<Can we trust the intelligence services?

KEY QUOTES:

"The accusation by the chief United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix that the case against Iraq was "shaky" raises the question as to whether the US and British intelligence services can be trusted over one of the major issues of our day - the spread of weapons of mass destruction."

"Not only have no mass weapons systems been found (one has to add a "yet" here), but there were major flaws in the documents which will put in doubt any assessment of programmes elsewhere - in North Korea, Iran and Syria, for example."

"One of the fiercest critics is Alex Standish, editor of Jane's Intelligence Digest. He said: 'The bottom line is that the intelligence services have not covered themselves with glory.'"

"There has also been the non-appearance of 1.4 tons of VX nerve agent, 20,000 chemical capable artillery shells, 25,000 litres of anthrax, 12-20 Scud missiles, mobile biological warfare laboratories and chemical and biological weapons "deployable within 45 minutes", all of which Iraq was alleged to have had."

"The documents making the uranium link were faxes allegedly between Iraq and Niger. They should have been analysed more carefully. The result was they relied on documents which were fakes."