WMD: They're baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack

CNN is reporting that an "improvised explosive device" (IED) was detonated today in Iraq which released a portion of Sarin gas - a powerful chemical weapon. For those who may remember, this is the same gas that a Japanese Doomsday Cult planned to use to murder people in the Tokyo subways. Sarin is one of the chemical weapons classified as a "weapon of mass destruction" in most circles, and the IED was composed from a chemical shell that Iraq supposedly got rid of after the first Gulf War.

Kimmitt said the shell contained two chemicals which, when mixed during the flight of an artillery shell, formed the nerve agent...He said the shell had been rigged as an improvised explosive device that resulted in a small dispersal of the agent when it exploded before an ordnance team could disarm it.

"The area that was affected was very minor," Kimmitt said. "There's no need for any further decontamination. The [ordnance team] people who went up there showed some minor traces of exposure, but it was so minor the doctors already have these people released."

This is hardly evidence that the Weapons of Mass Destruction hunt is back on, but it is also a sign that perhaps our pre-war intelligence was not as bad as some have been charging. Where there is smoke, there is often fire. And a chemical shell is certainly a sign that we need to look harder to prove that this Sarin attack is the exception and not an indication of something bigger.