U.S. soldiers wearing full chemical protection suits inspect an industrial complex in the central Iraqi town of Baquba

BAQUBAH, Iraq, May 6 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – U.S. troops in Iraq say finding Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD) is not yet a top priority despite mounting pressure on Washington to justify the war with hard evidence.

Officers with the 4th Infantry Division in northern Iraq said security and force protection were still their main focus as ground troops fanned out and as work on a new government began in Baghdad, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Tuesday, May 6.

"The NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) operations are being looked at as more important than (in other wars) but they're not the main priority, which is establishing security," said Captain Bobbie Jackson, chemicals officer for the division's 2nd Brigade.

"Once all the pockets of resistance are cleared up I think the search will intensify."

The United States and Britain used accusations of a hidden weapons of mass destruction program as the primary justification for invading Iraq. But so far no chemical, biological or nuclear weapons have been officially reported.

Hans Blix, the chief U.N. weapons inspector, has suggested sending back U.N. inspectors to lend credibility to the U.S.-led search.

The White House, however, has said it is not yet time to discuss the return of U.N. inspectors and has instead set up its own 1,000-strong survey team to scour the country.

But as troops on the ground continue to test suspected sights without success, Washington is coming under growing pressure to prove its allegations, which the ousted regime strenuously denied.

A group of former intelligence specialists has called on President George W. Bush to investigate the CIA and other spy agencies for their failure to uncover weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

The failure, said the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), constituted a "policy and intelligence fiasco of monstrous proportions."

Bush "has been backed into the untenable position of assuming the former role of Saddam Hussein in refusing to cooperate with U.N. inspectors," it said in a statement Thursday.

"The refusal feeds suspicions that the Bush administration wishes to avoid independent verification and preserve the option of planting evidence."

Susan Wright, a disarmament expert at the University of Michigan, said that "this could be the first war in history that was justified largely by an illusion.”

Even The Wall Street Journal, one of the administration's biggest cheerleaders, has warned of the "widespread skepticism" the White House can expect if it does not make significant, and undisputed, discoveries of forbidden weapons,” it continued.

Before the war, American intelligence officials said that they had a list of 14,000 sites where, they suspected, chemical or biological agents had been harbored, as well as the delivery systems to deploy them. A substantial number of those sites have been inspected by the invading troops. Evidence to date of a "grave and gathering" threat: precisely zero.

In his State of the Union address in early February, Bush was quite specific about the materials he believed Saddam was hiding: 25,000 liters of anthrax, 38,000 liters of plutonium toxin and 500 tons of sarin, mustard and nerve gas. These days, he does not mention weapons of mass destruction at all, focusing instead on the liberation of the Iraqi people - as if liberation, not disarmament, had been the project all along.

On Monday, April 7, 19 days after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was launched to “disarm the Iraqi regime of weapons of mass destruction”, U.S. marines near Baghdad were ordered to shed their protective gear after being told they were in no danger.

Troops with the 4th Division in northern Iraq have inspected several suspected sites since they began moving into the area two weeks ago. Despite a number of false alarms, no chemical or biological weapons had been found, Jackson said.

In one operation last week, U.S. troops in full protective clothing tested a suspected site in Baqubah, 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Baghdad, which turned out to be a flour mill.

"Look at the size of this place. I don't have the resources to dig up everything ... It's going to take a long time," Jackson said.

She said she would be happy if no weapons of mass destruction were found, although their discovery would "validate our reasons for being over here."