What the World is Saying...
About David Kay’s Statements on WMD in Iraq
Earlier this week, the administration’s outgoing top weapons inspector in Iraq, David Kay, when asked about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, replied, “I don't think they existed." Kay based his statement on over six months of investigation undertaken by the CIA’s Iraqi Survey Group. The following is a sample of international editorial commentary on his recent statements
Japan
"Recent admissions by top U.S. officials that Iraq might not have had weapons of mass destruction, or WMD, demand an explanation. Questions must be answered and the damage done to both U.N. and U.S. credibility must be repaired... Mr. Bush argued for the need to go to war because Iraq's possession of WMD posed an urgent danger. No such claim can be leveled against 'WMD-related programs.' The U.S. must discover why that gap existed and explain to the world why it acted on the basis of faulty intelligence. Failure to do so will ensure that doubts arise every time the U.S. tries to marshal international support for action in the future."
- The Japan Times, January 28, 2004
Australia
"The resignation of the United States' chief Iraq weapons inspector, David Kay, and his stated belief there are no weapons of mass destruction to be found there, should not be seen simply as another blow to the countries that went to war specifically to eliminate the threat. More importantly, it is a victory for the United Nations and the international community generally who, over the previous decade, put pressure on Saddam Hussein to rid his country of the WMD menace."
- Canberra Times, January 27, 2004
France
"A year ago, in his State of the Union message, President George W. Bush lacked a sufficiently alarmist formula to describe the immediate danger that Iraq's arsenal of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) posed to the United States... A few weeks later, citing meteorological constraints, President Bush went to war. There could be no question of waiting any longer: the danger was too great... Almost a year after the collapse of the Saddam Hussein regime, the head of the US inspection mission in Iraq has just submitted his conclusions. He has worked with hundreds of men. He has operated in the favorable environment of a country administrated by the United States. David Kay was definite: there were no WMD’s."
- Le Monde, January 27, 2004
Malaysia
"The story of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction is turning into a dime novel of farce, fear-baiting manipulation, hubris and hypocrisy. In the latest chapter, David Kay, once stridently bullish about Saddam Hussein's illegal weapons hoard, resigned from the Iraq Survey Group on Friday after having found no stockpiles, or any capacity to build them, that would have justified President George W. Bush's decision to go to war last March… The absence of WMD in Iraq has damaged American credibility in the eyes of the world and struck down the UN's authority to deter aggression."
- Kamrul Idris, New Straits Times, January 26, 2004
China (Hong Kong)
"[Kay’s assessment] is the most authoritative challenge yet to the claims that Iraq had to be attacked to remove an imminent threat to the world… His conclusions will add weight to allegations that suspect intelligence concerning Hussein's weapons was too easily relied upon and then exaggerated by US and British leaders in a bid to swing international opinion behind the invasion... U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney said last week that 'the jury is still out' on the weapons issue. That may be true. But the jury - in the form of international opinion - is still lacking evidence and is becoming more skeptical by the day."
- South China Morning Post, January 25, 2004
Poland
"The CIA, and the Bush Administration, claimed the opposite, and the conviction that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was prepared to use them was the main reason for attacking Iraq... The most important thing is how [President] Bush made the decision to start the war - whether he was himself misled or he deliberately told a lie... It is imaginable, after all, that the United States told a lie and went to war. However, if the country went to war by mistake, the consequences are appalling."
- Dawid Warszawski, Warsaw Gazeta Wyborcza, January 28, 2004
United Kingdom
"It's getting embarrassing. Anybody who's anybody now admits that there are no, and were no, weapons of mass destruction worth the name in Iraq. The roll-call of converts to what used to be the exclusive position of the anti-war camp gets more impressive by the day. David Kay, President Bush's handpicked arms inspector and the former chief weapons monitor of the CIA - hardly a limp-wristed European peacenik - quit his post at the head of the Iraq Survey Group last week, concluding that there are no Iraqi WMD to be found: "I don't think they existed," he said bluntly... In 2002-03, governments in London and Washington stretched every sinew to persuade their publics that war was necessary because Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. But Iraq did not and so the war was fought on a false basis. For that, surely, there must be a reckoning."
- Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian, January 28, 2004
India
"The United States Administration’s defense of its Iraq policy has been steadily rendered untenable by developments on the ground. Its justifications for the invasion have not withstood close scrutiny and it is unable to contain the consequences of its actions... The administration also cannot take shelter behind the CIA official's statement that errors in judgment should be attributed to the intelligence services rather than to the political echelon. President Bush and his political appointees have so consistently followed a pattern of doctoring data and concocting cases to suit their political purposes that they cannot blame professionals in the intelligence services for the wide gap between reality and their projections of it."
- The Hindu, January 28, 2004
Algeria
"Despite a negative report, the head of the White House attacked an independent country, dragging the United Kingdom along on his adventure. He gave the American people a single argument to justify his operation: the ruler of Baghdad possessed weapons of mass destruction. Today the most credible and the most serious testimony is mounting against him. Since 2001 he has not stopped lying and talking about weapons that do not exist, this with the sole aim of seizing ancient Mesopotamia."
- Tayeb Belghiche, Algiers El Watan, January 27, 2004
Ireland
"[Kay’s statement] is a grave embarrassment for supporters of the war... British and American official statements that the question is still open are less and less credible after Mr. Kay's resignation... It is not a trivial point. Despite the several supplementary reasons for going to war put out before and after it by the Bush administration, the allegation that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction which he was prepared to use against other states was the basic justification offered to domestic and international opinion and the most plausible one under international law."
- The Irish Times, January 26, 2004
Pakistan
"[Kay] said we have searched about 85 percent of the Iraqi area, but we have detected nothing. In this situation, it can be said that Iraq in fact never possessed such weapons... David Kay's resignation is a slap on the US face... He was an American, and he was specially sent to Iraq... By making the so-called WMD’s an excuse, the United States and Britain have committed most shameful aggression against an independent and sovereign country... David Kay's resignation has further exposed their naked aggression."
- Karachi Jasarat, January 26, 2004
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