Saturday, July 19, 2003

Who Is David Kay?

Former UN Arms Inspector, member of UNSCOM, currently part of the team in Iraq looking for those damn WMD, or at least what happened to them, or at least evidence that they were once there, or at least evidence that Saddam had every intention, at some point, to restart his chemical, biological and nuclear weapons program.

If you watched any of the cable news coverage of the leadup to the war, you saw David Kay, and heard him speak often and with absolute confidence; Saddam had 'em, would hide'em, inspections were useless. And he has lost none of his confidence.

Wednesday, July 16, 2003 4:41 p.m. EDT

Pentagon Bombshell: U.S. Uncovers WMD Document 'Mother Lode'

The Pentagon's chief weapons inspector, David Kay, has uncovered what is being described as a "mother lode" of documents in Iraq detailing Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction program.

"I've already seen enough to convince me," said Kay, former U.N. chief nuclear weapons inspector, in an interview aired Tuesday with "NBC Nightly News" anchorman Tom Brokaw.

"We're finding progress reports. [Iraqi scientists] also got financial rewards from Saddam Hussein by breakthroughs, indicating breakthroughs. They actually took – went to Saddam and said, 'We have made this progress,'" the top WMD prober explained. "There are records, there are audiotapes of those interviews which give us that."

"According to Kay, the Iraqis seem to [have kept] documents on even the most damning evidence," said Brokaw.

In assessing the scope of Kay's find, the NBC newsman proclaimed, "This is a mother lode, an estimated seven and a half miles of documents, many of them collected by U.S. military from [Iraq's] official buildings, but many others handed over by Iraqi civilians."

(edit)

How long will it take before President Bush is able to reveal what could be smoking-gun justification of his decision to make war on Iraq?

"I think we will have a substantial body of evidence before six months," Kay told NBC.

Brokaw ended his report on Kay's find with a clip of Tuesday's comment by Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., a move the newsman apparently intended as a reminder to Democrats who continue to carp about the lack of WMD evidence that they're liable to be humiliated when the full story is known.

"It's a disgrace that the case for war seems to have been based on shoddy intelligence, hyped intelligence, and even false intelligence," Kennedy complained.

Meanwhile, back in Baghdad, Kay continues to pour over his treasure trove of WMD documents.

That's how Newsmax is playing the story. Here's the original interview via MSNBC.

The right is banking on David Kay, to bring home the bacon, so to speak. And not just the whacky right. In that NewHours segment, David Brooks, his voice trembling with breathy hope, brought up the name of Kay.

Through-out the runup to the war, David Kay was slightly more impatient then, with references to "smoking guns."

I'm not suggesting Kay isn't knowledgeable, or that he's lacking in integrity. He believes what he believes, and I doubt many of us would claim that given half a chance, Saddam Huessin was not ever ready to renew his various WMD programs. But the approach to inspections, underlying his Janruary WaPo oped, were, I suspect, highly influencial within the administration.

When it comes to the U.N. weapons inspection in Iraq, looking for a smoking gun is a fool's mission. That was true 11 years ago when I led the inspections there. It is no less true today -- even after the seemingly important discovery on Thursday of a dozen empty short-range missile warheads left over from the 1980s.

The only job the inspectors can expect to accomplish is confirming whether Iraq has voluntarily disarmed.

(edit)

When it comes to the U.N. weapons inspection in Iraq, looking for a smoking gun is a fool's mission. That was true 11 years ago when I led the inspections there. It is no less true today -- even after the seemingly important discovery on Thursday of a dozen empty short-range missile warheads left over from the 1980s.

The only job the inspectors can expect to accomplish is confirming whether Iraq has voluntarily disarmed.

And they weren't intended to. The administration knew when it needed to wage this war - sometime before the blistering heat arrived that our troops are serving in now. That put time on Saddam's side in their mind, and in David Kay's.

But was it? And was a containment policy that centered on enhanced inspections incompatible with any possibility of Saddam losing his power over the Iraqi people?

UPDATE: David Ehrenstein, who else, has the definitive answer to the question posed in the header. Click on the excellent comments section to find out the answer.

UPDATE: For more about David Kay, check here here and here. (courtesy of reader Fact search)

Also, anyone who may have missed the farmer's extraordinary essay posted early this morning, please don't. It's here.