It was yellowcake and it was old. The reason they didn't make a big deal out of in the press, is not to protect themselves from Iraqis trying to shoot down the planes, but because it was a non-event and a mild find. This stuff was found after Baghdad initially fell, if I remember correctly. It posed no major threat, except to the few Iraqis dumb enough to try to re-use the cylinders it was stored in, so was left sitting there for over a year.
As for those WMD being found ... sarin shells, a total of 22 I think, are what they're finding ... it is suspected that they are from the pre-Gulf I era. Since sarin has a shelf life of only eight years, these finds do not go to support any WMD arguments.