Where, oh where, have the 380 Tons of Explosives Gone?
Published October 25, 2004
This just adds to the to the series of blunders, poor decisions, and decpetions about the war in Iraq. This administration may has let 380 tons of powerful explosives that could be used to build large conventional bombs are missing from Iraq.
"The Bush administration knew where this stockpile was, but took no action to secure the site. They were urgently and specifically informed that terrorists could be helping themselves to the most dangerous explosives bonanza in history, but nothing was done to prevent it from happening," he said.
"This material was monitored and controlled by U.N. inspectors before the invasion of Iraq. Thanks to the stunning incompetence of the Bush administration, we now have no idea where it is," Lockart said. He demanded the White House explain "why they failed to safeguard these explosives and keep them out of the hands of our enemies."
"A large quantity of these explosives were under IAEA seal because they do have a nuclear application."
Do you think that these explosives are being used against our troops?
- Where, oh where, have the 380 Tons of Explosives Gone?
- Published: October 25, 2004
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- Section: Politics
- Writer: Trebz
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Comments on this articleComments
It is amazing. The wingnuts don't want to touch this one, because there is no way to blame it on Clinton or Kerry. This is a screw up that they have no excuse for. Too bad the joke is on us - our soliders I dying because of this gross negligence.
Actually, I'll take this issue on. :-)
Let me report some of the additional details of the story:
FROM NY TIMES:
A senior Bush administration official said that during the initial race to Baghdad, American forces "went through the bunkers, but saw no materials bearing the I.A.E.A. seal."
By late 2003, diplomats said, arms agency experts had obtained commercial satellite photos of Al Qaqaa showing that two of roughly 10 bunkers that contained HMX appeared to have been leveled by titanic blasts, apparently during the war. They presumed some of the HMX had exploded, but that is unclear.
Other HMX bunkers were untouched. Some were damaged but not devastated. I.A.E.A. experts say they assume that just before the invasion the Iraqis followed their standard practice of moving crucial explosives out of buildings, so they would not be tempting targets. If so, the experts say, the Iraqi must have broken seals from the arms agency on bunker doors and moved most of the HMX to nearby fields, where it would have been lightly camouflaged - and ripe for looting...
So, in other words, the explosives disappeared even before US forces invaded! Furthermore, US forces did briefly check the site and reported seeing no I.A.E.A., in a sense confirming that the explosives had already been moved.
Also, what no one seems to want to mention is that Coalition forces have already located and destroyed over 400,000 tons of explosive materials weapons, and munitions since toppling Saddam's regime. Liberals love to ask where the WMDs were and harp on the fact that Saddam was "not a threat," yet you ignore that there were stockpiles of weapons all across Iraq.
An army double the size of our current forces in Iraq couldn't have secured all the munitions hidden across the Iraqi landscape. The fact is, Saddam was planning on reviving his weapons programs as soon as inspectors left and sanctions were lifted, and he was using the UN Oil for Food program to buy his way out of the sanctions.
So, anyway, this whole thing is being mostly ignored by conservatives because we have perspective on the issue. The whole al Qaqaa munitions storage facility is proof positive to us that Saddam was a bad man making some very bad plans for his enemies.
Did munitions fall into the hands of insurgents? No doubt. But we already know that from 1998 to 2002, the period of time where there were no inspectors because Clinton ordered them all out and never pushed for their return, 35 tons disappeared. Why doesn't Kerry mention that in his speeches?
And can we acknowledge the simple fact that if we had NOT invaded, there would be the 380 tons, plus another 400,000+ plus tons of explosives, weapons, and munitions NOT in our control? There is that.
Thanks,
David
Had the US not invaded, the explosives would not have been spread into the hands of terrorists to be used against Americans, as they are being used now.
Had the US not invaded, the explosives would not have been spread into the hands of terrorists to be used against Americans, as they are being used now.
And your evidence for this wild-assed statement would be? The fact is, there were already terrorists in Iraq when we invaded. Remember the terror training camps in Northern Iraq that Special Forces and Kurds took out in the first days of the war?
In another part of Iraq, there was even a plane set up next to a terrorist training camp. What the hell was that for?
Oh, I just figured it out, that was the daycare facility at the camp! Sorry Hal, I should have known that all those terrorists would need a Chuck E Cheez for the kids.
"Achmed, I'm very sorry for leaving "Poison Gas" training early, but I've GOT to get the kids over at daycare and you know my wife, If I don't get them on time, she'll kill me!" And then those terrorists all have a good laugh at the thought of one of them being killed by someone who, to them, is no better than property.
Hal, get real bud. Iraq was one of the most terror-friendly states in the world. Saddam celebrated when we were struck on 9-11. He even had a special mural of the event painted, with his smiling mug right next to the picture of carnage. And last, but not least, he was an active supporter of terror in the world, even going so far as to offer and pay out $25,000 to the family of anyone willing to become a suicide bomber in Palestine.
David
Here is an excerpt from NBC's Nightly News where they confirm that their embedded reporters who arrived at the al Qakaa facility in the first days of the war found none of the most powerful explosives that Kerry accuses Bush of losing.
"April 10, 2003, only three weeks into the war, NBC News was embedded with troops from the Army's 101st Airborne as they temporarily take over the Al Qakaa weapons installation south of Baghdad. But these troops never found the nearly 380 tons of some of the most powerful conventional explosives, called HMX and RDX, which is now missing. The U.S. troops did find large stockpiles of more conventional weapons, but no HMX or RDX, so powerful less than a pound brought down Pan Am 103 in 1988, and can be used to trigger a nuclear weapon." (NBC's "Nightly News," 10/25/04)
No, David, yours is the wild ass.
Saddam had nothing to do with terrorists as they would have competed with him for power, and he was not one to give it up easily.
I'll ignore the childish part of your comment (all the rest of it).
It would appear that the explosives we're talking about here may have been gone before the US even got there!
But hey, W has big shoulders, may as well lay this one on him as well!
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Somewhat surprising we haven't seen the usual right-wing-nuts pissing all over this. I guess it is too "reality-based".
So, another big fuck up from the people who have brought us hell on earth (tm).
Geez, I can't wait to see next month.