[Sam Hill]

I suspect that was a slip of the tongue or a misprint.

Indeed, before the war, both McGovern and Wilson had no doubts in their minds that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction:

Rumsfeld Heckler Believed Saddam Had WMDs | Sweetness & Light
http://www.sweetness-light.com/archive/rumsfeld-heckler-believed-saddam-had-wmds

[piasa]

Most likely it is a slip of the tongue. Interestingly, about the time of Wilson's March 3 , 2003 article Wilson's Australian equivalent Andrew Wilkie pops out of the woodwork to attack Howard:

MARCH 2003 : (AUSTRALIA : ANDREW WILKIE RESIGNS FROM THE OFFICE OF NATIONAL ASSESSMENTS) [Andrew] Wilkie resigned from Australia's elite Office of National Assessments (ONA) in March in protest against the government's alleged misuse of information provided by the agency. The ONA is an elite agency which evaluates intelligence from all Australian and allied agencies and passes on that advice to Prime Minister John Howard's office. The Howard government has been a staunch supporter of the Bush administration position on Iraq and contributed troops and military hardware to the U.S.-led "coalition of the willing". - "Australia sexed-up Iraq dossier, former spy claims... WMD: Australia accused of hype," Drudge/CNN , Friday, August 22, 2003