[Peace-discuss] new wmd searcher (format fixed)

[Randall Cotton]

I fixed a word-wrap issue in the Independent article below...

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From: <Dlind49 at aol.com>
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Sent: Friday, January 23, 2004 4:20 PM
Subject: [Peace-discuss] new wmd searcher

: CIA Picks New Iraq Weapons Inspector
: By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
:
: Filed at 1:54 p.m. ET
:
: WASHINGTON (AP) -- The top U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq is stepping down
: from the position and will be succeeded by a veteran of weapons
inspections
: during Saddam Hussein's regime, CIA Director George Tenet announced
Friday.

This AP report is indistinguishable from a White House press release.
For the real story, read the following report from The Independent:

---------------------

Saddam's WMD never existed, says chief American arms inspector
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
24 January 2004

David Kay, who stood down yesterday as head of the Bush administration's
hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, said that he did not believe
that any stockpiles of such weapons ever existed.

Mr Kay, who was formally replaced by Charles Duelfer, another former UN
inspector, said that most of what was going to be found in the hunt for
Saddam Hussein's WMD had already been uncovered. The returning of
sovereignty to the Iraqis would make the search more difficult, he added. "I
don't think they existed," Mr Kay said, referring to Saddam's alleged
stockpiles of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. "What everyone was
talking about is stockpiles produced after the end of the [1991] Gulf War
and I don't think there was a large-scale production programme in the
Nineties." Mr Kay's comments will be an embarrassment for the Bush
administration. Earlier this week the Vice-President, Dick Cheney, one of
Washington's most outspoken hawks who led the rallying cry for war insisting
that Saddam possessed WMD, said the outcome of the search was not clear. "I
think the jury is still out," he said. "It's going to take some additional
considerable period of time in order to look in all of the cubby holes and
ammo dumps in Iraq where you might expect to find something like that."

Despite having the resources of more than 1,000 personnel dedicated to the
hunt for such weapons, an interim report issued by Mr Kay last October
conceded that no weapons had been found, even though there was evidence Iraq
had retained the "template" of a weapons programme.

The Bush administration appears determined to continue its public stance
that such weapons could be discovered. Announcing Mr Kay's replacement, the
CIA director George Tenet said: "At a time when our WMD hunt efforts were
just beginning, David provided a critical strategic framework that enabled
the Iraq Survey Group to focus the hunt for information on Saddam's WMD
programmes." He added: "Building on the framework that David has put in
place, I am very confident that Charlie and the ISG will continue to make
progress in the months ahead in determining the status of the former Iraqi
regime's WMD programmes."