John Gerard Hanafin (Fianna Fail)

I also welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Tom Kitt, to the House. War is the breakdown of reason and war is hell. I support UN Resolution 1441 and I share Deputy Leyden's wish that the House should unanimously request a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

I hope, even at this late stage, that Saddam Hussein will comply with the United Nations, but it does not appear that he intends to do so. He is drinking at the last chance saloon. Non-compliance with the UN resolution will inevitably lead to war and, unfortunately, the people of Iraq will suffer. There is no limit to the suffering that Saddam Hussein has inflicted and will inflict on the people of his country. During the debate on this issue, some people seem to have forgotten his history of non-compliance with UN directives, human torture, invasion of neighbouring countries, use of chemical weapons to kill Iraqi people and the fact that he is an absolute tyrant.

I was intrigued by Hussein's claim that Iraq does not possess weapons of mass destruction. General Colin Powell yesterday played audio tapes of intercepted conversations between Iraqi officials, in which they spoke of concealing evidence from inspectors and of coaching scientists on how to answer questions. General Powell presented satellite photographs of material being moved from sites in Iraq just before visits from UN inspectors and he related intelligence detailing Iraqi imports of banned weapons materials. In addition, he detailed travels in and out of Iraq by al-Qaeda operatives and other contact between that network and Iraq. The highly technical and elaborate presentation included about 30 slides, several intercepted audio tapes and satellite photographs. The bulk of the presentation focused on weapons of mass destruction, a large part was devoted to links with terrorism and a smaller portion was concerned with Iraq's human rights record. General Powell has been involved in reviewing US intelligence on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction programme and its links to terrorist groups.