Weapons Inspector To US: 'Don't Be Surprised By Surprises'

The Bush and Blair governments, straining to answer critics of the Iraq invasion, are pushing a new campaign. "The 'big impact' plan is designed to overwhelm and silence critics who have sought to put pressure on Tony Blair and George Bush," the Independent's Andrew Buncombe writes. "At the same time both men are working to lower the burden of proof - from finding weapons to finding evidence that there were programs to develop them, even if they lay dormant since the 1980s." Key to this new effort is former U.N. weapons inspector David Kay, who was appointed in June by CIA chief George Tenet to head the Iraq Survey Group, now leading the hunt for WMDs in Iraq. Buncombe told Democracy Now's Amy Goodman that Kay had been doing private consulting for a company called SAIC, a CIA contractor. After giving evidence last week to closed-door sessions of the US Senate's armed services and intelligence committees, Kay said, "We do not intend to expose this evidence until we have full confidence that it is solid proof." He cryptically added, "The American people should not be surprised by surprises. We are determined to take this apart and every day we're surprised by new advances that we're making."