Britain's dossier against Iraq will include the first "definitive" evidence that the Iraqi authorities trained some of Osama bin Laden's key al-Qaeda lieutenants.
According to British news reports, a draft version of the dossier contains information relating to the manufacture of chemical and biological weapons in and around Baghdad and Saddam Hussein's plan to produce nuclear arms.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair will publicly release the final version of the dossier on September 24 - the day parliament is recalled for a cross-party debate on Iraq.
Citing US and British intelligence officials, The Sunday Telegraph reported the dossier would set out details of two al-Qaeda operatives trained in Iraq. It will say that Abu Zubair, also known as Fawzi Saad al-Obeidi, and Rafid Fatah, known as Abu Omar al-Kurdi, were trained by Saddam's regime in terrorism techniques against the Kurds in northern Iraq.
The dossier will also outline secret activities at a uranium production facility at al-Qaim, some 255 kilometres west of Baghdad. The evidence will be used to suggest that Saddam is trying to build a nuclear capability.
According to the report, details are also to describe "worrying activity" at three reconstructed weapons plants, captured by US satellite within the past few weeks.
"The satellite photographs clearly show very worrying activity of rebuilding work at these plants, which we already know were being used for developing chemical and biological weapons. That is what Saddam is doing again," a security official involved in compiling the dossier told The Sunday Telegraph. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
