From Reuters:
March 31: Twelve days into the invasion of Iraq, there is no sign of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's suspected weapons of mass destruction, the primary rationale for the U.S.-led war now pummeling the country.
At a time when opposition to the U.S. attack on Iraq has drawn thousands of people into the streets of major world cities, "it basically casts American credibility in the worst possible light if we don't find these WMD," Wolfsthal said.
The Washington Post reported on Sunday that U.S. special forces had already pursued their 10 best intelligence leads in Iraq but came up dry at each location.
Speaking on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said U.S. and British forces controlled areas in the south, west and north of Iraq but that the weapons of mass destruction had been dispersed elsewhere -- around Baghdad and Tikrit, Saddam's hometown.
Unfazed that none of those arms had yet been found, he expressed frustration anyone would think military forces could attack a site "and find out what's there in 15 minutes."
This is contradictory to what the news reports say is a traveling lab - see below
From National Post:
April 7: Eighteen days after the start of a war that hinged on U.S. assertions that Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction posed a grave and imminent danger to world peace, there is no indication U.S. or British troops have discovered a single depot or production facility for unconventional weapons. So far, coalition troops invading Iraq have found only indirect evidence that such weapons exist.
Little else in the line of weapons of mass destruction has been uncovered so far, and administration officials in Washington have shifted their attention to playing up the need to "liberate" the Iraqi people from a repulsive dictatorship, while playing down any urgent need to search for weapons of mass destruction.
Even if WMD are found in Iraq, Bush could have a problem -- convincing a skeptical, often hostile world the United States did not "plant" the arms to justify its case against Saddam. For that reason, key European leaders have urged Washington to involve UN inspectors in the hunt, something U.S. officials oppose.
In the meantime, a special "Intelligence Exploitation Unit," composed of U.S. troops, CIA specialists and private contractors hired by the U.S. government is sweeping through areas seized by advancing forces looking for clues to hidden weapons caches.
Armed with portable laboratory equipment that allows them to conduct an almost instant analysis of suspected substances, they scour the sites for evidence of chemical or biological weapons and examine documents, computers, maps and other data taken from suspected sites.
So basically, the US administration is backing away from their defiant stance that WMD were there and now making a case for liberating Iraq. So there - right back at you. It was always my opinion that the Bush administration was using nay excuse to fight a war.
I still feel that Bush invading Iraq is part revenge for the assasination attempt on his father, part cleaning up the mess his papa left behind and mostly to divert attention from the fact that he has no valid domestic policy or any real clue on how to govern.