For those of you who want to argue with David Kay, here he is in his
own words:
From NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, January 26, 2004
Tom Brokaw: "David, as you know, a lot of the president's political
critics are going to say, "This is clear evidence that he lied to the
American people."
Kay: "Well, Tom, if we do that, I think we're really hurting
ourselves. Clearly, the intelligence that we went to war on was
inaccurate, wrong. We need to understand why that was. I think if
anyone was abused by the intelligence it was the president of the
United States rather than the other way around.
Browkaw: "The president described Iraq as a gathering threat - a
gathering danger. Was that an accurate description?"
Kay: "I think that's a very accurate description. I think Baghdad was
actually becoming more dangerous in the last two years than even we
realized. Saddam was not controlling the society any longer. In the
marketplace of terrorism and of WMD, Iraq well could have been that
supplier if the war had not intervened."
From an opening statement by David Kay at a Senate hearing
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
"Senator Kennedy and I talked on several occasions prior to the war
that my view was that the best evidence that I had seen was that Iraq
indeed had weapons of mass destruction.
"I would also point out that many governments that chose not to
support this war -- certainly, the French president, [Jacques] Chirac,
as I recall in April of last year, referred to Iraq's possession of
WMD.
"The Germans certainly -- the intelligence service believed that there
were WMD.
"In my judgment, based on the work that has been done to this point of
the Iraq Survey Group, and in fact, that I reported to you in October,
Iraq was in clear violation of the terms of [U.N.] Resolution 1441.
"Resolution 1441 required that Iraq report all of its activities --
one last chance to come clean about what it had.
"We have discovered hundreds of cases, based on both documents,
physical evidence and the testimony of Iraqis, of activities that were
prohibited under the initial U.N. Resolution 687 and that should have
been reported under 1441, with Iraqi testimony that not only did they
not tell the U.N. about this, they were instructed not to do it and
they hid material."
From NBC News Today Show, Tuesday January 27, 2004:
Matt Lauer: "Is it true that in 2000 and 2001 Saddam was pushing his
nuclear progarm?"
David Kay: "Yes, he was pushing hard for nuclear and long range
missiles. Look, it's clear the man had the intent. He simply wasn't
successful. He clearly lied to UN and was in material brach."
Lauer: "Based on everything you now know, was it prudent to go to war
against Saddam?"
Kay: "It was absolutely prudent to go to war. The system was
collapsing, Iraq was a country with desire to develop WMDs, and it was
attracting terrorists like flies to honey."
Lauer: "Are your earlier comments being exploited for political
reasons?"
Kay: "Inevitably yes, but what we have is a national security issue
that shouldn't be exploited as a political issue."
Lauer: "Should we continue to search for WMDs as VP Cheney has
suggested?
Kay: "Absolutely."
Sources:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4066462/
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/01/28/kay.transcript/index.html
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1066068/posts
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