Bush Backs Away from Iraq WMD Certainty

[Flagg]

Bush Backs Away from Iraq WMD Certainty
Tue January 27, 2004 01:14 PM ET

(Page 1 of 2)



By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In the wake of a top expert's conclusions that Iraq had no large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, President Bush on Tuesday dropped his previous certainty that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, the reason given for the U.S.-led invasion.

The shift came as Bush met Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, a close war ally, and as some of his top aides planned to meet a top U.N. envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, about a possible lead role for him in postwar Iraq.

The conclusions from David Kay, who resigned last week as the chief U.S. weapons investigator in Iraq, raised questions about the quality of U.S. intelligence before the war and whether the Bush administration hyped it to justify its case for war against Saddam Hussein. It was likely to resonate on the campaign trail as Democrats seek to replace Bush.

Bush, in his first comments on Kay's findings, did not rule out that unconventional weapons might be found in Iraq but neither did he repeat his earlier certainty that weapons would be found. He said the team of weapons searchers still there, called the Iraq Survey Group, was still looking.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4220277

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. Iraq Survey Group, was still looking

There are people in Mexico still looking for Inca treasure too.

[yellowcanine]

3. Not to mention people still looking for Noah's ark.

Maybe in another 4,000 years, who knows what might turn up? There must be some place we haven't looked.

[Liberal Veteran]

5. And the lost continent of Atlantis and the towns of Ys

Maybe they'll find them on Mars.

[Emboldened Chimp]

2. Well, duh!

They were backing off when they made the rhetorical shift to WMD programs, which, of course, culminated into the absurd claim that Iraq had WMD program related activities. To quote Jon Stewart, "What the fuck is that?"

[jbfam4]

4. We just have to be patient

and give them a chance to find them.........Just as patient as * was in going to war.