Fedayeen, and talk only,” Cordesman wrote of his briefing with Kay. The Fedayeen is the deposed leader's former paramilitary force.
Cordesman, who also met with L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civil administrator in Iraq, said foreign terrorists appear to be crossing the border from Syria, with some entering from Saudi Arabia and a few from Iran.
He said that U.S. troops “still face major threats from criminal elements released at the end of the war.”
The report said Saddam appears to be cut off and isolated, constantly on the move with no real role in controlling the anti-American forces.
Over the course of his Nov. 1-12 visit, Cordesman traveled to Baghdad, Babel, Tikrit and Kirkuk, among other areas, meeting with combat commanders and staff in high-threat areas.
His report was released Friday.
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