There was a uranium centrifuge of the type necessary to enrich weapons-grade material (and plans for same) found a few weeks ago, hidden by an Iraqi scientist who then led U.S. soldiers to it. He stated he had been given orders to hide it until U.N. sanctions were lifted and the world's eye was off Iraq, so their development program could begin again. Two weeks ago, there was a lockdown on information the press could release (see my second link), and that
could explain the lack of follow-up information.
So, here is the situation as it stands. It is an undisputable fact that Saddam in the past had chemical and biological weapons and was working on a nuclear program. It
was an undisputed fact that he still had them, until President Bush started hammering on this; at that point, it suddenly became disputed by various leftists, even though President Clinton had espoused
exactly the same views (and in fact launched attacks on Iraq during Operation Desert Fox) without being challenged. It is also an undisputable fact that Saddam never gave even the slightest evidence of having destroyed his remaining WMDs.
These, as I see it, are the possibilities:
First, and most likely, the WMDs are still in Iraq, hidden away for the day when Saddam thought he could restart his programs. The hiding places are near-countless; the uranium centrifuge was actually hidden in the scientist's back yard, and would likely have never been found had the soldiers not been led to it.
Second, the WMDs may have been shipped to another country. Most often, the country given as their destination is Syria. I find this one a bit difficult to believe, as the level of insanity required to take in someone else's weapon program is astronomical. Kim Jong-Il would do it, but Assad probably cares too much for his own life. It's not impossible, but I wouldn't put any trust in this theory.
Third, they may have been destroyed. The biggest flaws with this theory are that if Saddam secretly destroyed them, he did so without any reason or gain (he loses his weapons, but doesn't earn the security that openly destroying them would grant him), and that if he actually did this, he did so while fooling every intelligence agency on the planet.
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The main problem when dealing with these issues is not the fact that the great American propaganda machine is churning out it's work, but that a second propaganda machine is working against it.
I think you're suffering from a misconception here. The "great American propaganda machine" doesn't exist as a unified entity; much of the second "machine" you describe
is American, with CNN being the most visible component.