Those in charge of ridding this country of chemical weapons must be incompetents, liars or both.

That's harsh criticism, we know, but not when you consider recent setbacks in plans to neutralize chemical arsenals in Kentucky and Colorado.

On Jan. 18, Defense Department officials assured Colorado's two senators that the department was not considering moving chemical weapons cross-country for disposal.

The next day, the Defense Department announced a feasibility study on moving chemical weapons cross-country for disposal.

Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., was justifiably outraged by this latest in a long line of what he called "wasteful, meaningless efforts" by a program that's billions of dollars over budget, years behind schedule and "incredibly mismanaged."

Pointing out that moving the weapons has already been studied and rejected and that federal law prohibits chemical weapons transport, Allard introduced legislation, co-sponsored by Sens. Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning of Kentucky, to halt the feasibility study.

No one on either end, or in between, would stand for transporting old, unstable weapons that would be a bonanza for terrorists to incinerators that have been plagued with safety problems.

The senators are trying to force the Defense Department to recognize that on-site disposal is the only option -- and to get on with it.

But a little ol' act of Congress is nothing to the people at the Pentagon who are in charge of chemical demilitarization.

If they cared about Congress, they wouldn't be sitting on $400 million that Congress appropriated for developing the plants at Pueblo, Colo., and Blue Grass Army Depot in Madison County.

The Pentagon claims it can't afford to keep moving ahead with the neutralization programs in Kentucky and Colorado. Funding for both projects is cut to almost zero in the new budget.

But Pentagon officials have yet to explain why they impounded more than $400 million already on hand for the Colorado and Kentucky projects -- money that could be building roads, utilities and support buildings.

The impounded money was discovered in a budget analysis by the Berea-based Chemical Weapons Working Group. Allard said it was "unconscionable" for the Defense Department to withhold money that Congress specifically set aside for weapons neutralization in Kentucky and Colorado.

And, yet, as he points out, it's typical of a program that has long shown contempt for both Congress and the public.

Not even Senate Whip McConnell has been able to push and prod this rogue program on track, despite his years of yeoman's work on the issue.

McConnell has given the administration unwavering support on its changing rationales for the Iraq war. Kentucky gave President Bush a big vote of confidence in November.

Yet the state still can't seem to make any consistent progress on eliminating WMD at home -- and probably won't until there's regime change in chemical demilitarization.