Reasons why WMD finds were not disclosed earlier

Strategy Page:

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If the United States were to have announced WMD finds right away, it could have told terrorists (including those from al-Qaeda) where to look to locate chemical weapons. This would have placed troops at risk – for a marginal gain in public relations. A successful al-Qaeda chemical attack would have been a huge boost for their propaganda efforts as well, enabling them to get recruits and support (many people want to back a winner), and it would have caused a decline in American morale in Iraq and on the home front.

The other problem is that immediate disclosure could have exposed informants. Protecting informants who provide the location of caches is vital. Not only do dead informants tell no tales, their deaths silence other potential informants – because they want to keep on living. A lack of informants leads to a lack of human intelligence, and the troops don't like being sent out on missions while short on intelligence – it's easy to get killed. This has led to media coverage (particularly around "milestone" deaths) and

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Our enemy is fighting half his war in the media battle space and we cannot continue to ignore that battle space when we have information that supports our war effort. You redact the location and the source and get the information out there.. This information goes to the fundamental failure of the Saddam's regime to account for the weapons. He was not suppose to destroy the weapons in secret and tells us to take his word for it. His word was no good. He had to present the material to the weapons inspectors and let them destroy it.