It is a powerful indicator of their weakness now that
no WMD could be "found" in Iraq... "The publication of a full report on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction has been indefinitely postponed after inspectors found no evidence that any such weapons exist, reports the Times of London. "
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/25/iraq/main560449.shtml?cmp=EM8706
U.S., Brits Block WMD Report?
Sept. 15, 2003
The publication of a full report on Iraq's alleged
weapons of mass destruction has been indefinitely
postponed after inspectors found no evidence that any
such weapons exist, reports the Times of London.
The Times reports the decision by Britain and America
to delay the report's release comes after efforts by
the Iraq Survey Group, a team of 1,400 scientists,
military and intelligence experts, to search Iraq for
the past four months to uncover evidence of chemical
or biological weapons ended in failure.
In July, David Kay, the survey group's leader,
suggested that he had seen enough evidence to convince
himself that Saddam Hussein had had a program to
produce weapons of mass destruction. He expected to
find "strong" evidence of missile delivery systems and
"probably" evidence of biological weapons.
But last week British defense intelligence sources
confirmed that the final report, to be submitted by
Kay to CIA Director George Tenet, had been delayed and
may not necessarily even be published.
The United States and Britain invaded Iraq because
they believed Saddam's regime was developing nuclear
arms as well as chemical and biological weapons. So
far, no weapons of mass destruction have turned up in
Iraq, nor has any solid new evidence for them been
reported by Washington or London.
Last week, in a confidential report obtained by The
Associated Press, the International Atomic Energy
Agency chief said U.N. inspectors found Iraq's nuclear
program in disarray and unlikely to be able to support
an active effort to build weapons.
Mohammed ElBaradei reiterated that his experts
uncovered no signs of a nuclear weapons program before
they withdrew from Iraq just before the war began in
March.
"In the areas of uranium acquisition, concentration
and centrifuge enrichment, extensive field
investigation and document analysis revealed no
evidence that Iraq had resumed such activities,"
ElBaradei said in the report, made available to the AP
by a diplomat.
"No indication of post-1991 weaponization activities
was uncovered in Iraq," he said.
Former weapons inspectors now say, five months after
the U.S. invasion, that what the U.S. alleged were
"unaccountable" stockpiles may have been no more than
paperwork glitches left behind when Iraq destroyed
banned chemical and biological weapons years ago.
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