U.S. cuts back crew searching for Iraq weapons

Hint that Bush team may no longer hope to find banned arms

Douglas Jehl, New York Times Thursday, January 8, 2004

Washington -- The Bush administration has quietly withdrawn from Iraq a 400-member military team whose job was to scour the country for military equipment, according to senior government officials. The step was described by some military officials as a sign that the administration might have lowered its sights and no longer expected to uncover the caches of chemical and biological weapons that the White House cited as a principal reason for going to war last March.