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

USDA Probes First Mad Cow Case in U.S. The Associated Press December 23, 2003, 6:34 PM EST Washington -- The first-ever U.S. case of mad cow disease is suspected in a single cow in Washington state, but the American food supply is safe, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said Tuesday. "We remain confident in the safety of our food supply," said Veneman. She told a news conference that a single Holstein cow that was either sick or injured -- thus never destined for the U.S. food supply -- tested presumptively positive for the brain-wasting illness. Mad cow disease, known also as...

Nuclear teams could start Libya inspections next week By Nigel Morris 23 December 2003 Inspections of Libyan nuclear sites could start as early as next week, as moves intensified yesterday to bring the north African state back into the international fold. Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said he would visit Tripoli next week for initial talks on the state of the Libyan nuclear programme. He said the meeting would "kickstart a process of verification" of Libya's arms, adding: "Inspections will follow, as early as next week." He said the visit was a positive step by...

Now that Iran says it will allow outside experts to inspect its nuclear sites, it might behoove other governments to listen to the words of an expert inside Iran. In a public session of the Iranian Parliament on Nov. 24, Ahmad Shirzad, a deputy from the city of Isfahan, attacked the regime's nuclear policies, provoking a controversy that has not yet died down. Mr. Shirzad is no novice in these matters. The son of President Ali Khatami remarked once that "If there are three persons in Iran able to address atomic questions from a specialist point of view, Mr. Shirzad...

Hepatitis Cases Spur Mexico Inspections Wednesday November 26, 2003 3:16 AM By LISA J. ADAMS Associated Press Writer MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico has closed four green onion growers - including three owned by U.S. companies - and started a new inspection plan sooner than planned following an outbreak of hepatitis linked to the vegetable from northwestern Mexico. The moves should boost consumer confidence in Mexican produce and will aid growers by improving the image of their crops at home and abroad, Javier Trujillo, director of the Agriculture Department's division of health, safety and quality, said in an interview. ``It...

<p>UN Arms Inspector Blix Criticizes U.S. Over Iraq By Grant McCool NEW YORK (Reuters) - The longer the United States and Britain occupy Iraq without finding weapons of mass destruction, the more conceivable it is that Baghdad destroyed them after the first Gulf War in 1991, chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said on Monday. Blix, to retire next week after heading inspections before the U.S.-led war on Iraq began in March, also spoke critically at a think tank meeting of one of Washington's key arguments for overthrowing Iraq President Saddam Hussein. "It is sort of fascinating that you can have 100 percent certainty about weapons of mass destruction and zero certainty of about where they are," Blix said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.</p>

Iran said today it was 'studying positively' a United Nations agency request to allow unfettered inspections of its nuclear facitilies. The move came a day after the head of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency called on Iran to sign an additional protocol of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty.Britian warned today that if Iran did not sign, its trade relations with the European Union might be set back.The protocol provides for IAEA officials to visit any part of a country's nuclear industry without prior notice.'We are studying positively the appeal by the International Atomic Energy Afency to sign an...

www.4ranters.comIt seems the anti-Bush crowd has found a new way to attempt to discredit Bush and the war in Iraq. This time, it's the missing WMDs. After the swift liberation of Iraq and the worries of the peaceniks proven wrong, one would figure the anti-war crowd would finally concede. Somehow, the fact that WMDs haven't been found - yet - is supposed to prove the war as unjustified, and make Bush and Tony Blair liars. First the protestors predicted a messy quagmire of a war where thousands of lives would be lost. Massive casualties of both Iraqi civilians and American...

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) . Iraq reserves the right to end cooperation with U.N. weapons inspections if it deems Washington is manipulating them, the Iraqi inspections chief said, clouding prospects of the high-stakes U.N. missions before they even resume. The Iraqi warning . made in the face of threatened U.S. military action . raises the possibility that old problems would haunt any new U.N. inspections to ensure Iraq can no longer produce weapons of mass destruction. Meanwhile, Iraq's parliament met in an emergency session Saturday, but said nothing about a resolution by the U.S. Congress...

