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The Iraq Survey Group (ISG) is a fact finding mission from the coalition of the Iraq occupation into Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) programs. Iraq Survey Group has 1200 members. The group spent six months searching for WMD and issued an 'Interim Progress Report' on October 3, 2003. The ISG spent six months searching WMD. The team has so far found no WMD in Iraq but has found evidence of "WMD-related program activities".
ISG issued a report on October 3, 2003. The report finds evidence of WMD programs but no actual WMD stockpiles in Iraq. Details of other banned weapons programs are also included in the report. The ISG does report that the regime did intend to develop WMDs. Iraq Survey Group inspectors in Iraq report that there was a network of laboratories and a deadly strain of botulinum. The discoveries made by the ISG include a "clandestine network of laboratories [...] that contained equipment [...] suitable for continuing chemical biological weapons research" and vials of "live C botulinum Okra B from which a biological agent can be produced " [1]. The failure to find any stockpiles of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons has been seen by some as a problem for Washington and London, who used intelligence indicating that Iraq did possess WMD as one of the justifications for the invasion of Iraq (among other reasons). The British government, more than the US, placed very heavy emphasis on this intelligence.
On January 23, 2004, David Kay, the CIA coordinator, resigned his position because he came to believe that WMD would not be found in Iraq. "I don't think they existed," commented Mr. Kay. "What everyone was talking about is stockpiles produced after the end of the last Gulf War and I don't think there was a large-scale production programme in the 90s." David Kay criticised the intelligence that led to the war in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, saying "we were all wrong and that is most disturbing". Kay does state, even if Iraq did not have weapons stockpiles, this does not mean that nation wasn't dangerous.
Such plans and programs, according to the Iraq Survey Group, appear to have been dormant, the existence of these though were concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in 2002. The current finds of the ISG include previous programmes for WMD in Iraq - not actual biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons stockpiles. Kay's successor, named by CIA director George Tenet, is the former UN weapons inspector Charles Duelfer. Duelfer has stated that the chances of finding any WMD in Iraq are "close to nil".
On February 1, 2004, senior US administration officials announced that President Bush is to convene an independent enquiry into the intelligence used to justify the Iraq war and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction. The US-sponsored search for WMD has so far cost $300 million, with the final bill expected to top $1 billion.
See also:
2003 occupation of Iraq timeline,
Iraq and weapons of mass destruction,
U.S.-led occupation of Iraq,
War on Terrorism
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