David Kay - tenacious inspector

David Kay once told Americans not to be 'surprised by surprises'

If tenacity is needed in hunting down Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction, then the US man heading this effort has an abundance of it.

David Kay is not someone you would expect to back down easily - or who does not know what he is doing.

As a chief nuclear inspector, he led three inspections teams to Iraq during the first wave of international inspections in 1991 and 1992.

In one famous incident, Iraqi soldiers kept him surrounded in a Baghdad car park for four days in 1991 but he did not give up 25,000 pages of documents detailing Iraq's nuclear programmes at that time.

Using his satellite telephone, the Columbia University scholar even contributed a running commentary of the siege for US television networks - before walking away with the prized possessions.

The experience, however, appeared to have left him a bad taste and in the run-up to the war last September he was arguing for the removal of Saddam Hussein.

"If you are concerned about... an Iraq that produces and has nuclear weapons... then you have to deal with changing a regime," he warned US congressmen.

No surprises

Mr Kay took the CIA post of "special adviser for strategy" to the Iraq Survey Group - a 1,300-strong Pentagon contingent looking for WMDs - in June sounding upbeat.

"The American people should not surprised by surprises," he said shortly afterwards, adding that the teams on the ground were themselves being "surprised by the new advances".

CIA Director George Tenet said "David Kay's experience and background make him the ideal person for this new role. His understanding and the history of the Iraqi programmes and knowledge of past Iraqi efforts to hide WMD will be of inestimable help in determining the current status of Saddam Hussein's illicit weapons."

If you are concerned about... an Iraq that produces and has nuclear weapons... then you have to deal with changing a regime David Kay

But the professional inspector is now between a rock and a hard place.

He has so far failed to find evidence of these weapons he urged George W Bush to intervene to destroy.

And the pressure is increasing from an administration that is getting uneasy with the subject in the run-up, albeit long, to presidential elections next year.

There is also pressure from the American public which is beginning to show a whiff of scepticism that maybe they were misled them over the threat posed by Iraq.

From his talk of lethal weapons, Mr Kay is now being reported as saying Saddam might have deliberately exaggerated his "potential" to deter US intervention.

Getting to the bottom of this myth and reality might prove quite a challenge.