January 6, 2003: No ‘Smoking Gun’ For Iraqi Nuclear Capabilities, Says ElBaradei

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei says that his inspections teams have yet to find a “smoking gun… that Iraq has lied in its declaration on the nuclear issue.… I think we need still a few months before we can reach that conclusion. We haven’t seen a smoking gun, but we still have a lot of work to do before we come to the conclusion that Iraq is clean.” [CNN, 1/6/2003; Scotsman, 1/7/2003; Daily Telegraph, 1/8/2003] Melissa Fleming, an IAEA spokeswoman, adds that it is “too early to draw sweeping or final conclusions.” She also says that laboratory tests of air and earth samples have also provided inspectors with “nothing significant” that would lead them “to draw conclusions that they have been building a nuclear program.” [Associated Press, 1/7/2003]