WMD found in Iraq?

AllahPundit is on the trail of this developing story, first discussed by Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) in a press conference earlier today earlier today.

CNS (which you should take with a grain of salt) has a write-up of Santorum’s comments:

(CNSNews.com) – Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) announced Wednesday the finding of over 500 munitions or weapons of mass destruction, specifically “sarin- and mustard-filled projectiles,” in Iraq.

Reading from unclassified portions of a document developed by the U.S. intelligence community, 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.”

According to Santorum, “That means in addition to the 500, there are filled and unfilled munitions still believed to exist within the country.”

Reading from the document, Santorum added, “Pre-Gulf War Iraqi chemical weapons could be sold on the Black Market. Use of these weapons by terrorist or insurgent groups would have implications for coalition forces in Iraq. The possibility of use outside of Iraq cannot be ruled out. The most likely munitions remaining are sarin- and mustard-filled projectiles. And I underscore filled.”

Santorum said the “purity of the agents inside the munitions depends on many factors, including the manufacturing process, potential additives and environmental storage conditions.”

While acknowledging that the agents “degrade over time,” the document said that the chemicals “remain hazardous and potentially lethal.”

The media has reported that “insurgents and Iraqi groups” want to “acquire and use chemical weapons,” Santorum noted.

The Pennsylvania senator called the finding “incredibly” significant.

“The idea that, as my colleagues have repeatedly said in this debate on the other side of the aisle, that there are no weapons of mass destruction is in fact false,” Santorum said. “We have found over 500 weapons of mass destruction and in fact have found that there are additional chemical weapons still in the country.”

Explosive stuff (no pun intended).

Austin Bay and Captain Ed have posted most-reads on this story.

As Drudge would say: developing ….

Update I: Transcript of the press conference can be read here (click here for a pdf for the document Santorum discussed.). Others blogging about this: Big Lizards, Michelle Malkin, Jeff Goldstein, Iowa Voice, Right Voices, Blue Crab Boulevard, Patterico, Ed Driscoll, Stop The ACLU, BizzyBlog, SeeDubya at Junkyard Blog, Blogs For Bush, Ace, 4TheLittleGuy, Real Ugly American

Update II: AllahPundit has audio and a recap of Hoekstra and Santorum on Hannity and Colmes earlier tonight. Apparently there was some speculation on the show about why Bush himself never made mention of this news.

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Based in North Carolina, Sister Toldjah is a 15+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on mainstream media bias and the culture wars.

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