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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/05/29/national1746EDT0683.DTL

Rockefeller says Iraq's weapons should have been found by now

KEN GUGGENHEIM, Associated Press Writer Thursday, May 29, 2003

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(05-29) 14:46 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --

If Iraq's weapons of mass destruction posed enough of a threat to
justify war, they should have been found by now, the top Democrat on the
Senate Intelligence Committee said Thursday.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia challenged comments by Bush
administration officials that the weapons were well-hidden and may not
be located soon.

"You can't quite say that it's going to take a lot more time if the
intelligence community seemed to be in general agreement that WMD was
out there," Rockefeller said in an interview.

Rockefeller said that if the weapons were so well concealed, the United
States should have considered giving U.N. inspectors more time to find
them.

The Bush administration's main argument for the war was that Iraq
possessed chemical and biological weapons and was possibly developing
nuclear weapons. Those weapons threatened the region and, if given to
terrorists, could be used against the United States, it said.

In recent weeks the administration has tried to diminish expectations
that weapons will be found soon. Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith
told a House committee May 15 that it "will take months, and perhaps
years," for a complete account of Iraq's weapon programs to emerge.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday, as he has before,
that U.S. teams are unlikely to find any weapons of mass destruction
unless Iraqis involved in the programs tell the officials where to look.

"It's not because they're not there. We do believe they are there,"
Rumsfeld said in an interview on the Infinity Broadcasting radio
network. "We never believed that we or the inspectors would just trip
over them."

In a speech Tuesday, Rumsfeld joined others who have been saying for a
month that Iraq may have destroyed chemical and biological weapons
before the war. On Thursday, Rumsfeld said there was "speculation and
chatter" among intelligence agencies that such weapons may have been
moved to other countries or buried.

Iraq also may have developed the capability to quickly make biological
or chemical weapons, eliminating the need for storing large amounts of
dangerous material, Rumsfeld said. Proof of that, he said, includes the
two trailers found in northern Iraq which American intelligence
officials say were mobile biological weapons production facilities.

Rockefeller said that, based on the intelligence he saw before the war,
he was persuaded that Saddam Hussein had chemical and biological
weapons. He said it is still possible "something may very well turn up."

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer Thursday called the two trailers
" proof positive" that Iraq lied about not having mobile labs.

But Rockefeller said it's not enough to prove the weapons existed.

"In the business of WMD, and proving to the American people your case,
you've got to come up with WMD. It's not happened," he said.

In a related matter, Rockefeller criticized the FBI response to his
request for an investigation into forged documents used by the Bush
administration as evidence against Saddam before the war. The documents
indicated that Iraq tried to buy uranium from the West African nation of
Niger.

He said the FBI sent a "bland" letter saying the forgery was not an
administration attempt to manipulate public opinion, but offered no
specifics. He said an aide told the FBI this was unacceptable and asked
for more details.

FBI spokesman Bill Carter said the bureau was continuing to look at
issues raised by Rockefeller and his staff. "We have not closed the book
on this," he said.

Rockefeller and Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan.,
this week also requested that the State Department and CIA inspectors
general investigate the forgery.

Rockefeller said either intelligence agencies hadn't detected the
forgery, or they suspected the documents were forged, but may have faced
political pressures to rethink that view.

"In either case, it's not a very happy outcome," he said.

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