More than its presence, it is the absence of WMDs in Iraq that has shaken the governments of two major powers namely the US and the UK. Because of domestic pressures the Bush-Blair duo has been forced to start inquires in countries to examine the failure of intelligence agencies to accurately assess the existence of WMDs in Iraq. Before war started they would never have imagined that more than international pressure would be domestic pressure that would force them to look into their own establishment.

For Bush, David Kay was the key to locating WMDs in Iraq.  Kay, supported by the coalition's Iraq Survey Group (ISG), went to Iraq eight months back to lead the search for evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Three months back he had submitted an interim report saying that, even though his team has not found any weapons of mass destruction, it was able to identify some evidence leading towards Saddam’s WMD programme. In the report he had mentioned that his team has discovered “reference strainsâ€Â