Iraqi Officials May Have Overstated the Amount of Explosives - ABC News

Well, the confusion regarding what really happened at the al Qakaa weapons storage facility continues to grow. Yesterday, ABC News added more information to the pool of existing data. Here is the meat of the story:

The Iraqi interim government has told the United States and international weapons inspectors that 377 tons of conventional explosives are missing from the Al-Qaqaa installation, which was supposed to be under U.S. military control.

But International Atomic Energy Agency documents obtained by ABC News and first reported on "World News Tonight with Peter Jennings" indicate the amount of missing explosives may be substantially less than the Iraqis reported.

The information on which the Iraqi Science Ministry based an Oct. 10 memo in which it reported that 377 tons of RDX explosives were missing — presumably stolen due to a lack of security — was based on "declaration" from July 15, 2002. At that time, the Iraqis said there were 141 tons of RDX explosives at the facility.

But the confidential IAEA documents obtained by ABC News show that on Jan. 14, 2003, the agency's inspectors recorded that just over three tons of RDX were stored at the facility — a considerable discrepancy from what the Iraqis reported.

The IAEA documents could mean that 138 tons of explosives were removed from the facility long before the United States launched "Operation Iraqi Freedom" in March 2003.

So, as you can see, this story is far from clear. Now, if your next thought is "yes, but there were still a couple hundreds tons of the HMX explosive left at the facility," consider this follow-up statement later in the ABC News report:

The documents show IAEA inspectors looked at nine bunkers containing more than 194 tons of HMX at the facility. Although these bunkers were still under IAEA seal, the inspectors said the seals may be potentially ineffective because they had ventilation slats on the sides. These slats could be easily removed to remove the materials inside the bunkers without breaking the seals, the inspectors noted. [emphasis mine]

So, what the IAEA is saying is that, after the seals were placed on the bunkers, Saddam's forces could have broken into the bunkers and removed any of the munitions without breaking the seals on the front doors of the bunkers? Sounds to me a lot like locking your front door, then leaving the keys hanging in the lock.

And yet Kerry continues to prattle on as if he's certain he knows what's going on. Obviously there are more facts to be uncovered on this issue, but I think the Kerry has already gotten off message on this issue. If he continues to try and ride what some think was his "October Surprise," even with all the doubts cast over the past few days, he might actually hurt his chances of winning on November 2.

Time will tell...

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

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