The idea that having the production capability to rapidly make WMD is plausable. In addition to the difficulties Saddam might've had in hiding such weapons, some chemical weapons don't age well. About 40 miles to my south is the city of Pueblo. To the east of town is a large weapons depot, including a lot of old chemical weapons. They've had a couple mustard gas leaks in the past week. The Army wants to spend a lot of money to build an incenerator (like the one that was built in Anniston, AL) to destroy the weapons. They're considered too dangerous to move so the Army wants to destroy them on site.

There is one thing that concerns me about the idea of rapid WMD production: it might not be so easy to rapidly produce the means of delivery. By that, I mean that I'm not aware of any significant production capability in Iraq to rapidly make the artillery shells and other devices used to deliver the weapons once produced. Months ago, troops (or was it the inspectors?) did find a tiny number of empty artillery shells that were suitable for delivering chemical weapons. In order to have a large scale WMD capability, Saddam would've need a lot of those shells along with other means like spraying devices that could be mounted to helicopters and other aircraft. Perhaps these devices can be found mixed in with the conventional munitions in those huge stockpiles, or perhaps they may exist buried elsewhere. If they aren't found (or the proper machinery and plans to produce them), then that undermines the arguments that he had a rapid production capability for such weapons.