Stewart Stogel
Friday September 5, 2003

The U.N. had suspended its inspections on March 18, a day after President George W. Bush gave Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein an ultimatum to leave the country or face war.

On Thursday, the Security Council met privately to hear the latest quarterly report from the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), the Iraqi arms inspectors.

UNMOVIC Acting Executive Director Dimitri Perricos (Greece) informed the Council members that his personnel stand ready to resume inspections and assist U.S. efforts on short notice.

According to participants at the meeting, the French and Russian ambassadors expressed interest in beginning the process that would define a future role for the U.N. inspectors.

U.S./U.N. ambassador John Negroponte is said to have killed that move by telling the assembled diplomats he "was not prepared" to discuss the issue at the meeting.

It was then agreed to defer any further discussion until November.

The U.S. is officially committed to considering a role for the U.N. inspectors, but never defined any time frame for such a decision.

Since the advent of Operation Iraq Freedom in March, the U.S. has mounted several unilateral efforts to find weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

The first was led by Charles Duelfer, a former Deputy Executive Chairman of UNSCOM (U.N. Special Commission, the original Iraq arms inspectors).

The current effort is headed by CIA "special" advisor David Kay.

Kay, a former U.N. Iraq atomic weapons inspector in the early 1990's, is perhaps best known as a television "analyst" for MSNBC, where he resided before being tapped by the CIA.

In both cases, U.N. and U.S. sources tell NewsMax, nothing substantive has been found. "We have heard nothing. I believe they (the U.S.) have not found anything," says a senior U.N. source.

The source went on to say that Washington has had little contact with UNMOVIC (U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission) since the advent of the U.S./UK invasion of Iraq on March 19.

"What is (David) Kay doing in Iraq? Nobody seems to know," asked one U.N. official.

The U.N. source speculated that had Kay and his U.S. search teams found anything substantive, news of the find would have leaked out.

Speaking to several Congressional committees shortly before the summer recess, Kay (in closed testimony) is reported to have said that his inspectors have found "credible" evidence of hidden Iraqi WMD. Kay was reported to have told the legislators he was in the process of obtaining additional evidence before making any formal report on the inspections.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., told a Pentagon press conference Thursday that CIA weapons adviser David Kay is "doing all the leg work right now," looking for documentation, physical evidence and Iraqis who might have information about Saddam's alleged chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs.

"He's believing he will find weapons of mass destruction," Hoekstra said when asked if he'd been briefed by Kay during a recent trip to Iraq. "He holds out the possibility that he may not - says it's a very, very remote possibility."

Senior U.N. officials have privately expressed skepticism that Kay's inspections have turned up anything new.

A senior U.N. official told NewsMax that as time goes on and no proof emerges on any major weapons find, the suspicion that something could be "manufactured" grows:

"That is where we (the U.N.) come in. We could provide an independent verification of whatever the U.S. comes up with. We could provide credibility to the findings."

The dilemma for the U.S. could be that the U.N. might also throw doubt on any such findings.

Meanwhile, the U.N. investigation into the bombing of its Baghdad headquarters continues. In the wake of that bombing, and given their statements to NewsMax, U.N. staffers apparently remain unaware that those who wish harm on the U.S., and the rest of the civilized world, feel that the U.N. is a pawn of the U.S.

To them, there is no such thing as U.N. "independent verification" of anything.