Story of Swedish 'WMD find' not gathering momentum
The sparse information and the strange circumstances surrounding the possible Swedish find of proscribed weapons in Iraq has not exactly caused a big splash in international press. Ireland Online has picked up the story, and partly through it, it has been mentioned in South Africa's News24, India's The Hindu and WorldNetDaily.
Two chemical and biological weapons experts travelled to Iraq to help a television team evaluate information it had obtained about Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction, said Aake Sellstroem, from the Swedish Defence Research Agency, who authorised the visit.
The information indicated Iraq had a programme for making chemical and biological weapons as late as last year, but yielded no clues about whether any actual weapons were made, he said.
“What this shows is that there was interest, organisation and activities involving weapons of mass destruction until 2002,” Sellstroem said. “But I haven’t seen any information about how many weapons there were.”
Sellstroem, who heads the agency’s weapons of mass destruction research unit, said a TV crew from a Monaco-based production company, World Television Network, requested his help in evaluating information it had received from an unnamed Iraqi source.
He said he made the decision to authorise the visit in haste and regretted not informing his superiors or the government about it.
As the WTN has not made the hard facts available for scrutiny, and the weapons experts are under a gag contract, it is impossible to know whether this is yet another "almost there" story that will end up in nothing.
Well, if it doesn't, you probably read it here first.
10:04:29 AM 
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