Weapons Inspectors to Meet Iraqis U.N. Weapons Inspectors to Lay Down Demands to Iraq About Regaining Access to Restricted Sites UNITED NATIONS Sept. 29 — U.N. weapons inspectors, who on Monday will lay down demands to Iraq about getting back into the country, may not get the unfettered access demanded by the United States unless the Security Council alters a deal made in 1998. The inspectors are dusting off old equipment, ordering helicopters and testing new technology as the United States negotiates a new proposal for their return.The Bush administration dismissed Iraq's offer earlier this month to accept the inspectors'...

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- The Iraqi reply to a request from the chief U.N. weapons and nuclear inspectors for confirmation of understandings reached in the Vienna talks was regarded Friday by some Security Council members as unresponsive. In another development, the Security Council decided Friday night to hold an open debate on Iraq on Wednesday, as had been requested Thursday by the Non-Aligned Movement. The two-page letter from Iraq, a copy of which was obtained by United Press International, was from Gen. Amir Al-Saadi, an adviser to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who took part in the talks. It...

Why UNSCOM Weapons Inspectors Had to Leave Iraq in 1998source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/iraq/stories/unscom010899.htm U.S. Says It Collected Iraq Intelligence Via UNSCOM By Thomas W. Lippman and Barton GellmanWashington Post Staff WritersFriday, January 8, 1999; Page A01 The United States for nearly three years intermittently monitored the coded radio communications of President Saddam Hussein's innermost security forces using equipment secretly installed in Iraq by U.N. weapons inspectors, according to U.S. and U.N. officials. In 1996 and 1997, the Iraqi communications were captured by off-the-shelf commercial equipment carried by inspectors from the organization known as UNSCOM, then hand-delivered to analysis centers in Britain, Israel...

A significant number of scientists and biological warfare experts are expressing skepticism about the FBI's view that a single disgruntled American scientist prepared the spores and mailed the deadly anthrax letters that killed five people last year. These sources say that making a weaponized aerosol of such sophistication and virulence would require scientific knowledge, technical competence, access to expensive equipment and safety know-how that are probably beyond the capabilities of a lone individual. < snip > "In my opinion, there are maybe four or five people in the whole country who might be able to make this stuff, and I'm...

<p>BREAKING NEWS Top nuclear watchdog expected to give Iraq a grade of 'B' for cooperation with weapons inspectors, according to The Associated Press. Full story soon.</p>

EXCLUSIVE: Bush administration to release tapes that could incriminate Iraq. Jan. 31 — The Bush administration is preparing to release supersensitive electronic intercepts obtained by the National Security Agency that officials say prove that Iraq has repeatedly lied to United Nations inspectors, plotted among themselves about how to conceal weapons material and even appeared to boast afterward at their success in doing so, NEWSWEEK has learned.

<p>January 28, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - Saddam Hussein has ordered official death certificates sent to Iraqi scientists' families as a chilling warning against aiding U.N. inspectors, The Post has learned.</p> <p>Word of the death certificates containing prominent scientists' names has reached Iraqi exile groups.</p>

Just reported on Fox News.

U.N.'s Blix Says Iraq Smuggled Arms-Related Goods Tue January 14, 2003 08:29 AM ET LONDON (Reuters) - Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix has said his teams in Iraq have uncovered weapons-related smuggling but it was unclear if the goods were linked to weapons of mass destruction. Currency traders said the dollar slipped briefly on the report, coming close to a three-year low against the euro and testing the day's low against the safe-haven Swiss franc. "We have found several cases where it is clear that Iraq has imported weapons-related material in violation of the prohibitions of the Security Council,"...

Iraq recruited U.N. inspectors as informants and learns in advance which facilities will be searched, giving Saddam advance warning that enables him to play "rope-a-dope in the desert," according to Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. As World Tribune.com first reported, Wolfowitz offered details of Iraq's "concealment" strategy in an address to the Council on Foreign Relations late last week. President Bush offered highlights in his State of the Union address last night. Middle East Newsline reported that much of the information on Iraq's infiltration of U.N. inspectors and concealment strategy U.S. officials cite comes from foreign intelligence services, including...

LARNACA, Cyprus (AP) - Documents taken from an Iraqi scientist this week appear to have been related to laser enrichment, the head of the U.N. nuclear control agency said Saturday. U.N. inspectors went to the Baghdad home of physicist Faleh Hassan on Thursday and removed a number of documents, which the scientist said were from his private research and from doctoral theses of his students. Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told The Associated Press that it was too early to tell what the documents were for certain and that he would get details when he and...