WP: Kay Says Evidence Shows Iraq Disarmed (Milbank/Pincus)

[kskiska]

By Walter Pincus and Dana Milbank
Wednesday, January 28, 2004; Page A01

U.S. weapons inspectors in Iraq found new evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime quietly destroyed some stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons in the mid-1990s, former chief inspector David Kay said yesterday.

The discovery means that inspectors have not only failed to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq but also have found exculpatory information -- contemporaneous documents and confirmations from interviews with Iraqis -- demonstrating that Saddam Hussein did make efforts to disarm well before President Bush began making the case for war.

The fact that Iraq disarmed at least partially before 1998 but did not turn over records to U.N. inspectors even when threatened with war has led Kay to conclude that Hussein was bluffing about his weapons capability to maintain an aura of power.

Kay, who will testify this morning before the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in an interview yesterday that inspectors recovered only partial records detailing the destruction of some of Iraq's forbidden weapons. But he said that while the full truth may not be known for years, if ever, that ambiguity should not be used to delay an examination of why the allegations about Hussein's weapons were wrong.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54353-2004Jan27.html?nav=hptop_tb

[elfin]

1. So that would be.......

all Clinton's fault that there are no WMD's??????

[stevedeshazer]

2. Interesting time to release this revelation

David Kay is looking like a deer in the headlights, I've heard him tell the story at least three times, and each time he edges a little closer to the truth and away from the Bushco precipice. Here he sounds a little more like Scott Ritter!

[Journeyman]

3. This shows Bush is right. . .

when he says the Middle East is a "dangerous region." And Saddam Hussein recognized this truth, and even though he had disarmed he was reluctant to admit it to his neighbors, for fear they'd use this "weakness" as an excuse to attack Iraq.

So rather than using his "weapons of mass destruction" to challenge and attack his neighbors, he bluffed the threat of the possibility of such weapons to provide a measure of security for his people.

Makes ya go, "Hmmmm. . . "

[kaitykaity]

4. I wonder if Kay will be called to testify

at the impeachment hearings.

Only in my dreams.

[Moderator]

5. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=334516