06/06/04 "ICH" -- Ms Montague interviewed David Kay on the BBC Today programme yesterday.

He served as IAEA/UNSCOM Chief Nuclear Weapons Inspector in Iraq following the Gulf War. From June 2003 he was appointed by President Bush to head the 1,400 man Iraq Survey Group. He resigned that position in January 2004 having concluded that there had been no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq at the time of the war. He is now Senior Research Fellow at the Potomac Institute of Policy Studies - a major body in the constellation of Washington 'think-tanks'. He is concentrating on counter-terrorism and weapons proliferation in a section which is also working on the enhancement of 'blast weapons'. He has appeared before three senate committees dealing with intelligence failures etc.

Ms M was quizzing him about the resignation of CIA head George Tenet and his deputy. Kay said that the intelligence services had under performed since the end of the cold war and he could see the logic of Bush clearing the decks before the election. And what of the hunt in Iraq for WMD - was it a waste of time? It was not of the highest priority and likely to be any bit of use said Kay. Ms M said that Blair still speaks of unmasking WMDs in Iraq. This is delusional said Kay, 'there is nothing there' but 'there were programmes'.