NO SURPRISES IN IRAQ? WONDER WHY

Flash. The latest report from Iraq is that U.N. inspectors have thus far found no weapons of mass destruction inside the palace compounds of President Saddam Hussein. Inspection team leader Charles Duelfer told the Associated Press that the inspections weren't inspected to yield much since the Iraqis knew about them in advance. "We have no intention or expectation of finding prohibited materials," said Duelfer, the deputy chairman of the U.N. Special Commission overseeing inspections. "Our target is to conduct a baseline mission that sustains our right to the principle of access to all sites." Duelfer said the team he heads was expected to have visited eight of Saddam's palaces by the end of the week.

The deal with Iraq was negotiated in February by Secretary General Kofi Annan. Iraq agreed to open eight of the presidential palaces for inspection, the inspectors to be accompanied by Iraqi diplomats "to safeguard the country's dignity." Iraq, in turn, "is committed to cooperate fully with the inspectors," according to the AP.

At stake is the possible lifting of longstanding U.N. sanctions imposed on Iraq after that country's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Saddam seeks to have them lifted, claiming -- no doubt correctly -- that they have caused untold economic hardships, hunger and devastation inside Iraq.

Of course, the real cause of that deprivation is the murderous and despicable regime of Saddam himself. Iraq is a large country, with thousands of other places for Saddam to hide his stockpile of terror-weapons. It is hard to believe that February's U.N.-negotiated deal, with its inspections of these pre-agreed-upon sites, will do anything but postpone the inevitable day of reckoning.