CIA Closes Its Probe Into Alleged Iraqi Weaponry

The CIA’s top arms inspector in Iraq said Monday that the hunt for weapons of mass destruction had “gone as far as feasible” and that he had found nothing. With those words, he closed the investigation into Saddam Hussein’s purported programs that President Bush used to justify the March 2003 American-led invasion.

“After more than 18 months, the WMD investigation and debriefing of the WMD-related detainees has been exhausted,” wrote Charles A. Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group, in an addendum to the 1,000-page report he issued last fall.

“As matters now stand, the WMD investigation has gone as far as feasible.”

In 92 pages posted online Monday evening, Duelfer provides a last look at an investigation that, at its peak, involved as many as 1,500 military and civilian translators, weapons specialists and other experts.

Duelfer said Monday that there would be no purpose in keeping people in custody because of their knowledge of Iraq’s weapons.

He did not provide any details about how many had been detained.

Duelfer said a group investigating whether WMD-related material was shipped out of Iraq before the invasion wasn’t able to reach firm conclusions because the deteriorating security situation limited and later halted its work.

The investigators were focusing on alleged transfers from Iraq to Syria.

However, information obtained from questioning Iraqis did not support that possibility, the addendum says.