The Bush administration's main argument for going to war against Iraq was that Saddam Hussein's government had a cache of chemical and biological weapons, could share them with foreign terrorist groups which might then use them to attack the United States or other countries and had managed to hide the weapons from United Nations inspectors.
Russia is farther behind in its effort, having destroyed only about 48% of a large cache of chemical weapons, the OPCW has said.
The US is set to destroy its largest remaining cache of chemical-laden artillery shells, bringing it closer to complying with an international treaty.
After all, he controls the largest cache of chemical and biological WMD in the entire Middle East?
Dual Syria Message: The Syrian government has submitted its first report describing its cache of chemical weapons, and international monitors haven't dismissed it out of hand.
Smaller caches of chemical weapons have been found elsewhere in China.They are a continual danger.
Although the United States has not found caches of chemical or biological weapons, he said, "Because of our military, catastrophic weapons will no longer be in the hands of a reckless dictator".
Defense officials are also reaching out to former international weapons inspectors, as part of an ambitious top-secret effort to rapidly find, secure and ultimately destroy the caches of chemical, biological and other unconventional weapons the administration asserts President Saddam Hussein is hiding.
Although the White House stood by its statements last year that Mr. Hussein possessed stores of banned weapons, a position reiterated on Thursday by Vice President Dick Cheney, other administration officials said anonymously on Friday that the prospects that the search would turn up substantial caches of chemical or biological weapons were much diminished.
The step was described by some military officials as a sign that the administration might have lowered its sights and no longer expected to uncover the caches of chemical and biological weapons that the White House cited as a principal reason for going to war last March.
