Sen. Rick Santorum got
FOX News and the
right-wing blogosphere's attention by announcing that he had proof that there really were WMD's in Iraq after all.
Reading from a declassified portion of a report by the National Ground Intelligence Center, a Defense Department intelligence unit, 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."
The only problem is that the Department of Defense is
denying the claim, saying that Mr. Santorum is citing an
old report about out-of-date weapons that were left-overs from the first Gulf War.
While a small number of old, abandoned chemical munitions have been discovered, ISG [Iraq Survey Group] judges that Iraq unilaterally destroyed its undeclared chemical weapons stockpile in 1991. There are no credible Indications that Baghdad resumed production of chemical munitions thereafter, a policy ISG attributes to Baghdad’s desire to see sanctions lifted, or rendered ineffectual, or its fear of force against it should WMD be discovered.
It should be noted that Mr. Santorum is in a desperate battle to retain his Senate seat -- recent polls show him far behind his Democratic oppoent, Robert Casey Jr. -- so next week, I fully expect him to launch an impeachment inquiry into the activities of President Clinton.
