This is the part of Duelfers report that isnt getting media attention;
--------------------- Committee Republicans focused on another set of findings: that Saddam had found ways around U.N. sanctions and intended to revive Iraq's weapons programs once the limitations become ineffective or were lifted.
Saddam had been aggressively evading U.N. efforts, including manipulating the United Nations' oil-for-food program to gain influence over foreign governments and cash for Iraq's military, Duelfer found. Saddam could've begun producing some chemical and biological weapons within months if Iraq were freed of international restraints.
"Sanctions were in free fall," Duelfer said.
Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., called the contradictions between intelligence agencies' pre-war assessments of Iraq's weapons capabilities and Duelfer's findings of no weapons stockpiles or production capabilities a "cause for concern." Yet invading Iraq and ousting Saddam was the right move given the Iraqi ruler's behavior and intentions, he said.
Saddam's defiance of U.N. weapons inspections - even when he didn't have the banned weapons - demonstrated that the dictator had "an irrational mind that was a danger to the world," Warner said.
Pressed by Warner to say whether the world is better off with Saddam out of power and in U.S. custody, Duelfer responded that the deposed dictator "clearly had ambitions with respect to weapons of mass destruction. ... Analytically, the world is better off."
and from Saddams (ex) Nuclear team
Our nuclear program could have been reinstituted at the snap of Saddam's fingers. The sanctions and the lucrative oil-for-food program had served as powerful deterrents, but world events - like Iran's current efforts to step up its nuclear ambitions - might well have changed the situation.
Iraqi scientists had the knowledge and the designs needed to jumpstart the program if necessary. And there is no question that we could have done so very quickly. In the late 1980s, we put together the most efficient covert nuclear program the world has ever seen. In about three years, we gained the ability to enrich uranium and nearly become a nuclear threat; we built an effective centrifuge from scratch, even though we started with no knowledge of centrifuge technology. Had Saddam ordered it and the world looked the other way, we might have shaved months if not years off our previous efforts.
