Friday, October 03, 2003
Kay Report shows nothing
The man in charge of a £180m ($300m) hunt for Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction last night admitted that no weapon stocks had been found, and that all a three-month search had uncovered was a single vial containing a possible strain of biological agent.
According to a progress report by the Iraq Survey Group (ISG), delivered to the US Congress yesterday by its leader, David Kay, Saddam had taken no steps to revive his nuclear weapons plan since 1998, and had abandoned any large-scale chemical weapons programme more than a decade ago.
Instead his report focused on documentary, circumstantial and informers' evidence which, Mr Kay said, pointed to Saddam's intentions to revive a weapons programme.
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But Mr Kay's much awaited report was striking for its admissions on what had not been found.
In particular, the ISG appeared to have been convinced - in marked contrast to prewar claims from Washington and London - that Saddam's chemical weapons (CW) and nuclear programme had been disbanded long before the invasion.
"Multiple sources with varied access and reliability have told ISG that Iraq did not have a large, on-going, centrally controlled CW programme after 1991," Mr Kay told a congressional intelligence committee.
So we attacked Iraq based on Saddam's intention to revive a weapons program?? That's a great precedent to set.
posted by chris at 10:18 AM
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