Letter: Gulf attacks lack hard evidence and imagination

CONGRATULATIONS to Peter Pringle ("A deadly cloud of paranoia drifts across the US", 20 December) in exposing the weaknesses of the Unscom report on weapons inspection.

The report (leaked to the US government four days before it was available to the UN) consists mainly of complaints that the Iraqis were unable or unwilling to provide documents which may have contained information on weapons of mass destruction. Their reluctance to give away state secrets that, on past form, would have been immediately passed on to the Israelis is understandable. No convincing evidence has been provided of the major industrial installations that would be necessary to produce chemical or biological warheads.

Although the Clinton/Blair spin-doctors have tried to justify the attacks on targets such as oil refineries on the basis of the Unscom report, the hard evidence is lacking.

CHARLES HUGHES

Felixstowe, Suffolk