CIA Names Duelfer to Replace Kay in Iraq Arms Hunt

[Newsjock]

Edit to add link, story, change title to match

http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=816774&tw=wn_wire_story

WASHINGTON (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.

... CIA Director George Tenet praised Kay for his "extraordinary service under dangerous and difficult circumstances," and said Duelfer would continue the efforts to determine the status of Iraq's programs to develop weapons of mass destruction.

...Duelfer, 51, a former deputy executive chairman of the U.N. Special Commission that was responsible for dismantling Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, had previously expressed doubts that unconventional weapons would be found.

"I think that Mr. Kay and his team have looked very hard. I think the reason that they haven't found them is they're probably not there," Duelfer told NBC television earlier this month.

more

[dennis4868]

1. I wonder why the thugs in the WH

would hire Duelfer to lead the search when he just recently stated that there was not much of a chance at all anything would be found.....

[fob]

2. "Close to Nil"? No wonder they havent' found them, dumbass

rummy said they were in Tikrit and Baghdad! Now we find out they were in Nil all along!

I hear Nil is inaccessible except for the few weeks from late September to mid-to-late October, what luck for shrub*!

[TacticalPeek]

5. LOL!

Closely guarded by the Islamic Nihilists.

[joycep]

14. That is funny--thanks

n/t

[UpInArms]

3. still seeking

weapons of mass distraction :(

These folks are so deluded (the BFEE and all of their friends).

As long as they can say that we are "still searching", they don't have to admit that there are none there.

Wish they would just say "We Lied, but it wasn't about SEX so it doesn't matter".

Sheesh.

[peterh]

4. Gotta keep up the appearances…

If the big Dick still thinks WMD are there….Tenet better damn well have a man there looking or maybe something else….

[lovedems]

6. I wonder if Kay is going to have anything of interest to say

now that he is "out from under the control" of the crooks. It is unlikely because we know how they attack the person instead of the message, but Kay has not been going along with the administration at all and there might be some words coming. I hope so.

[TacticalPeek]

7. I wonder what he'd say about the O'Neill revelations?

Sent on a mission by blind and deaf masters? With the fix already in back in 2001 (and before).

:evilgrin:

[salin]

13. I believe Kay was initially selected due to his neocon beliefs

I don't look to him for any revelations - except the one that lays there open.... even a 'yes-man' couldn't fabricate weapons that didn't exist and couldn't spin the negligible finds into anything sellable.

Imagine what the reports would read if the key person had been more "objective" from the beginning?

We should always remember when hearing about Kay and his lack of results... that this was a guy who is a true believer... and believed the weapons were there... he was selected for the job based on his ideology (simpatico with rummy etal). That means - his reports were written ... trying to support the admin line (eg spun as much as possible)... That, I find very interesting.

[BeyondGeography]

8. New WMD search theme song

"We're on the Road to Nowhere"

[peterh]

10. Great…a new “road” movie…

Instead of Bing and Bob….it’ll star the two Dennis buffoons, Miller and Leary…

[The_Casual_Observer]

9. If that shit bird couldn't conjure anything up

What possible sense does it make to continue this farce. If there was ANYTHING there you can bet that the bastard and fox news would have let us know


Better to spend the resources on looking for the Lost Dutchman's
Mine, Judge Crater, or Jimmy Hoffa.

[Beetwasher]

11. Maybe He Knows What's Coming Down the Pike and Wants No Part

Take this in context of Cheney's recent comments that to me seemed like a set up. They are going to "find" something before the election. Maybe Kay wants no part of that particular "find".

[jbfam4]

15. I thought the same thing

they have had time to make them and hide them....it's like a bad game or hide and seek.

CIA Picks New Iraq Weapons Inspector




http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=703&e=1&u=/ap/20040123/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_weaponsBy KATHERINE PFLEGER, Associated Press Writer



"I can only underline the view that, all other things being equal, the current leadership in Baghdad will eventually achieve a nuclear weapon, in addition to their current inventories of other weapons of mass destruction," Duelfer told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in July 2002.


Since Saddam's fall last spring, however, Duelfer has grown more skeptical that weapons will be found. In a column published by the Washington Post in October, he said Saddam had long differentiated between actually retaining weapons and maintaining a capability to produce them quickly.


"But clearly this is not the immediate threat many assumed before the war," he also said. "The WMD threat appears to have been longer term. Assuming this finding does not change, it will be very important for the Iraq Survey Group to establish when all agents and weapons were eliminated."



"Having Duelfer go in gives me more confidence that they can wrap this up, and we can have some closure. Duelfer has much more experience as an inspector," Albright said.


In earlier interviews, Duelfer has laid out the challenges he faces. He has said U.S. troops have dumped file cabinets of documents into trash bags and boxes. "Now when genuine experts and linguists look at them, you know, they are going to have to go sorting through them," he said in a National Public Radio interview. "Given the volume of this, this is going to be an enormously time-consuming task."


WE are paying over 1,400 people to look for something that isn't there.

[leesa]

12. Why are we paying for this nonsense, when we could be paying for

a treason trial for Bush and his band of thugs??