What the World is Saying...

[Sarah]

http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=24907&printmode=1

What the World is Saying...

About David Kay's Statements on WMD in Iraq

Earlier this week, the administration's outgoing top weapons inspector
in Iraq, David Kay, when asked about weapons of mass destruction in
Iraq, replied, "I don't think they existed." Kay based his statement
on over six months of investigation undertaken by the CIA's Iraqi
Survey Group. The following is a sample of international editorial
commentary on his recent statements

Japan

"Recent admissions by top U.S. officials that Iraq might not have had
weapons of mass destruction, or WMD, demand an explanation. Questions
must be answered and the damage done to both U.N. and U.S. credibility
must be repaired... Mr. Bush argued for the need to go to war because
Iraq's possession of WMD posed an urgent danger. No such claim can be
leveled against 'WMD-related programs.' The U.S. must discover why
that gap existed and explain to the world why it acted on the basis of
faulty intelligence. Failure to do so will ensure that doubts arise
every time the U.S. tries to marshal international support for action
in the future."

- The Japan Times, January 28, 2004

Australia

"The resignation of the United States' chief Iraq weapons inspector,
David Kay, and his stated belief there are no weapons of mass
destruction to be found there, should not be seen simply as another
blow to the countries that went to war specifically to eliminate the
threat. More importantly, it is a victory for the United Nations and
the international community generally who, over the previous decade,
put pressure on Saddam Hussein to rid his country of the WMD menace."

- Canberra Times, January 27, 2004

France

"A year ago, in his State of the Union message, President George W.
Bush lacked a sufficiently alarmist formula to describe the immediate
danger that Iraq's arsenal of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) posed
to the United States... A few weeks later, citing meteorological
constraints, President Bush went to war. There could be no question of
waiting any longer: the danger was too great... Almost a year after
the collapse of the Saddam Hussein regime, the head of the US
inspection mission in Iraq has just submitted his conclusions. He has
worked with hundreds of men. He has operated in the favorable
environment of a country administrated by the United States. David Kay
was definite: there were no WMD's."

- Le Monde, January 27, 2004

Malaysia

"The story of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction is turning into a dime
novel of farce, fear-baiting manipulation, hubris and hypocrisy. In
the latest chapter, David Kay, once stridently bullish about Saddam
Hussein's illegal weapons hoard, resigned from the Iraq Survey Group
on Friday after having found no stockpiles, or any capacity to build
them, that would have justified President George W. Bush's decision to
go to war last March. The absence of WMD in Iraq has damaged American
credibility in the eyes of the world and struck down the UN's
authority to deter aggression."

- Kamrul Idris, New Straits Times, January 26, 2004

China (Hong Kong)

"[Kay's assessment] is the most authoritative challenge yet to the
claims that Iraq had to be attacked to remove an imminent threat to
the world. His conclusions will add weight to allegations that suspect
intelligence concerning Hussein's weapons was too easily relied upon
and then exaggerated by US and British leaders in a bid to swing
international opinion behind the invasion... U.S. Vice-President Dick
Cheney said last week that 'the jury is still out' on the weapons
issue. That may be true. But the jury - in the form of international
opinion - is still lacking evidence and is becoming more skeptical by
the day."

- South China Morning Post, January 25, 2004

Poland

"The CIA, and the Bush Administration, claimed the opposite, and the
conviction that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was
prepared to use them was the main reason for attacking Iraq... The
most important thing is how [President] Bush made the decision to
start the war - whether he was himself misled or he deliberately told
a lie... It is imaginable, after all, that the United States told a
lie and went to war. However, if the country went to war by mistake,
the consequences are appalling."

- Dawid Warszawski, Warsaw Gazeta Wyborcza, January 28, 2004

United Kingdom

"It's getting embarrassing. Anybody who's anybody now admits that
there are no, and were no, weapons of mass destruction worth the name
in Iraq. The roll-call of converts to what used to be the exclusive
position of the anti-war camp gets more impressive by the day. David
Kay, President Bush's handpicked arms inspector and the former chief
weapons monitor of the CIA - hardly a limp-wristed European peacenik -
quit his post at the head of the Iraq Survey Group last week,
concluding that there are no Iraqi WMD to be found: "I don't think
they existed," he said bluntly... In 2002-03, governments in London
and Washington stretched every sinew to persuade their publics that
war was necessary because Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. But
Iraq did not and so the war was fought on a false basis. For that,
surely, there must be a reckoning."

- Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian, January 28, 2004

India

"The United States Administration's defense of its Iraq policy has
been steadily rendered untenable by developments on the ground. Its
justifications for the invasion have not withstood close scrutiny and
it is unable to contain the consequences of its actions... The
administration also cannot take shelter behind the CIA official's
statement that errors in judgment should be attributed to the
intelligence services rather than to the political echelon. President
Bush and his political appointees have so consistently followed a
pattern of doctoring data and concocting cases to suit their political
purposes that they cannot blame professionals in the intelligence
services for the wide gap between reality and their projections of
it."

- The Hindu, January 28, 2004

Algeria

"Despite a negative report, the head of the White House attacked an
independent country, dragging the United Kingdom along on his
adventure. He gave the American people a single argument to justify
his operation: the ruler of Baghdad possessed weapons of mass
destruction. Today the most credible and the most serious testimony is
mounting against him. Since 2001 he has not stopped lying and talking
about weapons that do not exist, this with the sole aim of seizing
ancient Mesopotamia."

- Tayeb Belghiche, Algiers El Watan, January 27, 2004

Ireland

"[Kay's statement] is a grave embarrassment for supporters of the
war... British and American official statements that the question is
still open are less and less credible after Mr. Kay's resignation...
It is not a trivial point. Despite the several supplementary reasons
for going to war put out before and after it by the Bush
administration, the allegation that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass
destruction which he was prepared to use against other states was the
basic justification offered to domestic and international opinion and
the most plausible one under international law."

- The Irish Times, January 26, 2004

Pakistan

"[Kay] said we have searched about 85 percent of the Iraqi area, but
we have detected nothing. In this situation, it can be said that Iraq
in fact never possessed such weapons... David Kay's resignation is a
slap on the US face... He was an American, and he was specially sent
to Iraq... By making the so-called WMD's an excuse, the United States
and Britain have committed most shameful aggression against an
independent and sovereign country... David Kay's resignation has
further exposed their naked aggression."

- Karachi Jasarat, January 26, 2004