Ex-Arms Monitor Urges an Inquiry on Iraqi Threat

[radfringe]

Ex-Arms Monitor Urges an Inquiry on Iraqi Threat
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/29/politics/29WEAP.html?hp
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON and THOM SHANKER
Published: January 29, 2004

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 — David A. Kay, the former chief weapons inspector in Iraq, called on Wednesday for an independent inquiry into prewar intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs, but he said he did not believe that the Bush administration had pressured intelligence analysts to exaggerate the threat.

The White House immediately turned aside the calls from Dr. Kay and many Democrats for an immediate outside investigation, seeking to head off any new wide-ranging election-year inquiry that might go beyond reports already being assembled by Congressional committees and the Central Intelligence Agency.


--snip---

The White House left open the possibility that it would eventually undertake a broad review of whether the C.I.A. and other intelligence agencies are properly structured to fight the proliferation of unconventional weapons.

There are some indications that the administration is divided about whether to call for such a review, and whether one could be undertaken without focusing criticism on George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, or fueling election-year criticism that Mr. Bush misled the nation in asserting that Iraq posed a grave threat.

---snip---

"The administration, in order to support its decision to go to war, made numerous vivid, unqualified statements about Iraq having in its possession weapons of mass destruction — not programs, not program-related activities, not intentions — actual weapons is what the administration's statements focused on," Senator Levin said.

Another Democrat, Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, was even more accusatory: "Many of us feel that the evidence so far leads only to one conclusion, that what has happened was more than a failure of intelligence; it was the result of manipulation of the intelligence to justify a decision to go to war."


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ummmmmmmm......

9-11 investigation = delayed for months after 9-11
Plame outing = delayed for months

O'Neill on 60 minutes = INVESTIGATION BEGAN IMMEDIATELY

WMDs & Kay report = ohhhhh, we may get around to it someday

[Zhade]

1. Is Kay trying to get himself whacked?

Loose lips kill, as far as the Bushies are concerned.

Why is he actually keeping this fresh? What's his angle here? Anyone?