This is inexcusable.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Oct2004/n10262004_2004102606.html
Here's the Department of Defense's claim.
However, coalition forces found no evidence of the weapons in question when they first arrived at the sprawling Al-Quaqaa facility, 30 miles south of Baghdad, about April 10, 2003, according to a defense official.
When they first arrived? LIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARS.
Here's an AP story from April 5, 2003.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2003/030405-chem-readiness01.htm
Closer to Baghdad, troops at Iraq's largest military industrial complex found nerve agent antidotes, documents describing chemical warfare and a white powder that appeared to be used for explosives.
UN weapons inspectors went repeatedly to the vast al Qa Qaa complex, most recently on March 8. But they found nothing during spot visits to some of the 1,100 buildings at the site 40 kilometres south of Baghdad.
Col. John Peabody, engineer brigade commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, said troops found thousands of five-centimetre by 12-centimetre boxes, each containing three vials of white powder, together with documents written in Arabic that dealt with how to engage in chemical warfare.
The Defense Department is lying.