David Kay Stands Down as U.S. Special Advisor on Iraq WMD (Just on their ticker now)

BBC News ^ | 1/23/04

[areafiftyone]

David Kay Stands Down as U.S. Special Advisor on Iraq WMD. More to follow...

[smith288]

Forced out by Bush and Halliburton??? JK.

[areafiftyone]

This just in from Reuters

CIA names Duelfer to replace Kay in Iraq WMD hunt

WASHINGTON, Jan 23 (Reuters) - David Kay has quit his post as leader of the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which so far has failed to find any actual arms, and will be replaced by former U.N. weapons inspector Charles Duelfer, the CIA said on Friday.

In making the announcement, CIA Director George Tenet praised Kay for his "extraordinary service under dangerous and difficult circumstances."

[xzins]

Is it "quit" or is it something that has been known for a while?

One indication would be an immediate successor found. If so, then this has been working for some time.

[areafiftyone]

Check out my post from Reuters. :-)

[babaloo]

Time for a major CIA skeptic on the existence of WMDs in Iraq to unearth some? OTOH he could be on the trail of how the pre-war intelligence went awry if it did.

[over3Owithabrain]

I've heard about Kay leaving for quite a while. It appears the media here is using the word "quit" to make it more sensational. I am leery of his replacement though, since Tenet put him there.

[RandallFlagg]

I thought Kay was going to stick around until Feb...

[demlosers]

I thought Kay was going to stick around until Feb...

It looks like it, Feb is only 8 days away.

[RandallFlagg]

I sure hope that his replacement isn't a blabbermouth.

I'm thinking that we found everything we need already, but haven't released the information until we can trace source, seller, manufacturing nation, etc..

[Shermy]

If so, then this has been working for some time.

News had been hinting of this since December.

[Sacajaweau]

This is old news. Kay said earlier that he wanted to get home to his family. Do you expect this guy to live there for 3 or 4 years??

[Shermy]

David Kay had expressed fears that the search wasn't complete and had to proceed.

The new appointee is Charles Duelfer, who has stated before he didn't think weapons would be found.

George Tenet appointed Duelfer, not Bush.

[JohnGalt]

I don't have a lick of sympathy for a guy who spent a billion taxpayer dollars on a snipe hunt.

[Shermy]

Skeptic May Take Over Iraq Arms Hunt
By DOUGLAS JEHL

Published: January 23, 2004


ASHINGTON, Jan. 22 — Charles A. Duelfer, the former No. 2 United Nations weapons inspector for Iraq, is likely to be named soon to succeed David Kay as the leader of the American team searching in that country for evidence of illicit weapons, according to senior American officials.

Mr. Duelfer recently expressed deep public skepticism that any chemical or biological weapons would be found in Iraq, and he has suggested that the task ahead for American inspectors may be understanding Iraq's intentions on illicit weapons rather than any actual arsenal.

For that reason, Mr. Duelfer's choice could be disputed among those in the Bush administration who have stuck to the view that illicit weapons — cited by the administration as a principal reason for going to war — will eventually be discovered.

No final decision has been made, the senior officials said, but they said that Dr. Kay, who signaled in December that he might step down, has since made clear he will not stay on, and they described Mr. Duelfer as the leading candidate to succeed him. Mr. Duelfer's likely nomination was first reported on Wednesday night by NBC News.

The decision rests primarily in the hands of George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, to whom Dr. Kay reported as a senior adviser. Dr. Kay's successor would almost certainly hold the same title, administration officials said.

A C.I.A. spokesman declined to comment, and Mr. Duelfer and Dr. Kay did not return phone messages.

After nearly eight months of searching, the 1,400-person team headed by Dr. Kay in Iraq has not yet turned up any of the biological or chemical weapons that Bush administration officials said before the American invasion in Iraq were in Iraq's stockpiles. Nor have the inspectors found evidence of an active program to build nuclear weapons, which administration officials cited as another reason for war.

In a Jan. 9 interview on "Newshour" on PBS, Mr. Duelfer said, "The prospect of finding chemical weapons, biological weapons is close to nil at this point." He said the inspectors had been "talking to a lot of Iraqi scientists, anyone who has known where they are, they've spoken to. They've had every incentive to show them where they are, and they have come up with nothing."

Those statements are much more pessimistic than those offered publicly to date by Bush administration officials. Instead, they have sought to emphasize what President Bush described in his State of the Union address this week as evidence unearthed by Dr. Kay that Iraq was pursuing "weapons of mass destruction program-related activities," like its importation as late as December 2002 of prohibited rocket engines.

Some senior intelligence officials have said it is far too early to rule out the prospect that banned weapons might be found.

In the PBS interview, Mr. Duelfer said: "There has been every incentive in the world for the Iraqi people and the Iraqi scientists to come forward and say this is where the weapons are. That hasn't happened. So I think the problem right now is what is the extent of the problem and where was it headed? What were the intentions of the regime?"

A former State Department official, Mr. Duelfer served at the United Nations as deputy executive chairman of the United Nations' special commission on Iraq from 1993 until its termination in 2000. In that post, he was the top American official among the United Nations inspectors and served as a link between that team and American intelligence agencies, according to senior government officials.

Near the end of his tenure, the disclosure of a covert American effort to install listening devices and otherwise gather intelligence in Iraq under cover of the inspections effort strained relations between Washington and the United Nations.

Senator John W. Warner, the Virginia Republican who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, met during the holiday recess with Dr. Kay. On Friday, he said publicly that Dr. Kay had told him that "a good portion of the work has been done" but that "there is a remaining portion that he feels strongly should be completed."

Dr. Kay issued his last public report on the search in October, and he said he would issue another early this year. A senior American official said Thursday that the new report was still being planned, but that it was unlikely that Dr. Kay would draft it.

[Mo1]

I've heard about Kay leaving for quite a while. It appears the media here is using the word "quit" to make it more sensational

The first I heard it reported was last month .. I agree with you .. the media is trying to make it more sensational

[Mo1]

The new appointee is Charles Duelfer, who has stated before he didn't think weapons would be found.

My guess he'll have eat those words

[adam_az]

sounds like a good guy

CSIS Visiting Resident Scholar
http://www.csis.org/experts/4duelfer.htm

Charles Duelfer Warns on Inspections
Beware of Saddam's tricks, UN arms inspector warned
http://www.iraqfoundation.org/news/2002/isept/30_duelfer.html

PREPARED TESTIMONY OF

CHARLES DUELFER Visiting Scholar Center for Strategic and International Studies
Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia
Committee on International Relations, United States House of Representatives
http://www.iraqwatch.org/government/us/hearingspreparedstatements/hirc-duelfer-10-4-01.htm

Essay - War and Space, ANALOG science fiction magazine, 1979
http://isfdb.tamu.edu/cgi-bin/pw.cgi?b24a95

CNN interview
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0401/08/i_qaa.02.html

[nuffsenuff]

Exactly...

I have a feeling that we already have enough evidence to convince a guy like this and how better to make it more credible in the eyes of the world than to have a skeptic admit that the evidence was solid.

Karl Rove could be one of the best political strategists I've ever seen work.

[MattAMiller]

It's been known he was going to quit for some time, he wants to get back to his family. The search is obviously taking longer than expected and he didn't think he'd be away this long.