Former Chief Inspector Testifies on Iraq WMD
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
WASHINGTON — The failure to turn up weapons of mass destruction (search) in Iraq exposed weaknesses in America's intelligence-gathering apparatus, a former top U.S. weapons inspector told U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday.
But the inspector, David Kay (search), did not underestimate the threat posed by deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and said there was evidence that Iraq was participating in a weapons program that went against U.N. rules.
"We've had a number of surprises," Kay told reporters after meeting behind closed doors with the Senate Intelligence Committee (search). "It's quite clear we need capabilities that we do not have with regard to intelligence."
Later, he told the Senate Armed Services Committee (search) that "we were almost all wrong — and I certainly include myself here," in believing that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
Despite suggestions from Democrats that the White House pressured analysts to construe intelligence to help President Bush' make the case to go to war against Saddam, Kay said he spoke to many analysts who prepared the intelligence and "not in a single case was the explanation that I was pressured to this."
Kay said he felt there would always be "unresolvable ambiguity" about exactly what programs Iraq had because of the severe looting that occurred in Iraq immediately after the U.S.-led invasion and the U.S. military's failure to control it. U.S. investigators believe some Iraqis probably took advantage of that period of chaos to get rid of any evidence of weapons programs, he said.
Under questioning from Republicans, Kay stressed the danger posed by Saddam and said that Iraqi documents, physical evidence and interviews with Iraqi scientists revealed that Iraq was engaged in weapons programs prohibited by U.N. resolutions.
"I think the world is far safer with the disappearance and the removal of Saddam Hussein," he said under questioning from Chairman John Warner, (search) R-Va.
Kay said U.S. intelligence agencies became so dependent on information from U.N. inspectors, they didn't develop their own sources. He also said he would favor an independent investigation into the intelligence failures.
That's something many lawmakers have no problem with.
"I'm sure everyone is taking a look … at the intelligence gathering operations, not just leading up to action in Iraq but leading up to the actions of Sept. 11," New Hampshire Republican Sen. John Sununu, member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Fox News.
"In this day and age where global terrorism is the greatest threat to Americans, we need to retool, reshape America's intelligence gathering ... if we're not doing that, we're not doing all that we can to improve our national security."
Kay's appearance had strong political undertones with the justification for war emerging as a top issue in the presidential campaign.
The committee's top Democrat, Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, pointed to repeated statements by top administration officials flatly stating that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. He pressed Kay to acknowledge that there is no evidence Iraq even had small stockpiles as of 2002. Kay also said that vans the administration claimed were used for biological weapons were likely not intended for such a program.
Kay also said the United States has learned more about Saddam's weapons programs than U.N. inspectors could have because of Saddam's ability to terrorize his people.
As special adviser to CIA Director George Tenet, Kay was chosen last year as the Iraq Survey Group (search) leader in part because he was convinced weapons would be found. "My suspicions are that we'll find in the chemical and biological areas, in fact, I think there may be some surprises coming rather quickly in that area," he said in a television interview in June.
Kay resigned Friday, saying he was stepping down because resources were being shifted away from the search.
Warner called the hearing to receive Kay's views directly. Before sitting down with Warner's committee, Kay told reporters he believes the work of the Iraq survey group must continue.
Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said: "Tis a quandary. We're at war and people are dying every day. We went to war on the presumption that we were going to be attacked very soon if we didn't do something and the reign of terror would come from weapons of mass destruction. I'm still in search of those weapons of mass destruction."
Rockefeller said his panel still has much work to do on the issue and that, "to date, we have only scratched the surface of the collection shortfall."
"Dr. Kay concludes that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction and that means Iraq did not pose a grave and growing threat," Rockefeller said in response to Kay's testimony. "That raises serious questions about our intelligence, but also about the reasons and justification for going to war, and the president's doctrine of preemption."
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (search), R-Kan., said his committee has finished a draft report on its inquiry into the prewar intelligence and plans to get it to members next week.
He said it appears the problem is with some intelligence agencies and not the policy-makers. "Anyone who believes otherwise has not done their homework and certainly was not listening to Dr. Kay," he said.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tuesday that it's premature to speculate about "why we were wrong," and rejected Kay's statement that the work in Iraq is 85 percent done.
While inspectors have been unable to unearth weapons of mass destruction, they have found new evidence that Saddam's regime quietly destroyed some stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons in the mid-1990s, Kay told The Washington Post in an interview in Tuesday editions.
Democratic presidential contenders have grabbed onto Kay's conclusion on the absence of banned weapons.
"The administration did cook the books," Howard Dean (search) told reporters Tuesday. "I think that's pretty serious."
Kay's resignation and subsequent statements come as many in the administration subtly are changing their assertions about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, including Bush. In last year's State of the Union, Bush called Saddam a "dictator who is assembling the world's most dangerous weapons."
In the State of the Union this month, Bush spoke of Saddam's programs, rather than weapons: "Had we failed to act, the dictator's weapons of mass destruction programs would continue to this day. "
Last February, Secretary of State Colin Powell told the United Nations Security Council that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction that posed "real and present dangers."
This weekend, Powell began to backpedal, saying the United States thought Saddam had banned weapons, but "we had questions that needed to be answered."
The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
