WMD:MIA? II

On Cnn's "News night with Aaron Brown" last night (January 16), at twenty-five past the hour, there was a segment on "WMD Claims," in which, I believe, David Ensor reported that multiple witnesses who had provided information on WMD programs to the ISG were attacked and murdered, or seriously injured, "almost immediately afterwards" (paraphrasing).

It was one of those maddening reports that was rich in "attributed assertion" - no specifics were given, no individuals interviewed. In fact, I don't recall any sense of time being noted; viz., whether these incidents occurred "recently," or had occurred over the last months with some of the details just now coming to light. Strangely, during a quite exhaustive search of the CNN site (10:30am, PST), I was unable to find any article or "blurb" correlated with the news segment.

In any event, the segment dovetails with - is it a quasi-exfoliation of? - a statement David Kay made regarding his interim report, in terms of the occluding factors in conducting investigations in Iraq at present:

"The environment in Iraq remains far from permissive for our activities, with many Iraqis that we talk to reporting threats and overt acts of intimidation and our own personnel being the subject of threats and attacks. In September alone we have had three attacks on ISG facilities or teams: The ISG base in Irbil was bombed and four staff injured, two very seriously; a two person team had their vehicle blocked by gunmen and only escaped by firing back through their own windshield; and on Wednesday, 24 September, the ISG Headquarters in Baghdad again was subject to mortar attack. "

Kay addressed the matter of attacks in an interview with Fox's Tony Snow, subsequent to Kay's interim statement to Congress:

"SNOW: Now, a lot of these scientists — you talk about one scientist being assassinated the same day he talked to your people.

KAY: Yes.

SNOW: Somebody else was shot six times. They're still subject to considerable intimidation?

KAY: They certainly are, and they report that to us every day. And that's why I guess I have great admiration for those who are talking to us. They're talking to us not for rewards; they're talking to us in the face of active threats against them for collaborating with us.

SNOW: Why can't you protect them?

KAY: Well, you know, we could take everyone out of the country, but realize in Iraq you're talking about extended families. We are taking steps to try to protect them, but we're never perfect at that. "

In the same interview, the matter of WMD smuggling was addresssed:

"SNOW: In speaking to reporters the other day, you also said that you were examining the possible cross-border transportation of arms into Syria, Jordan and Iran. Now, the Jordanian government has said, absolutely not true. Do you still think it's possible that arms could have made their way into Jordan?

KAY: Well, we're still examining what moved where. We have multiple reports from Iraqis of moving material. We do know that documents were taken to Jordan, because we're engaged in negotiations with someone who is in Jordan to recover those documents. I have no personal knowledge that weapons were moved into Jordan.

SNOW: Does this person in Jordan have any official relationship with the government, or is this a private citizen?

KAY: Oh, absolutely no official relationship with the government. He fled there, and he's there solely on his personal basis.

SNOW: How about Syria? I've heard talk of convoys making their way out of Iraq into Syria in the weeks before the war. What have you heard?

KAY: We've heard the same reports. Actually, we have probably more specific evidence on that, on dates, times...

SNOW: I would suspect you know more than I do on that.

KAY: ... and routes taken. The difficulty we have is proving what was in the convoys, and that's where we're stymied right now. "

What does this all mean - that is to say, what is the significance of violent intimidation, and claims of covert movement of weapons? From this remove, it's tough to know, though surely the pre-war picture is kept alive; particularly in regards to the attacks, it's as if "someone" in Iraq doesn't want certain information to become known to the ISG, or otherwise come to light.

For now, those who aim to proceed circumspectly on this question will have to heed the counsel of patience.