As stated in “The Report of the Iraq Inquiry – Executive Summary”: “328. Challenging Saddam Hussein’s ‘claim’ that he had no weapons of mass destruction, Mr Blair said in his speech on 18 March:
-‘… we are asked to believe that after seven years of obstruction and non-compliance … he [Saddam Hussein] voluntarily decided to do what he had consistently refused to do under coercion.’
-‘We are asked now seriously to accept that in the last few years – contrary to all history, contrary to all intelligence – Saddam decided unilaterally to destroy those weapons. I say that such a claim is palpably absurd.’
-‘… Iraq continues to deny that it has any weapons of mass destruction, although no serious intelligence service anywhere in the world believes it.’
-‘What is perfectly clear is that Saddam is playing the same old games in the same old way. Yes, there are minor concessions, but there has been no fundamental change of heart or mind.’ “
– Commissioned by the Prime Minister The Right Honourable Gordon Brown MP, “The Report of the Iraq Inquiry: Executive Summary,” IraqInquiry.org.uk, March 18, 2003