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		Iraq Derby Evening Telegraph - April 29 2002 There has been a lot of unrest within the Labour Party about Tony Blair's position on Iraq. More than 100 Labour MPs have sided with the Left-wing opposition to Britain joining a war between the US and Iraq and there are reports that at least two have said privately that they would resign the whip and sit as independents. I believe Blair is right to support the United States' position that action must be taken to deal with the growing threat posed by Saddam Hussain and the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Make no mistake: Iraq is a latent threat to our security and we should rule out no course of action at this stage. There is clear evidence of Saddam Hussain's intent and capability. He refuses to acknowledge international norms or even his own international agreements. His refusal to allow weapons inspectors into Iraq since December 1998 is in clear violation of UN Security Council Resolution 687. During this time Saddam Hussain has had the time and resources to rebuild his weapons and biological agents. The main fear is that Saddam will use biological weapons to attack Great Britain and the United States. The United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), set up to find and dismantle Saddam Hussain's Weapon of Mass Destruction at the end of the Gulf War, has grown increasingly concerned about the country's biological weapons programme and believes Iraq has the necessary facilities, expertise and equipment for small pox production. In a CNN interview in November 2001, Richard Butler, the former chairman of UNSCOM, revealed: 'We found a whole cocktail cabinet of biological warfare agents. The cocktail cabinet certainly included anthrax as a major weapon. The evidence I saw strongly suggested that Saddam was, and I believe remains, deeply attached to germ warfare'. Mr. Butler also warned that Saddam was about six months away from making a nuclear bomb when he was stopped by UN inspectors at the end of the Gulf War. In the meantime Saddam has got a stockpile of raw uranium, some enriched uranium and in the three years without inspection there have been reports that he's recalled his nuclear weapons design team. And who knows what he's been able to acquire on the black market. More recently there has been stark evidence of how far Saddam is prepared to go to bolster his army, even if it means taking life saving humanitarian aid away from his people. On 6 March America presented satellite evidence to the United Nations showing lorries entering military bases near Baghdad and emerging as rocket launchers. These pictures provide confirmation of Saddam's willingness to abuse the good intentions of international organisations. The present situation cannot continue and robust action is needed to deal with the threat posed by Saddam Hussain and the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Saddam's regime has oppressed its people, it has misused the oil for food programme, and it appears intent upon developing Weapons of Mass Destruction. Furthermore, it represents a clear danger to international security and regional stability, and a clear affront to human rights. Alternative methods of defeating the evil of the current Iraqi regime have been tried without a great deal of success. Containment has been used up till now but we need to face reality - containment is not enough to defeat Saddam's weapons programme. There is no doubt that before action is taken we must consider a post-Saddam Iraq. The international community has a responsibility to assist the people of Iraq with economic aid, and humanitarian assistance, giving the people the means to rebuild the internal infrastructure and economy of the country. Blair and Bush are justified in their determination to tackle this issue and they must pursue whichever is the most effective course of action to resolve it. The threat posed by Iraq is too strong for us to shy away from taking robust action.