Last week, Senator Rick Santorum and Rep. Peter Hoekstra forced the publication of an April report by the U.S. Army's National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) stating that approximately 500 chemical weapon warheads have been found in Iraq since 2003. The revelation was mostly ignored by the press and where it was reported, emphasis was put on the fact that the warheads were in a "degraded" state and were "old".

The Washington Post finally catches up today with the story (not one Page One, heaven forfend) by reporting on hearings of the Senate Armed Services Committee regarding the discovered munitions. The article emphasizes the political effect of this disclosure which can be shown in their headline

Munitions Found in Iraq Renew Debate

Panel Is Divided Over Whether Troops Uncovered Weapons of Mass Destruction

But is that really true?

Rep. Susan Davis (D-Calif.) asked whether the munitions could be characterized as "the Golden Oldies of weapons of mass destruction." (Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency) Maples said he was "not sure what Golden Oldies are" but added that the munitions were "dangerous. . . . even in a degraded mode, they will produce hazardous and potentially lethal effects and that we would categorize them as weapons of mass destruction."

Is that unclear? What part of "we would" did the Washington Post fail to understand? Oh, I see..they said the Panel was divided, i.e. the Democrats refuse to take Maples at his word. Or more likely they're working on their own historically revised definition of WMDs such as if the were produced before the Gulf War they don't count regardless of whether they could cause massive casulaties.

I would also refer you to the Panel's press release issued after the hearing.

Two panels of witnesses testifying today about approximately 500 chemical munitions found in Iraq—the existence of which was made public only last week by the Director of National Intelligence—largely agreed that these weapons constitute weapons of mass destruction and remain hazardous and potentially lethal.

Weldon asked if Iraq is a “WMD-free zone,” to which Maples responded, “I would not say that, sir.” In fact, Maples said, “Our concern is, what else is out there?” He also indicated that there are still significant numbers of people searching for WMDs in Iraq.

“There are WMDs,” said Rep. John McHugh (R-NY), adding, “I find it surrealistic that we’re discussing the birthday of a weapon in regards to its ability to affect human life.”

“One point that will be particularly relevant ...about the discovery in Iraq of hundreds of ‘pre-Gulf War’ chemical munitions is the fact that those were precisely the WMDs Saddam was supposed to destroy. He was not supposed to manufacture any others. Suggestions that we subsequently went to war only over different weapons, produced post-Gulf War, are erroneous and misleading.”