U.S. Arms Hunter Dismisses Skeptics Over Iraq Search

Reuters ^ | 10/05/03 | Lori Santos

[kattracks]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Though no Iraqi weapons of mass destruction have yet been found, Washington's chief inspector David Kay said on Sunday he was confident the search would turn up "remarkable things" in the coming months.

In a series of television interviews, the CIA special adviser and head of the Iraqi Survey Group said much had been overlooked by the media in an interim report presented last week, in which he said no actual weapons had been discovered.

Kay stressed that the report concluded that Iraq had a vast secret network of laboratories, including some two dozen hidden in the Iraqi intelligence service and operated while U.N. inspectors were still in the country.

President Bush justified his decision to invade Iraq citing the imminent threat posed by President Saddam Hussein's biological, chemical weapons and efforts to develop a nuclear bomb.

Critics seized on Kay's report as further evidence that U.S. intelligence may have been exaggerated in the drive to oust Saddam.

On "Fox News Sunday," Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Democratic presidential candidate, said though he supported the Iraqi war, he was troubled "the exaggerations and misleading statements made by this administration before the war ... has compromised the just cause of the war."

Kay said his team still was pursuing a number of leads that could result in the discovery of weapons.

He said an Iraqi scientist had produced a vial containing an active biological toxin, and his team was now searching for another reported cache possibly containing anthrax.

He also cited the manufacture as late as in 2002 of fuel for Scud missiles that Iraq used in the first Gulf war and then told United Nations weapons inspectors it had destroyed.

PROHIBITED ACTIVITY

"What everyone has skated over, both in the chemical and the biological area, is what we indeed have found. We found a vast network of undeclared labs engaged in prohibited activity in both of those areas," Kay said on CNN's "Late Edition."

"So it's not that we have found nothing. ... We have actually found quite a bit although we have not yet found shiny pointy things that I would call a weapon."

Kay told ABC's "This Week" program: "We're inside the country. I know in that country we're going to find remarkable things about their weapons program."

Vice President Dick Cheney pressed the case in Des Moines, Iowa, citing Kay's findings at a Republican fund-raiser and declaring, "Don't let anybody tell you that this was not a significant threat."

Kay said the search for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons would take another six to nine months as his 1,300 inspectors work on many fronts, including the examination of 130 conventional ammunition storage depots that contained some 650,000 tons of arms. He said there were 26 such sites considered critical because chemical munitions might be there.

"We're going through them, but it is a tough go," he told ABC.

On biological weapons, he told the Fox program: "Based on information leads, we have no reason to believe that we will not find more. But we're searching still."

He said the team was still investigating how far Saddam had progressed in a "very nascent start up" of a nuclear weapons program.

Kay said information had come from many sources, including Iraq's former deputy prime minister, Tareq Aziz, who surrendered to U.S. forces in April.

[Numbers Guy]

President Bush justified his decision to invade Iraq citing the imminent threat posed by President Saddam Hussein's biological, chemical weapons and efforts to develop a nuclear bomb.

Would these a-holes STOP LYING. Bush said specifically that the threat was NOT imminent; that it would be foolish to wait until the threat was imminent.

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[Paladin2]

Best to keep your powder dry. Let the facts come out just a little more than 12 months from now after Hitlery! has dug herself deep.

[LaraCroft]

I don't really understand why CIA people would go on TV for an interview, and I don't understand why that CIA agents husband would publish his report in the OpED section of a newspaper.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Just remember, if you tell the sheeple a lie enough times it becomes the truth.

[Vets_Husband_and_Wife]

You're absolutley correct. These idiots don't think 3,000 Americans was enough. The question that should be put forth before them should be "Would 30,000 dead Americans be more convincing?" "Would that be IMINENT enough proof?"

[CyberAnt]

You are so correct, and I have been pummeling FOX for the past week because they never challenge these people when they misquote it.

THE PRESIDENT SAID: WE MUST NOT WAIT UNTIL THE THREAT IS IMMINENT.

Like the 16 words in the SOTU statement, wherein the part about the British Govt was left out, they have done the same to this sentence, leaving out the first 5 words.

I'm very disappointed the Tony Snow interview with David Kay was not played in the afternoon. They interrupted FOX News Sunday (the cable channel rerun) to show the UN SecCouncil meeting. I enjoyed seeing the Ambassador from Israel tell them all off - but I was sorry to miss the interview with Tony. Do you know where I might get a transcript - does FOX have them - I've never looked ..??

[InterceptPoint]

"President Bush justified his decision to invade Iraq citing the imminent threat posed by President Saddam Hussein's biological, chemical weapons and efforts to develop a nuclear bomb."

I guess Reuters comes from the Clinton School of Journalism where they teach you that if a lie is repeated often enough it eventually becomes the truth. What Bush actually said was just the opposite: that we will no longer wait for an imminent threat before acting.

[larryav8r]

All I can say is I'm impressed with how Bush sticks to his guns in almost every adverse situation. Can you imagine how many times Clinton's story would have changed in response to the polls had this been him? (That is of course ignoring the obvious fact that he would never, yea could never, do anything that didn't boost poll numbers or help "Little Bill"--wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more).

[ex-Texan]

*BUMP* !