Funny how the same people who wanted to give an indefinite (and seemingly infinite) amount of time for UN inspectors are all upset that we have not found anything (to our knowledge, at least) after just a few months. While time may prove me wrong, I'm reasonably confident that you'll have to eat your "absolutely wrong" claim.

You might want to read this interview with weapons inspector David Kay. He's in a position to know far more than either of us about what is going on in Iraq.


Brokaw: How long is that going to take?
Kay: No longer than it takes.

Brokaw: Six months?
Kay: I think in six months from now, we’ll have a considerable amount of evidence, and we’ll be starting to reveal that evidence. Will we get to the bottom of the program? It took them over twelve years to build this program. This is a tough country to work in. They hid a lot. I think we’ll probably still be finding stuff well beyond six months. I think we will have a substantial body of evidence before six months.

Brokaw: Based on what you have seen so far, was he starting to get rid of it, or hide it, or move it around long before the war ended?
Kay: Well, he was certainly hiding and moving things around. He’s been doing that for twelve years. There was a tremendous amount of destruction and moving of things immediately and during the war. And some of this actually continued after the war. We’ve seen targeted looting in which you’ll go into a building and the only thing that’s destroyed are the documents in the file cabinets that are ashes. That’s why these documents right here are so important to us.

...

Brokaw: David, before the war, I think that it’s fair to say that the American people were led to believe that the Iraqi program of weapons of mass destruction was going to be easy to find, and that when we did find it, it would be easy to explain. Is that a failure on the part of the intelligence that we had? Or is it a political overstatement?
Kay: It may well be a success of the Iraqis-for hiding it and dealing with it so it was difficult to find and unmask. I think all of us who have dealt with this program since the war realized what great lengths they went to shield their program. And that’s part of our difficulties. Everything from destroying documents systematically, moving things around. You cannot believe how many cases we have of documents and equipment that are stored in private residences. I mean, no inspection regime was ever geared up for going into private residences. We ourselves - even though we have the power to do it - have great difficulty in doing that.

Brokaw: How are these documents coming to you?
Kay: A variety. Some of them were brought in by Iraqis. Some were found in Iraq facilities that were bombed. Some in facilities that were bombed and looted. We’ve been very lucky. One set of these documents that we were happiest about - actually, the Iraqis had prepared them to be moved. They were put in two very large trailers outside the national monitoring directorate, and then something happened. They forgot to move them; the wheels were taken completely off the trailers. It was an Iraqi who pointed out to a group of Americans - I think those are the two trailers you want.

Brokaw: And so, an Iraqi led you to that trailer?
Kay: An Iraqi actually pointed out the trailer to a group of Americans and said, ‘I think that’s what you’re looking for. In those trailers, two very large trailers were a number of these documents.

Brokaw: And the documents had real value?
Kay: The documents have extreme value. They relate to the program that the Iraqis used to hide their weapons program from international inspectors over twelve years.

Brokaw: When I look at a room like this, with all these documents, and this is just the tip of the iceberg
Kay: It is indeed.

Like others have pointed out, we have not found Saddam yet either. Are you suggesting he never existed? There are a lot of places to hide something in a country the size of California. I'm not someone who demands instant gratification. Time will tell which of us, if either, is closer to the truth.