"Harry Hope" <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:d94du01r3ftq6tu96ulrba8jpet6naql9s@4ax.com...

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=10554

Iraq Survey Group formally ends WMD hunt

CIA ISN SECURITY WATCH (13/01/05) -

The Iraq Survey Group (ISG), a US task force charged with searching
Iraq for Saddam Hussein's supposed arms stockpiles, has officially
ended its hunt for weapons of mass destruction in the occupied country
and has confirmed the findings of its 30 September interim report,
which contradicted nearly every assertion about Iraq made by the Bush
administration to justify its invasion of the oil-rich country.

No such weapons have been found.

The White House had been reluctant to call off the hunt, professing
the hope that some evidence for WMD programs could still be found, but
ISG leader Charles Duelfer said that there was nothing new to add to
the interim report submitted to the US Congress in September.

The ISG interviewed every individual it could find that had any
connection to Iraq's earlier weapons programs, and searched every
suspect site.

It confirmed what former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix and Iraqi
officials had been saying before the US launched its war - that there
was no ongoing program for WMD.

The lack of evidence also seems to justify doubts expressed before the
invasion about a number of assertions by British and US intelligence
services, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair's infamous
warning that Iraq could attack western targets with WMD "within 45
minutes", references to a nonexistent IAEA report on Iraq's alleged
nuclear program, and other statements that experts said had no basis
in fact.

According to Duelfer, if the ISG continued working it would only find
"greater substantiation to the picture we've already put forward".

The Washington Post reported that the ISG has made several pleas to
the Pentagon to release three Iraqi scientists - Rihab Taha (also
known as "Dr Germ"), her husband Amir Rashid, and Huda Amash ("Mrs
Anthrax") -- since none of these individuals have been involved in
weapons programs since 1991.

The Pentagon continues to hold the three in connection with possible
war crimes trials.

The ISG had been allocated hundreds of millions of US dollars for its
weapons hunt, although the precise figure is unknown because its
budget and expenditures are classified.

_________________________________________________________

"The threat from Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction -
chemical, biological, potentially nuclear weapons capability - that
threat is real."

Tony Blair

"And some day, some way, I guarantee you he'll
[Saddam] use the arsenal. . . . In the next century, the community of
nations may see more and more of the very kind of threat Iraq poses
now--a rogue state with weapons of mass destruction, ready to use them
or provide them to terrorists, drug traffickers, or organized
criminals who travel the world among us unnoticed."
--Bill Clinton

"Harry Hope" <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message

The Iraq Survey Group (ISG), a US task force charged with searching
Iraq for Saddam Hussein's supposed arms stockpiles, has officially
ended its hunt for weapons of mass destruction in the occupied

and has confirmed the findings of its 30 September interim report,
which contradicted nearly every assertion about Iraq made by the

administration to justify its invasion of the oil-rich country.

"Iraq was a brilliant campaign fought with minimal
casualties,