Letter: Gulf crisis

POLITICIANS have a natural reluctance to give clear, straight answers to important questions. It is not clear how we are to destroy Saddam's stocks of weapons of mass destruction and his ability to produce them.

Our very own experts on such weapons, the chaps at Porton Down who know how to produce them and what they can do, have advised the Government on the appalling damage Saddam's weapons can cause. I wonder whether they have also advised the Government of the effects of the bombing of Saddam's stockpiles of chemical and biological agents and the factories and laboratories in which they are produced, if that is contemplated?

Why have we been given no information about it? I suspect that the effect of this would be to turn our conventional bombs into the most frightening weapons of mass destruction imaginable, by distributing these agents far and wide among innocent Iraqis, our own forces and the populations of neighbouring countries. Before sensible people can make up their minds on what attitude to take, they surely need clear answers to such questions.

Professor PETER ALEXANDER

Farnham, Surrey