Reply #1: Failure to Find WMD Poses Credibility Problem, Analysts Say

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Failure to Find WMD Poses Credibility Problem, Analysts Say

(CNSNews.com) - In another apparent setback to the Bush administration's credibility on Iraq, an extensive search of locations and facilities in that nation reportedly failed to find the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) given as the principal reason for the invasion earlier this year.

An interim report by David Kay, the lead U.S weapons inspector who served as a U.N. official in Iraq in 1991, is expected to show documentary evidence that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons programs but no proof of actual arms, officials told reporters.

As head of the Iraq Survey Group, Kay has presented a progress report on his findings to CIA Director George Tenet. Sections of the report are expected to be made public later this month.

Kay found evidence of material that could be used to build biological, chemical and nuclear weapons or for dual-use systems. He also spoke with at least one Iraqi who said he had worked in a biological and chemical weapons program until shortly before the U.S. invasion, the New York Times reported.

Officials pointed out that the results are inconclusive and stated it cannot be assumed that WMD don't exist. Kay and members of the Iraq Survey Group were unable to search all possible locations in a country the size of California where weapons could be hidden, they said.

But the lack of hard evidence to date, especially after the Bush administration made assertions about the quantities of nerve agents and chemical weapons Saddam Hussein was supposed to possess, likely will hurt President Bush, analysts said.