However, the Butler inquiry (like an earlier inquiry by a parliamentary committee) said the dossier ought not to have included the 45-minute claim without making it clear that intelligence chiefs thought it in fact referred to short-range, battlefield weapons or at least it should have admitted that it was unclear what sort of weapons it referred to.
President Bush, in particular, has proclaimed a powerful "double hit" with his initiatives on short-range nuclear forces (SNF) and conventional weapons arms control.
As it is today, U.S. export controls already fall short of covering the full range of technologies which can be used to manufacture weapons of mass destruction.
These include: eight sophisticated diesel submarines, advanced SU-30 fighter aircraft, modern air-to-air and air-to-surface weapons, supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles and as many as 350 short- and medium-range ballistic missiles.