Now You Tell Me This Story Matters

Yesterday the Post stuffed the news of chemical weapons having been discovered in Iraq into a three-graf squib. As I said, half of that was devoted to dismissing its importance. Now that some Democrats have also dismissed its importance, we have a headline, a two-deck subhed, a proper byline and dueling photos of Republican Rick Santorum and Democrat Jane Harman.

Funny how that works.

Democrats Criticize Claim on Iraqi Arms by Walter Pincus:

The assertion by two Republican lawmakers that a new intelligence study proves that chemical weapons were found in Iraq has triggered sharp criticism from Democrats that the GOP is distorting intelligence for political purposes.

At issue is a classified overview of chemical munitions found in Iraq since 2003 that was completed in April by the Army's National Ground Intelligence Center. One of the report's key findings was that since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, coalition forces have recovered about 500 shells, canisters or other munitions that contain degraded mustard gas or sarin nerve agent....

We have the usual roundup of anonymous sources downplaying the significance of the discovery along with some very careful writing:

The intelligence officials also said that the munitions referred to in the report were produced before the Persian Gulf War in 1991 and that they had degraded and could not be used as designed.

All is well.

UPDATE: Fact they just didn't have room for in this story, from a couple of UN weapons inspectors via Jim Geraghty at NRO:

Here's what you find when you do some digging on the Internet about mustard gas: a letter from two United Nations weapons inspectors to the President of the Security Council from 1999:

550 Artillery shells filled with Mustard 33. Iraq declared that 550 shells filled with mustard had been "lost" shortly after the Gulf War. To date, no evidence of the missing munitions has been found. Iraq claimed that the chemical warfare agents filled into these weapons would be degraded a long time ago and, therefore, there would be no need for their accounting. However, a dozen mustard-filled shells were recovered at a former CW storage facility in the period 1997-1998. The chemical sampling of these munitions, in April 1998, revealed that the mustard was still of the highest quality. After seven years, the purity of mustard ranged between 94 and 97%. Thus, Iraq has to account for these munitions which would be ready for combat use. The resolution of this specific issue would also increase confidence in accepting Iraq’s other declarations on losses of chemical weapons which it has not been possible to verify.

 A 94 to 97 percent purity after seven years strikes me as pretty long lasting. Presuming that the rate of degradation is stable (is there a reason deterioration would accelerate in year eight or later?) the year 2003 would mean that at the time of the invasion, these shells had a purity of 88 to 94 percent. Sounds pretty potent to me.

Comments

[soccer dad]

And of course today they gave front page coverage to a CIA guy who disputed "Curveball."

And Karl Vick got to defend his coverage of Iran, in Outlook. I'm looking forward to your takedown of that!

[Christopher Fotos]

So many targets, so little time...