"I'm not pleased by what I heard today, but we should be willing to adopt a wait-and-see attitude -- and that's the only alternative we really have," said Senator Pat Roberts, Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The administration's assertions about Iraq's weapons programs and ties to terrorism, and the intelligence conclusions behind those assertions, had driven the administration's case for war.
Tenet's statement came in response to a blistering letter from representatives Porter Goss and Jane Harman, the Republican chairman and ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. That letter, dated Sept. 25, cited "significant deficiencies with respect to the collection activities concerning Iraq's WMD and ties to al-Qaeda prior to the commencement of hostilities there."
The findings cited by Kay included:
-On biological weapons, a single vial of a strain of botulinum, a poison that can be used as a weapon, located at the home of a known biological weapons scientist.
-On chemical weapons, multiple sources told the weapons hunting group that Iraq did not have a large, ongoing, centrally controlled program after 1991. There had been reports that Iraq retained some of its old chemical weapons but Kay said none had been found.
-On nuclear weapons, Kay said in his statement to Congress that despite evidence of Saddam's continued ambition to acquire nuclear weapons, "to date we have not uncovered evidence that Iraq undertook significant post-1998 steps to actually build nuclear weapons or produce fissile material."
-But on missiles, Kay said the team had "discovered sufficient evidence to date to conclude that the Iraqi regime was committed to delivery system improvements."
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