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But we had pictures of the installations...Remember? Powell showed them to us at the UN...
Chief of Weapons Hunt in Iraq May Leave
1 hour ago
By DAFNA LINZER, Associated Press Writer
CAMP SLAYER, Iraq - Weapons hunters are spending more time on base, intelligence experts have been reassigned to work on the counterinsurgency and the man leading a so-far unsuccessful search for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons is thinking of stepping down.
A nine-month search for the weapons of mass destruction President Bush said he went to war to destroy has been conducted by a succession of U.S. teams that have all failed to find any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.
The lack of evidence has led critics to suggest the Bush administration either mishandled or exaggerated its knowledge of Iraq's alleged arsenal. Since the war, White House officials have at times claimed weapons were found, or that evidence of programs, rather than actual weapons, would be enough for them.
Still, nothing substantive has materialized and after an exhaustive search, the weapons hunt appears to have slowed.
"For a while this place was really active, but that's changed in the last month," said Charles McKay, a member of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency who has been involved in the search since May.
"Now we're lucky if there's a mission once a week around here," he said at Camp Slayer, the nickname weapons hunters have given to their base on the grounds of one of Saddam Hussein's former Baghdad palaces.
David Kay, a former U.N. weapons inspector, was named by the CIA in June to lead the search for weapons of mass destruction. His appointment, and the creation of his operation, the Iraq Survey Group, was supposed to be the key to finding the weapons Iraq long denied having.
Kay returned to the United States last week and on Thursday, a U.S. intelligence official in Washington said he was considering quitting his post. Kay did not return an e-mail message seeking comment and recently turned down a request for an interview.
During a visit Wednesday to Kay's headquarters at Camp Slayer, a senior military officer with the weapons hunt tried to offer assurances their work was continuing. "We're still here," Roland Mulligan said.
U.S. intelligence officials in Washington said the search would continue. New leads could come from the interrogation of Saddam, who was captured Saturday.
The weapons hunt is staffed by more than 1,000 intelligence analysts, interrogators and translators who pore over documents, investigate suspect sites and conduct interviews with Iraqis.
The work hasn't been easy and there was recently a large staff turnover, those involved with the search said on condition of anonymity.
Some people went home and others were reassigned to work on the counterinsurgency the U.S. military is waging in Iraq, U.S. officers said.
Kay's teams have complained about everything from logistical and transportation problems to an inability to find and keep track of Iraqi scientists. One top Iraqi missile maker who was believed to have gone to Iran in May was actually working the entire time with British military officers in Iraq. Only recently was he questioned by team members, he said.
So far, Kay's teams have talked to hundreds of Iraqis. Some have been detained, but the overwhelming majority have been cleared. In many cases, they were rehired for their old jobs; others will be eligible for U.S. government-funded projects.
Currently, fewer than 10 former weapons scientists, with expertise in biological weapons or missiles, are in custody for suspected work or knowledge of proscribed programs. None have led inspectors to any weapons.
"It's probably time to call it quits," said Hans Blix, the former chief U.N. weapons inspector, whose teams were given one-third of the time the United States has already spent looking for weapons.
"The U.S. and the U.K. are so wedded to the idea that the Iraqis were hiding things that they are not willing to explore the possibility that they're wrong," Blix said.
In October, Congress approved $600 million for the weapons hunt to continue. Kay predicted then that definitive conclusions would be reached within six to nine months _ by spring 2004.
"I just can't understand the figures, given how little they're finding," said David Albright, a former weapons inspector, noting the U.N. operation cost far less.
While money is clearly being used for testing equipment, data entry, facilities and transportation, it is also going to big-name U.S. contractors working at Camp Slayer.
Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Vice President Dick Cheney's former company Halliburton, has a large operation at Camp Slayer, running a fueling station, a new dining hall and portable lavatories.
The base, which was bombed out and looted after the war, was littered with broken glass, unexploded ordnance, and the remnants of Saddam's regime. There was little electricity or running water in June.
Today, it has a volleyball court, a barber shop, a country store, laundry and alterations services; it is stocked with sports utility vehicles and pickup trucks the weapons hunters use to get around.
Fluor Daniel, a subsidiary of the California-based Fortune 500 company Fluor, is putting in new windows at Camp Slayer, turning palace suites into office space and helping repair damage around the grounds. Other subcontractors include Egyptian and Jordanian engineers and construction workers.
