Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has suggested publicly for the first time Iraq may have destroyed its weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. invaded. Rumsfeld has repeatedly said it’s just a matter of time before these weapons will be found in Iraq.

Meanwhile, The Guardian of London reports the good news for the Pentagon is that its investigators have finally unearthed evidence of weapons of mass destruction, including 100 vials of anthrax and other dangerous bacteria. The bad news is that the stash was found not in Iraq but fewer than 50 miles from Washington near Fort Detrick in Maryland. The anthrax is a nonvirulent strain, and the discoveries are apparently remnants of an abandoned germ warfare program. Interestingly, there is no documentation about the biological agents disposed of at the U.S. Biodefense Center at Fort Detrick. In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, U.S. officials said Iraq’s failure to come up with paperwork proving the destruction of its biological arsenal was evidence of deception.