WMD Found In Iraq

Rick Santorum revealed today that WMD's were found in Iraq after all:

(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) announced Wednesday the finding of over 500 munitions or weapons of mass destruction, specifically "sarin- and mustard-filled projectiles," in Iraq.

Reading from unclassified portions of a document developed by the U.S. intelligence community, Santorum said, "Since 2003, coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent. Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq's pre-Gulf War chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist."

According to Santorum, "That means in addition to the 500, there are filled and unfilled munitions still believed to exist within the country." The Pennsylvania senator called the finding "incredibly" significant.

"The idea that, as my colleagues have repeatedly said in this debate on the other side of the aisle, that there are no weapons of mass destruction is in fact false," Santorum said. "We have found over 500 weapons of mass destruction and in fact have found that there are additional chemical weapons still in the country."


Austin Bay:


Fox is replaying Rep Pete Hoekstra– he made the announcement with Senator Santorum. Fox’s Brit Hume says the declassified documents say that since 2003 coalition forces have found 500 weapons with degraded mustard or sarin nerve gas. Fred Barnes said that they are pre-1991 weapons.

Barnes noted Saddam’s chemical weapons program could have been cranked up quickly. That’s correct. Saddam played games with UN inspectors and was playing possum with his nuclear and chemical programs. This is not a large trove of weapons. Artillery rounds are tactical weapons–but nerve gas is still nerve gas and it puzzles me as to why this information took so long to release.

Saddam used WMD and once the Desert Storm sanctions were lifted I believe he intended to reconstitute his programs. To believe otherwise about Saddam is to put you in league with goofs like Michael Moore and George Galloway.

If this pans out the categorical statements that “Iraq did not have Weapons of Mass Destruction” will be political millstones and albatrosses.


I can't wait to hear the conspiracy theories about these being planted by Rove, etc.

By the way, I was just listening to Rick Santorum being interviewed on Hugh Hewitt, and he indicated that there is more forthcoming evidence (evidence which is still, at this time, classified) which indicates that the Saddam regime knew of these weapons, and purposefully hid them.

Here is a PDF version of the original declassified document.