from Kay.
Quote:
In an exclusive interview with The Telegraph, Dr Kay,who last week resigned as head of the Iraq Survey Group, said that he had uncovered evidence that unspecified materials had been moved to Syria shortly before last year's war to overthrow Saddam.
"We are not talking about a large stockpile of weapons," he said. "But we know from some of the interrogations of former Iraqi officials that a lot of material went to Syria before the war, including some components of Saddam's WMD programme. Precisely what went to Syria, and what has happened to it, is a major issue that needs to be resolved."
Dr Kay's comments will intensify pressure on President Bashar Assad to clarify the extent of his co-operation with Saddam's regime and details of Syria's WMD programme. Mr Assad has said that Syria was entitled to defend itself by acquiring its own biological and chemical weapons arsenal.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...25.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/01/25/ixnewstop.html
On Friday, Polish troops discovered four anti-aircraft missiles that are believed to have been produced in Europe this year, a Polish defense ministry spokesman in Warsaw said.
While they are not weapons of mass destruction, the missiles were banned under a 1990 arms embargo.
Testing facility discovered
Kay's 1,200-person team has found two new facilities near a prison where it believes biological weapons tests were conducted on prisoners.
"We have taken senior Iraqi leaders in detention to them," Kay said. The leaders were those who evidence indicated had been involved in the experiments.
"They were clearly shaken up by being taken there," he said, adding they were afraid that "we would make them face a lineup" of victims.
Referring to samples of botulinum toxin Kay has reported finding in a scientist's home, he said the deadly toxins were stored in the scientist's family refrigerator, near their food, and he returned even more dangerous toxins back to his institute.
Kay said that Iraq had paid North Korea $10 million for No Dong missile technology but that the North Koreans did not give it to them. The Iraqis asked for their money back, and the North Koreans refused, he said.
"It's a lesson in negotiating with the North Koreans," he said.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/10/03/sprj.irq.kay/index.html
Quote:
"I actually think the intelligence community owes the president rather than the president owing the American people," he said.
"We have to remember that this view of Iraq was held during the Clinton administration and didn't change in the Bush administration," Kay said.
"It is not a political 'gotcha' issue. It is a serious issue of 'How you can come to a conclusion that is not matched in the future?'"
Other countries' intelligence agencies shared the U.S. conclusion that Iraq had stockpiled such weapons, though most disagreed with the United States about how best to respond.
Quote:
Despite not finding any WMD, Kay said his team found that the Iraqi senior leadership "had an intention to continue to pursue their WMD activities. That they, in fact, had a large number of WMD-related activities."
Kay predicted investigators would find that Iraqi scientists were "working on developing weapons or weapons concepts that they had not moved into actual production."
Quote:
Kay also raised the possibility -- one he first discussed in a weekend interview with "The Sunday Telegraph" of London -- that clues about banned weapons programs might reside across Iraq's western border.
"There is ample evidence of movement to Syria before the war -- satellite photographs, reports on the ground of a constant stream of trucks, cars, rail traffic across the border. We simply don't know what was moved," Kay said.
But, he said, "the Syrian government there has shown absolutely no interest in helping us resolve this issue."
Kay acknowledged that the truth might never be revealed. Widespread looting in Baghdad after the invasion destroyed many government records. "There's always going to be unresolved ambiguity here."
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