|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
Draft U.S. Report Says No WMD Found in Iraq Confirming unofficial accounts, a draft report by the CIA’s top WMD hunter in Iraq indicates that U.S. investigators have found no weapons of mass destruction there, U.S. officials said yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 24). The draft interim report was prepared by David Kay, the CIA’s representative on the 1,200-member Iraq Survey Group, responsible for looking for evidence of Iraqi WMD programs. The draft report says that although no WMD stockpiles have been found, the survey group has found evidence of precursors and dual-use equipment that could have been used to produce biological and chemical weapons. The team also interviewed at least one Iraqi security officer who said he had been involved in a biological and chemical weapons program shortly before the United States invaded Iraq in March, the officials said (Jehl/Miller, New York Times, Sept. 24). Kay’s analysis of recovered Iraqi documents is expected to prove that Hussein had the “intent” to resume production of biological and chemical weapons once U.N. sanctions were lifted and weapons inspectors were gone, a senior intelligence official said recently. Then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein “also had scientists working in small groups on nonweapons work who could quickly be shifted over if weapons were needed,” the official said. CIA chief spokesman Bill Harlow said yesterday that Kay, who is now in Washington completing his report, is “still gathering information from the field.” “Don’t expect any firm conclusions. He will not rule in or rule out anything,” Harlow said. Kay is expected to present his report to Congress late next week, the Washington Post reported (Pincus/Priest, Washington Post, Sept. 25). U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday that it would be up to the CIA to determine whether an unclassified version would be released. Kay will turn over his findings to CIA Director George Tenet, Rumsfeld said. The White House had not established a deadline for Kay to do so, according to InsideDefense.com. “It’s a matter of putting the pieces together, and then they do a judgment as to whether he (Kay) wants to wait for a final report, whether he wants to hand in some sort of interim report, whether it should be classified or not — all those are things that he and George (Tenet) are working out,” Rumsfeld said. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice said that a version of the report might not be released at all. “I would not count on reports,” Rice said. “I suppose there may be interim reports. I don’t know when those will be, and I don’t know what the public nature of them will be,” she said (John Liang, InsideDefense.com, Sept. 24).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
