Japan contradicts Kay's statement that Iraq had no WMDs

Japan Today (currently on home page) ^ | Thursday, January 29, 2004 at 14:24 JST | Kyodo News

[litany_of_lies]

Japan contradicts Kay's statement that Iraq had no WMDs (FULL TEXT)

Thursday, January 29, 2004 at 14:24 JST
TOKYO — Japan on Thursday contradicted a statement made in the U.S. Senate by David Kay, who resigned recently as the top U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq, that ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

"Weapons of mass destruction existed" in Iraq, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said. The continued existence of such weapons in Iraq is still seen as "a strong possibility." Fukuda also questioned the credibility of Kay's remarks, saying his current posture and the grounds for the opinion should be checked, but failed to reveal his own grounds for contradicting Kay's statement. (Kyodo News

[litany_of_lies]

A great big "Hmmmm....."

[TheBigB]

Well...I may have to actually root for Tokyo in the next Godzilla film. :)

[over3Owithabrain]

Something is up. Too many intelligence reports from too many sources for all of them to be wrong, as Kay is asserting. But who knows why this game is being played...

[fishtank]

"But who knows why this game is being played..."

Maybe Kay has had the same visits that were made to Scott Ritter.

[Britton J Wingfield]

this is probably wishful thinking, but it would be a fine trap for whoever runs against Bush in November. Get them to make it their #1 argument, then *voila* a reasonable cache is discovered.

[Britton J Wingfield]

To be fair to Kay, he still thinks invading was the prudent thing to do. People are just cherry-picking his lengthy remarks.

[MrsEmmaPeel]

But who knows why this game is being played...

I think Dubya is doing a massive rope-a-dope.

[Williams]

I doubt it. The stockpiles haven't been found so they are dealing with it up front and early. These things happen in the real World. The war was still wise and just. The debate that goes on in our left wing media is (by design) destructive. We need to be having a national debate about Syria, Iran & N Korea. Goal 2 of the media is to prevent the Bush administration from doing anything else effective.

[Jaded]

Do the words 'upcoming election' mean anything to you? That seems to be the one thing that all of the 27,000 demoratic candidates are babbling about.

[finnman69]

Hmmm...that's two foreign leaders making the same comments...interesting.

[cwb]

The democrats yesterday made a big deal about why Cheney is still claiming (as of a week ago) that the two large vans discovered in Iraq are biolabs when Kay has already stated they're not. As Roberts explained, the CIA still insists that these vans were used for biological production. I think Kay put it best when he said we are going to have to live with a lot of unresolved ambiguity. Even now, we still have differences of opinion.

[skeeter]

I think Dubya is doing a massive rope-a-dope.

I hope not, but it would be quite politically effective if he were. Cynical, but effective.

I was a big Avengers fan, too.

[Lexinom]

There are weapons of mass destruction. They are hidden underground in a neigboring country. It's very likely they will be found later this year. Imagine all the egg that will be dripping from certain faces.

[cwb]

"To be fair to Kay, he still thinks invading was the prudent thing to do. People are just cherry-picking his lengthy remarks"

Kay said as much yesterday, when he talked about a NY Times article that did just that. His testimony was very enlightening and he made great points of how Iraq may have been a greater threat because of the lying and cheating going on.

[litany_of_lies]

Goal 2 of the media is to prevent the Bush administration from doing anything else effective.

Which fits in very nicely to current short-term Goal 1 of the terrorists. If the terrorist sympathizers and their media apparatchiks succeed in foreclosing the military option elsewhere (and they're close, I fear), the terrorists can then go back to focusing all of their efforts on their main goals: destruction of Israel and destabilizing the capitalist West.

[dawn53]

Is the Iraqi leader the other leader you're referring to?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1067515/posts

[kevao]

Bush has Osama Bin Ladin AND all of Saddam's WMD in an undisclosed location to pull out for an awesome October surprise. At least that's what Madeline Halfbright told me in the Fox Studios green room the other day.

[bushfamfan]

It is odd for Kay to come out that strongly in reversing himself in saying it's now unlikely Iraq had stockpiles of WMD. They could easily be buried, underground. Just seems as if he was impatient. It is obvious that Iraq prepared for the war and was up to something. They had those chemical/biological suits at the ready, they've got a long history with WMD and their refusal to cooperate with inspectors, etc. There's just too much there that Kay's words are not the final word on the WMD and Iraq matter.

[michaelt]

Hello, Mor-ton!

[Peach]

We had too much intelligence from too many countries for it all be wrong. If they were ALL wrong, we're in serious trouble.

However, I think there is every chance that Kay is wrong and the intelligence agencies around the world were right.