World News 03-10-2003 CIA Finds No Banned Weapons who: Weapons inspector Dr David Kay what: Says no WMDs have been found in Iraq where: Washington DC when: Yesterday snippet: "The man in charge of a £180m ($300m) hunt for Saddam Hussein`s weapons of mass destruction last night admitted that no weapon stocks had been found," reports The Guardian, "and that all a three-month search had uncovered was a single vial containing a possible strain of biological agent." "We have not yet found stocks of weapons," says Dr David Kay, head of the 1,200 strong CIA-led Iraq Survey Group, in his interim report to the US House and Senate Intelligence Committees, "but we are not yet at the point where we can say definitely either that such weapons stocks do not exist or that they existed before the war and our only task is to find where they have gone." "With criticism mounting over the apparent failure to find WMD, officials in London and Washington called for patience, saying it was only an interim report and that the hunt would continue," says The Telegraph. "Ministers sought to bolster any findings in the report that might lessen the damage to the Government." "I believed then and I believe now the action we took is fully justified and fully justifiable," was the response of Britain`s foreign secretary Jack Straw. And The Sun`s headline today, "WMD: Blair was right", seems to be telling a very different story. Meanwhile, says The Financial Times, "the White House has refused to confirm a New York Times report that it has requested more than $600m (£360m) to try to find WMD in Iraq as part of the $87bn budget submitted to Congress for Iraq and Afghanistan." [... more]

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