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The discovery is not, however, considered the long-sought "smoking gun" of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

The missiles appear to be part of a cache of weapons supplied to Iraq before the 1991 Gulf War.

Ummm, since when did the acquisition date become a criteria for the Iraq invasion? I don't care if Hussein acquired these missiles on the day of the Resurrection! If he possessed them at any time that the 1991 cease fire agreements were in effect, he was in violation of them and countless U.N. agreements. Result: Bush is still correct in his decision to invade, but now with even more evidence to back him up. I'll be sure to tune into Rather's broadcast tonight for a fair & balanced report on this development!!!

The APHID is an air-air-missile and exported to nations in their thousands. It was perfectly legal for Iraq to possess them. Think depleted uranium armour piercing rounds used in tank warfare. The APHID is small and short-ranged and was designed to pack a punch on proxmity / contact with an aerial target. That aerial target could have been a fighter or helicopter. The APHID was a standard weapon in the Iraqi arsenal and known about since their delivery. The APHID along with the ATOLL (essentially Soviet SIDEWINDER) was exported in their thousands to MiG operators world-wide.