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Dutch government misled parliament on Iraqi WMD

01 May 2004

According to a confidential military intelligence document, dated 23 July 2003, that was seen by the main evening paper NRC Handelsblad the Dutch military intelligence service MIVD "came regularly to other conclusions than the American and British leaders presented" on the question of the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) of Iraq, before the war started. Another confidential defence document, dated the 1st August 2003, concludes that "the MIVD has never stated that Iraq had resumed the production of chemical and biological means after the departure of UNSCOM in 1998" and notes that this differs from a letter to parliament from the Dutch Foreign Minister, De Hoop Scheffer, that said in September that there was "no doubt" that Iraq had continued the development of WMD after 1998. On the so-called "45 minute claim" in the report of the British government of September 2002 the MIVD stated that there was not much new in it:

The "new" fact that some chemical and biological weapons could be deployed in 45 minutes (is) only a reference to existing Iraqi battlefield weapons like chemical artillery grenades with limited reach and military use.

NRC Handelsblad concludes that this and other nuances were not communicated to the Dutch parliament in the crucial debate that formed the foundation of a majority decision to "support politically but not militarily" the war against Iraq.

The paper also discovered that the legal departments of the Dutch ministries of foreign affairs and defence thought it questionable that the attack on Iraq was in accordance with international law because the war was fought without a UN resolution. The top legal official of the Ministry of Defence wrote on 28 January 2003 in an internal document that: "only a new decision of the UN Security Council could serve as a foundation for a lawful attack on Iraq."

NRC Handelsblad 12.6.04 (Joost Oranje)s