U.S. Weapons Inspector To Quit

The top U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq is stepping down from the position and will be succeeded by a veteran of weapons inspections during Saddam Hussein's regime, CIA Director George Tenet announced Friday.

David Kay, who has led the search since the fall of Saddam's regime, is "stepping down," according to a CIA statement. He will be replaced by Charles Duelfer.

"David is a model private citizen who willingly lent his unique expertise to his government in a time of need," Tenet said in a statement. "At a time when our WMD (weapons of mass destruction) hunt efforts were just beginning, David provided a critical strategic framework that enabled the ISG (Iraq Survey Group) to focus the hunt for information on Saddam's WMD programs."

The group has been stymied for months in its search for clear evidence of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in Iraq, one of the Bush administration's main justifications for the invasion.

Duelfer served from 1993 to 2000 as the deputy executive chairman of the U.N. Special Commission on Iraq, making him the No. 2 U.N. weapons inspector there at the time. The commission was the organization charged with eliminating weapons of mass destruction and ensuring that now-deposed Saddam did not resume production of banned weapons after the 1991 Gulf War.

With that experience, Duelfer has significant connections, including relationships with Iraqis and members of Kay's Iraq Survey Group.

Duelfer has expressed skepticism that the survey group will find weapons of mass destruction. In a column first published by the Washington Post in October, Duelfer said Saddam has long differentiated between actually retaining weapons and maintaining a capability to produce them quickly.

Still, the absence of weapons stocks "does not mean Saddam did not pose a WMD threat," Duelfer wrote.

"But clearly this is not the immediate threat many assumed before the war," he also said. "The WMD threat appears to have been longer term. Assuming this finding does not change, it will be very important for the Iraq Survey Group to establish when all agents and weapons were eliminated."

As recently as last week, Tenet had met with Kay, congressional aides said. The two men discussed the strategy for the weapons search and Kay's views on other subjects.

"Building on the framework that David has put in place, I am very confident that Charlie and the ISG will continue to make progress in the months ahead in determining the status of the former Iraqi regime's WMD programs," Tenet said.