President Bush on Tuesday declined to repeat past claims that weapons of mass destruction would be found in Iraq. This comes as former US weapons inspector David Kay says he believes Iraq destroyed its arsenal years before the U.S. invasion.

Meanwhile during the White House press briefing Scott McClellan claimed the Bush administration never considered Saddam Hussein to be an imminent threat to the United States. McClellan said the threat was “grave and gathering” but not imminent. A reporter responded to this clarification by suggesting that means the U.S. war against Iraq was not preemptive — which applies to imminent threats — but preventive — which applies to non-imminent threats.

And Vice President Dick Cheney’s recent comments on weapons of mass destruction are also coming under criticism. Senator Carl Levin from Michigan said “Just within the last few days, Vice President Cheney has said that it is clear that a couple of vehicles that were found in Iraq were mobile biological weapons labs, exactly the opposite of what David Kay is reportedly saying.”

Meanwhile The New York Times is reporting the White House is expected to reject a request by Democrats to form an independent panel to examine how the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq could have been so flawed.