corrente

Walter Pincus and Dana Priest of WaPo report:

A much-anticipated interim report by the Bush administration's chief weapons hunter in Iraq will offer no firm conclusions about the former Iraqi government's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs, senior officials said yesterday.

The weapons inspector, David Kay, is expected to present his report to Congress late next week -- an event that senior U.S. officials had just weeks ago pointed to as providing a possible vindication for the administration's prewar claims that Iraq had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and had restarted its efforts to build a nuclear bomb.

But officials yesterday sought to play down expectations that Kay's report will contain any major revelations. Kay, who is in Washington this week finishing the document, is "still gathering information from the field," the CIA's chief spokesman, Bill Harlow, said yesterday. "Don't expect any firm conclusions. He will not rule in or rule out anything." ...

Gosh, they haven't been able to find anything. Would could be more conclusive than that?

[THE BUSH THOUGHT BALLOON: Must—not—admit—mistake—Mom—will—kill—me...]

More recently, however, other officials, some of whom have spent time in Iraq, said the survey team had not gathered any substantial information, in part because the military members of Kay's group were threatening and arresting some Iraqi scientists and technicians who had in the past worked on weapons programs.

Yep, its the Bush Shorter Diplomacy again: Step 1, piss all over them, Step 2, demand their help.

Sigh... That's "WMD" for "Winger Meme Development" ....