CIA Names Duelfer to Replace Kay in Iraq Arms Hunt
Friday, January 23, 2004 1:34 p.m. ET
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.
The search has so far not found any actual stockpiles of such weapons, which critics say is an indication that the White House exaggerated the threat from Iraq in making its case for war last year.
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.
Kay was hired as CIA adviser last June to oversee the Defense Department's Iraq Survey Group that was hunting for stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and evidence that Iraq had restarted its nuclear weapons program -- the main justification for the U.S.-led war against Baghdad.
Kay "provided a critical strategic framework that enabled the ISG (Iraq Survey Group) to focus the hunt for information on Saddam's WMD programs," Tenet said.
"Building on the framework that David has put in place, I am very confident that Charlie and the ISG will continue to make progress in the months ahead in determining the status of the former Iraqi regime's WMD programs," Tenet said.
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.
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