In an interview recorded in October 2002 and to be screened on Panorama tonight at 8.30, Dr David Kelly said it ‘could take Saddam Hussein “days or weeks” to mobilise weapons of mass destruction’:
In the interview Dr Kelly… made it clear that he did regard Saddam as an “immediate threat”.
Describing Iraq’s weapons, Dr Kelly told Panorama: “Even if they’re not actually filled and deployed today, the capability exists to get them filled and deployed within a matter of days and weeks.”
He also said Saddam Hussein’s biological weapons programme posed a “real threat” to neighbouring countries.
The report here highlights the discrepancy with the ‘within 45 minutes’ claim and also Kelly’s opinion that Saddam Hussein was unlikely to use WMD unless attacked first. Still, it looks as though the interview might serve as a useful reminder of what seems to be widely forgotten: that others than Tony Blair and George Bush thought there were WMD in Iraq and thought they amounted to a real threat.