[tambourine-man]

US gives up search for Iraq WMD

Intelligence officials have confirmed the US has stopped searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. They say the chief US investigator, Charles Duelfer, is not planning to return to the country.

Mr Duelfer reported last year that Iraq had no stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons at the time of the US-led invasion nearly two years ago.

The existence of WMD had been the stated reason in Washington and London for going to war with Iraq.

Mr Duelfer said when he released his interim report in October that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had still had the desire to restart WMD programmes. He will make a few adjustments to his report but he will close the book on the hunt when the final version is published in a few weeks, says the BBC's Nick Childs in Washington.

Officials are still sifting through a mountain of documents and say they will follow any leads they find but there is no expectation that the hunt will be revived. The Iraq Survey Group (ISG), which was responsible for the search, continues its work but with the focus now on trying to help counter the Iraqi insurgency.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Wednesday's announcement was nothing new and that Mr Bush had referred to the end of the search last year when Mr Duelfer's interim report came out. But a report earlier on Wednesday in the Washington Post newspaper stating the search was over led to what appeared to be a confirmation by the spokesman.

Asked if the ISG had stopped actively searching for WMD, Mr McClellan said: "That's my understanding... A lot of their mission is focused elsewhere now."

FULL STORY: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4169107.stm

Yeah, it's news... But fuck it - what's the point of even discussing it (See sig quotes below).