After months of leading the U.S. search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, David Kay now says he believes stockpiles of such weapons never existed. Kay’s comments mark a major blow to the Bush administration which still claims that the search for weapons of mass destruction is not complete. Kay said “I don’t think they existed.” Up until last week, Kay was heading a team of 1,000 on the hunt for weapons in Iraq. Kay’s replacement, former UN weapons inspector Charles Duelfer, has already said that he does not believe banned weapons would be found. In interviews over the weekend, Kay laid blame on the CIA and the intelligence community for failing to accurately analyze the state of Iraq’s weapons programs.

On Sunday, Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged that he too didn’t know if weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq. When a reporter asked him if such weapons would be found, Powell said “The answer to that question is, we don’t know yet.” He went on to speak about his address to the United Nations outlining the Iraqi threat. He said, “Last year when I made my presentation it was based on the best intelligence we had at the time. What is the open question is how many stocks they had and, if they had any, where did they go? And if they didn’t have any, then why wasn’t that known beforehand?”

Meanwhile Vice President Dick Cheney continued to claim weapons may still be found. He said “I think the jury is still out. It’s going to take … time to look in all of the cubby and ammo dumps in Iraq.”

On the campaign front, the Institute for Public Accuracy has released a report showing that five of the Democratic contenders at one point publicly said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

On October 9, 2002 Senator Kerry said “Why is Saddam Hussein attempting to develop nuclear weapons when most nations don’t even try? … According to intelligence, Iraq has chemical and biological weapons … Iraq is developing unmanned aerial vehicles capable of delivering chemical and biological warfare agents…” Yesterday we asked Kerry at a campaign stop in Nashua to clarify his position.

Meanwhile Senator John Edwards on October 10, 2002 said this about Saddam Hussein. “We know that he has chemical and biological weapons.” Yesterday reporters asked him to comment on his remark.