The media is largely ignoring this story, but that's what we're here for.

The United States has found 500 chemical weapons in Iraq since 2003, and more weapons of mass destruction are likely to be uncovered, two Republican lawmakers said Wednesday.

"We have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, chemical weapons," Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said in a quickly called press conference late Wednesday afternoon.

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.
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The weapons are thought to be manufactured before 1991 so they would not be proof of an ongoing WMD program in the 1990s. But they do show that Saddam Hussein was lying when he said all weapons had been destroyed, and it shows that years of on-again, off-again weapons inspections did not uncover these munitions.

Hoekstra said the report, completed in April but only declassified now, shows that "there is still a lot about Iraq that we don't fully understand."

UPDATE: Rep. Hoekstra's release:

HOUSE INTEL COMMITTEE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - June 21 2006

Evidence Provides Further Insight into Saddam Hussein's WMD

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, today announced that a declassified Army report provides further insight into the chemical and biological weapons programs in Iraq.

"Saddam's use of chemical and biological weapons to murder thousands upon thousands of Iranians and his own people confirmed long ago that he had them and was more than willing to use them," Hoekstra said. "The question has always concerned what happened to them."

The unclassified summary report of the Army's National Ground Intelligence Center states that since 2003, coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 munitions containing mustard or sarin nerve agent. It also states that chemical munitions are assessed to still exist in Iraq.

"The unclassified report provides further insight into Saddam's WMD, but it does not complete the picture of prewar Iraq," Hoekstra said. "The report simply provides additional evidence on what the Iraq Survey Group has already concluded - that Saddam Hussein was not in compliance with numerous U.N. resolutions requiring Iraq to destroy all of its WMD."

Hoekstra learned of the report's existence from U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., who first heard of it from an outside, nongovernmental source. Upon hearing of the classified report, Hoekstra immediately sought and received a copy. He then requested that an unclassified version of the report be prepared for public release.

"The new information should come as no surprise, but we clearly have more work to do on the issue of improving the intelligence capabilities of the United States," Hoekstra said. "It provides with some answers, but also confirms that there is still a lot that we do not know about Iraq."

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