"Iraq weapons hunt is officially over"

Four months after Charles Duelfer, who led the weapons hunt in 2004, submitted an interim report to Congress, a senior intelligence official said the findings will stand as the ISG's final conclusions and will be published this spring.

President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other top administration officials asserted before the U.S. invasion in March 2003 that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear-weapons program, had chemical and biological weapons, and maintained links to al-Qaida affiliates to whom it might give such weapons to use against the United States.

Bush has expressed disappointment that no weapons or weapons programs were found, but the White House has been reluctant to call off the hunt, holding out the possibility that weapons were moved out of Iraq before the war or are well-hidden somewhere inside the country. But the intelligence official said that possibility is very small.

Full Article : seattletimes.nwsource.com