Indefinite delay on weapons report - (No WMD Found?)

The Advertiser ^ | Sep 15, 2003 | The Advertiser

[Damocles]

Indefinite delay on weapons report 15sep03 LONDON: The US and Britain have decided to delay indefinitely the publication of a full report on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. The London-based Sunday Times newspaper said inspectors had found no evidence any such arms exist. Efforts by the Iraq Survey Group, an Anglo-American team of 1400 scientists, military and intelligence experts, to scour Iraq for the past four months to uncover evidence of chemical or biological weapons had so far ended in failure. The newspaper reported British defence intelligence sources had confirmed that the group's final report had been delayed and may not even be published. It had been expected a progress report would be published today. Meanwhile, in Geneva, Switzerland, the five major UN powers failed to agree on a formula for post-war Iraq, as a major disagreement persisted between the Bush administration and France over how fast to turn back power to a new Iraqi government. The outcome of the meeting between the foreign ministers of Britain, China, France, Russia and the US appeared to be a setback for the White House's efforts to gain greater international backing for the troubled Iraq reconstruction effort.

[Damocles]

Admittedly, I've never heard of this source. I thought the Kay report was due out soon?

Any thoughts?

[Destructor]

I hope they hold off just a little while longer. Timing is critical in the next Presidential election.

[Semper Paratus]

If this is true the entire lamestream media establishment will be all over this like 'flys on a rump roast'.

[meenie]

Fourteen hundred people in four months have found no more than Blix and his ninety did in six months for which he was roundly criticized.

[Samurai_Jack]

So... if "no such weapons exist", they why the 12 year delay in lifting sanctions? If the sanctions were so painful, why not let the 1400 inspectors into the country and let them do their thing? They come out with this stellar clean record report and Saddam comes out smelling like roses.

Is it possible that the United Nations complicit with the french artificially maintained these sanctions on iraq KNOWING that they had destroyed these weapons? Skimming BILLIONS in Oil for Food revenue to line their pocketbooks? Six months after the fall of baghdad 15,000 people die from the heat, sounds like some hefty bravo sierra to me. These people died because they were no longer supported by the enslavement of the iraqi people.

If we dont find any WMD's in iraq, then the United Nations needs to open their books and let the world see exactly where all that 'Oil for Food' revenue went! These are genuine crimes against humanity we are talking about here!

[Rusty Shackelford]

It's a risky route to take, politically, to hold back the info.

I have a feeling that there are no WMD currently in Iraq. They likely were moved or distributed around the globe.

The Democrats will not be able to help themselves and will use it to their advantage, to at least shorten Bush's coattails.

No... if there were WMD, the Bush Admin would be shouting the news from the top of every roof.

[Recovering_Democrat]

Can you say "rope a dope"? :)

Even the absence of WMDs doesn't negate the positive effects of removing Hussein. He was also financing terrorism in Israel, slaughtering his own people, and being a general menace to all in the area.

He made his choices, and he lost.

[ravingnutter]

Fourteen hundred people in four months

Ummmm...not quite...there are only 200-300 actual "searchers". From a DoD News Briefing with Army Maj. Gen. Keith W. Dayton, director for operations, Defense Intelligence Agency in May 2003:

Dayton: There's about 200-and-some that are searching now, maybe a little bit fewer. As far as searchers are concerned -- and again, I want to make the distinction, the important point about the ISG is not numbers of searchers, it's the process by which the searching will take place. And we'll have probably between 200 and 300 searchers, so it's a small increase in numbers of searchers.

Briefing on the Iraq Survey Group

[Wphile]

Well, I'm going to wait for the Kay report. This article doesn't mention a specific report and I haven't heard of them as a reliable source either.

In any event, I don't agree with those that say we should withhold the report - assuming it has definitive and positive information - as the information needs to be get out there. The Dems are beating up Bush on the NO WMDs and it's working to a certain extent. Personally, I don't buy the sometimes used argument that the WMDs were only part of the reason to go to Iraq. Okay, perhaps part but a major part as Bush on down were continually mentioning WMDs. If there are not any or if there isn't any evidence that they once existed, then the primary reason for the war was wrong. There were other reasons for it but the primary reason was the risk of the WMDs getting into the wrong hands or of Sadaam using them himself. In addition, if there aren't any WMDs or evidence of them, then clearly our intelligence is unreliable and any similar argument for any future military conflict will have to be taken with a grain of salt. If they have solid information on WMDs, they need to release it pronto!

[Republican Red]

Read on another thread:

A snippet from Bob Novak:

WASHINGTON -- Former international weapons inspector David Kay, now seeking Iraqi weapons of mass destruction for the Pentagon, has privately reported successes that are planned to be revealed to the public in mid-September.

Kay has told his superiors he has found substantial evidence of biological weapons in Iraq, plus considerable missile development. He has been less successful in locating chemical weapons, and has not yet begun a substantial effort to locate progress toward nuclear arms.

[aristotleman]

After 6 months of intelligence gathering and informant tips follow-ups, we have been unable to establish whether there are loose WMD's around.

We should be very worried.

It sounds like Saddam sold the weapons to interested parties already, hid some of them in Syria, and buried the rest. He must have had a limited number of them, otherwise their movement would have been detected.

At any rate, I think they will not be found, at this point.

We should be really worried. If they were sold to Iran,Syria, Egypt covertly, to buy protection for his escape, there will be trouble down the line.

The scenarios are grim.

[lawdude]

"They are probably going to delay this until as close to November as possible to thoroughly embarrass Dean or whoever the nominee is."

Not Bush's style. If this story is true, it does not bode well. Perhaps a monumental intelligence fubar!

Hope not.

[bushfamfan]

Iraq was given plenty of time to do whatever with the WMD. Now we have to obviously worry about the scenarios in where they went.

[1Old Pro]

Patience is a virtue. Kay will have plenty of time to investigate, interrogate, and find the WMD's. The economy is picking up, and the Dems are infighting....sounds like the perfect trifecta for the perfect storm which will blow the Dems away.