AP - Rumsfeld: WMD May Still Be Found In Iraq, By Robert Burns

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Wednesday he is not ready to conclude that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction before U.S. troops invaded to depose Saddam Hussein last year.

Rumsfeld offered several examples of what he called "alternative views" about why no weapons have been discovered in Iraq, starting with the possibility that banned arms never existed. "I suppose that's possible, but not likely," he said.

Other possibilities cited by Rumsfeld:
- Weapons may have been transferred to a third country before U.S. troops arrived in March.
- Weapons may have been dispersed throughout Iraq and hidden.
- Weapons existed but were destroyed by the Iraqis before the war started.
- "small quantities" of chemical or biological agents may have existed, along with a "surge capability" that would allow Iraq to rapidly build an arsenal of banned weapons. "We may eventually find it in the months ahead."
- Lastly, he offered the possibility that the issue of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction "may have been a charade" orchestrated by the Iraqi government. It is even possible, he said, that Saddam was "tricked" by his own people into believing he had banned weapons that did not exist.

Rumsfeld also said he saw a possibility that Iraq managed to hide some banned weapons of mass destruction. He said that it took 10 months to find Saddam Hussein and that the hole in which he was found on Dec. 13 "was big enough to hold biological weapons to kill thousands" of people. "Such objects, once buried, can stay buried," Rumsfeld said.