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Updated: 10:24 AM EST
Search Ends for Banned Weapons in Iraq

WASHINGTON (Jan. 12) - The search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq ended last month, nearly two years after President Bush sent troops to disarm Saddam Hussein, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

Officials who served with the group charged with hunting banned weapons said the violence in Iraq, coupled with a lack of new information, led them to fold up the effort shortly before Christmas, the newspaper reported.

Charles Duelfer, the CIA special adviser who led the hunt, has returned home, and analysts serving in his Iraq Survey Group (ISG) have returned to CIA headquarters in Virginia, the report said, citing unnamed intelligence officials.

The Post said the findings of an interim report that Duelfer submitted to Congress in September will stand as the ISG's final conclusions, according to a senior intelligence official.

The report concluded that Iraq had no stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons and its nuclear program had decayed before last year's U.S.-led invasion, in findings contrary to prewar assertions of the Bush administration.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, another U.S. intelligence official confirmed that Duelfer was back in Washington, but disputed that the weapons hunt was over.

"This isn't the kind of thing that stops, the search continues," the official told Reuters. "If new information comes in, obviously that would be looked at."

The Washington Post reported that the White House had been reluctant to call off the hunt, holding out the possibility that weapons had been shipped out of Iraq before the war or well hidden inside the country.

Bush, who subsequently said that he was "right to take action" in Iraq, had cited a growing threat from Saddam's weapons of mass destruction as one of the main reasons for overthrowing the Iraqi president.

01/12/05 00:58 ET

tcwest10 wrote:Whatever. The "war" part ended a while ago too, but a good, good friend just got sent home in pieces.
I'll be at the funeral Saturday.
I still support my President, my country and our troops.
After all, that's what Kenny was doing over there. I owe him that.

tcwest10 wrote:a good, good friend just got sent home in pieces. I'll be at the funeral Saturday..

tcwest10 wrote:Whatever. The "war" part ended a while ago too, but a good, good friend just got sent home in pieces.
I'll be at the funeral Saturday.
I still support my President, my country and our troops.
After all, that's what Kenny was doing over there. I owe him that.

tcwest10 wrote:http://www.pigstye.net/iraq/article.php/2005011008125437

To answer Patrickg, I'm one of those idiots you're always knocking, although I tend to not get involved in those types of threads.
Every able-bodied male in my family has served but two. My uncle Chip, who was the only son in the family at the time, and me. I'm handicapped, and they wouldn't have me.
I went into the Army recruiters office when I was 17 with my hearing aides in my pocket, thinking I could fool them.
I'm deeply, deeply patriotic. Kenny gave his life for me and mine, and I will always be thankful to him for that.
Just respect my stance, and don't bother me about it.

patrickg68 wrote:All I'm saying is that supporting a war and supporting the troops are completely seperate. This started off as a political thread and tcwest10 continued it when he expressed his support for the war. I truly am sorry for your loss tcwest10, but the said truth is that it is one of more than a thousand since the war began. The president that you are pledging your support to sent this country to war under false pretenses and far too many young American men and women have sacrificed their lives. And I cannot express this deeply enough. My personal opinion is that patriotism is not supporting everything that the president/government says and does. It is standing up for what you believe is right even if it contradicts the actions of the government. I'm sorry if I have offended you by expressing my opinion, but I don't think that believing that our troops should come home in any way dishonors your the life of your friend.