On March 16th, 2026, the ISCAP released this document from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). This document outlines the Intelligence Communities predictions of the condition of Iraq’s WMD programs and facilities preceding Operation Desert Fox. The ISCAP decided to declassify some portions and affirm the classification of other portions of this originally Secret document.
In 1991, after Iraq’s defeat in Kuwait during the Persian Gulf War, Saddam Hussein was only able to maintain power by harshly suppressing the Kurdish minority and the Shi’i majority. One notable instance is the Halabja Massacre in 1988 when Iraq launched a large-scale chemical attack, killing thousands of Kurdish civilians. It was later discovered that a mixture of mustard gas, tabun, strain, and VX were used. Iraq had been subject to UN sanctions and mandatory weapons inspections at the end of the Gulf War, requiring Iraq to eliminate their Weapons of Mass Destructions (WMD) programs. Hussein’s government, however, continually obstructed the inspectors’ work and denied them access to certain sites. In response to Iraq’s noncompliance and use of chemical weapons, the United States and the United Kingdom launched Operation Desert Fox, a four-day bombing campaign in Iraq, targeting military and WMD facilities.