Captured Iraqis Providing WMD Information

Information on chemical and biological weapons is rare because so few Iraqis were involved in those programs, McKiernan told Pentagon reporters over a video link from Baghdad. Questioning of some Iraqi officials has been fruitful, however, he said.

"From some interrogations, we get information that leads us to another source, that we have to go locate certain facilities and go in there and check those out," McKiernan said. "I'm not going to go into the details, but there is discussion from both the chemical and the biological side that leads us to intelligence that we have to go confirm or deny."

The failure to find any banned weapons in Iraq has prompted critics in the United States and abroad to question whether Bush overstated the evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime had them. McKiernan said he had no such doubts.

"Even if there were no interrogations, I would tell you personally, I think there's a lot still hidden that it will take time for us to uncover," McKiernan said.