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Kay Says Bush Slowing Intelligence Reform...

Feb 12, 2004 3:29PM PST

"WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is hampering efforts to improve intelligence by clinging to the false hope that weapons of mass destruction may be found in Iraq, the former chief U.S. weapons inspector said Thursday.

"My only serious regret about the continued holding on to the hope that eventually we'll find it is that it eventually allows you to avoid the hard steps necessary to reform the process," David Kay said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Since resigning last month, Kay has repeatedly said U.S. intelligence was wrong in claiming that Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and advanced nuclear weapons programs. Those programs were the main justification for the Iraq war.

President Bush and other officials insist weapons could still be discovered. In an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" last weekend, Bush said, "They could be hidden, they could have been transported to another country." Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has also said he believes weapons could still be uncovered.

Kay said the administration could fear the political costs of acknowledging error. "I suspect if I had their jobs I'd probably, to keep my sanity, be an eternal optimist about some things," he said."

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