John Hayek (Globe, Jan 3) stated that “WMDs have been found” in Iraq. He first cited 1.77 tons of uranium. This uranium was under control not by Iraq but by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and had been there locked in that facility under IAEA seal since 1991. The world had “found” this low enriched uranium a decade ago and removed “all weapon-usable nuclear material (plutonium and high enriched uranium)” from Iraq (IAEA, 2000).
The second WMD that John mentions were warheads that were found in Iraq that he and Polish officials once claimed contained cyclosarin. The Coalition Press Information Center stated that the 16 munitions “were all empty and tested negative for any type of chemicals.” Two other munitions tested positive “for small quantities of sarin” (WP, July 3, 2004). However, the same source that Hayek cites notes that, “the US military said the agent was so deteriorated it posed no threat” (BBC, July 2nd, 2004).
Is a chemical agent that “posed no threat” and was “virtually harmless” a weapon of mass destruction? It is if your political loyalty necessitates such an assertion.
Seth Jackson
Lamar
http://www.joplinglobe.com/story.php?story_id=219447&c=96