April 21, 2003

WMD Watch "Where's all the

WMD Watch

"Where's all the WMD?", the Iraq skeptics will doubtless begin to bellow more loudly in the coming days. Judith Miller, on the WMD beat for a good while and one of the NYT's more intrepid reporters, has the goods here:

Money grafs:

"Military officials said the scientist told them that four days before President Bush gave Mr. Hussein 48 hours to leave Iraq or face war, Iraqi officials set fire to a warehouse where biological weapons research and development was conducted.

The officials quoted him as saying he had watched several months before the outbreak of the war as Iraqis buried chemical precursors and other sensitive material to conceal and preserve them for future use. The officials said the scientist showed them documents, samples, and other evidence of the program that he claimed to have stolen to prove that the program existed."

Miller's piece will also give neo-con Syria Bashar-bashers more ammo but there is nothing here that is out and out damning vis-a-vis Damascus. More footwork needs to be done on the extent of (if any) WMD transfers to Syria by Iraq over the past few years.