THIS STORY from the Financial Times says that “no chemical weapons have been found” at the plant in Najaf. Meanwhile this more recent story from Deutsche Welle says that UN inspectors are going to go inspect it as soon as possible. Huh?

Among the possibilities: The absence of chemical weapons onsite doesn’t mean it’s not a chemical weapons plant. Or, the UN inspectors, as usual, are going where the weapons aren’t. Or the reports are just confused — somewhere I saw a suggestion that the U.S. is deliberately downplaying it for obscure tactical reasons having to do with Saddam’s greater willingness to use chemical weapons once he’s proven to have them. Beats me. As I said originally, stay tuned.

UPDATE: A reader notes a tidbit in this story:

On the least visible front of the war, in western Iraq where no journalists are “embedded” with the U.S. Special Forces who parachuted in and took control of two airfields, Myers said the troops “found a huge arms cache, millions of rounds of ammunition and some documentation that needs to be exploited.”

This was “some papers” that will be examined by units looking for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, he said. “We have people set up to do that very, very quickly, because it might save thousands of lives if we can find out exactly where and what they have.”

Hmm. I can imagine a connection here, but, well, stay tuned.

UPDATE: And while you’re tuned, this post is worth reading. Then there’s this report, which should only be read after the prior link.