The mysterious barrels found buried at the Iraqi town of Hindiyah may just be the usual chemical waste dump found in agricultural areas. Our own record of disposing of highly toxic but aged pesticides in this country used to be the subject of headlines in the 1970's and 1980's. I would expect this debate to seesaw back and forth for at least another week. CNN last night was again using the story as evidence of the real thing. And the follow-up story in this morning's newspaper appears inconclusive to me; I'm really not sure if the reports are talking about the same "dump" site.

Charley Noble