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CBS Flashback 04-04-03: U.S. Searches 'Suspicious' Iraqi Site
CBS News ^ | April 4, 2003

Posted on 10/26/2004 1:04:34 PM PDT by Ditto

U.S. troops found thousands of boxes of white powder, nerve agent antidote and Arabic documents on how to engage in chemical warfare at an industrial site south of Baghdad. But a senior U.S. official familiar with initial testing said the materials were believed to be explosives.

Col. John Peabody, engineer brigade commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, said the materials were found Friday at the Latifiyah industrial complex just south of Baghdad.

"It is clearly a suspicious site," Peabody said.

CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports that the hunt for weapons of mass destruction continues at sites where the U.S. thought chemicals weapons might be hidden.

"And although there are no reports of actual weapons being found, there are constant finds of suspicious material," Martin said. "It obviously will take laboratory testing to find out exactly what that powder is."

The senior U.S. official, based in Washington and speaking on condition of anonymity, said the material was under further study. The site is enormous and U.S. troops are still investigating it for potential weapons of mass destruction, the official said.

"Initial reports are that the material is probably just explosives, but we're still going through the place," the official said.

Peabody said troops found thousands of boxes, each of which contained three vials of white powder, together with documents written in Arabic that dealt with how to engage in chemical warfare.

He also said they discovered atropine, used to counter the effects of nerve agents.

The facility had been identified by the International Atomic Energy Agency as a suspected chemical, biological and nuclear weapons site. U.N. inspectors visited the plant at least nine times, including as recently as Feb. 18.

The facility is part of a larger complex known as the Latifiyah Explosives and Ammunition Plant al Qa Qaa.

-----------------------------------------------------

Continued here http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/04/04/iraq/main547667.shtml


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: alqaqaa; ammogate; explosives
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No mention of HDX.
1 posted on 10/26/2004 1:04:35 PM PDT by Ditto
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To: Ditto

Al QaQa al the time.


2 posted on 10/26/2004 1:05:54 PM PDT by js1138 (D*mn, I Missed!)
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To: Ditto

Back then, they were trying to nail the Bush administration by witnessing the fact that no WMD were found. If the US did run across the 380 tons, it would have been called "just explosives".


3 posted on 10/26/2004 1:06:39 PM PDT by Question Liberal Authority (How do you ask a goose to be the last goose to die for the Kerry campaign?)
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To: js1138

Anyone have any idea what they ultimately determined this white powder to be?.... and no it wasn't Hudai's coke stash


4 posted on 10/26/2004 1:08:23 PM PDT by traderrob6
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To: Ditto
Well, all right then.

Did we mention Bush was AWOL from the National Guard?

5 posted on 10/26/2004 1:08:24 PM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson (Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh/Loves John Kerry so vote him in!)
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To: js1138

The relevant point is that the article says they were contiuing to search, The MSNBC lady said she saw no one searching the site...this article written at the time seems to dsipute her contention.


6 posted on 10/26/2004 1:08:36 PM PDT by milwguy
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To: Ditto
Sit on this and rotate Kerry...You despicable bastard.
7 posted on 10/26/2004 1:08:52 PM PDT by DSBull (Liberal logic: the most mutually exclusive words in the universe!)
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To: Ditto
Sit on this and rotate Kerry...You despicable bastard.
8 posted on 10/26/2004 1:08:55 PM PDT by DSBull (Liberal logic: the most mutually exclusive words in the universe!)
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To: Question Liberal Authority

As someone wrote on another thread, it would be interesting to find out what Col. John Peabody has to say about their find.


9 posted on 10/26/2004 1:09:46 PM PDT by Piranha
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To: Ditto

Seems to me the ammo dump story is pretty weak for Kerry. I know people are dumb, but the election will be decided because some explosives are missing from one Iraqi arms depot? I think not.


10 posted on 10/26/2004 1:10:21 PM PDT by Williams
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To: Ditto

A most excellent find, Ditto!


11 posted on 10/26/2004 1:11:39 PM PDT by Howlin (Bush has claimed two things which Democrats believe they own by right: the presidency & the future)
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To: Homer_J_Simpson
In further news, our investigative reporters have discovered that V.P. Cheney's daughter is a lesbian which means that the VP must be receiving kickbacks from Halliburton.
12 posted on 10/26/2004 1:12:09 PM PDT by DSBull (Liberal logic: the most mutually exclusive words in the universe!)
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To: Ditto

I've lost my place for everything I've read and looked at today, but one of the pieces described the HDX as white powder. This CBS story from 2003 supports the notion that the stuff was there when we went in.....


13 posted on 10/26/2004 1:14:00 PM PDT by Another Thought
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To: Homer_J_Simpson
Did we mention Bush was AWOL from the National Guard?

And that he murdered Paul Wellstone?

And that he was complicit in 9-11?

(And those are just the new news stories THIS AFTERNOON!!!)

14 posted on 10/26/2004 1:14:14 PM PDT by Howlin (Bush has claimed two things which Democrats believe they own by right: the presidency & the future)
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To: Question Liberal Authority
EXACTLY!! You took the words from me.
All these news reports exists because the media back then tried to destroy Bush with the "No WMD" stories.
Now they come out and say WMD existed but US military, because of an incompetent Bush, allowed the WMDs to be stolen.

LOL

These people are evil.....and stupid.
15 posted on 10/26/2004 1:14:16 PM PDT by snarkytart
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To: Ditto

Now add this story that I read on another post and add to this one posted. Voila!

UN INspectors Found Nothing At Al-Qaqaa ON March 8, 2003


Copyright 2003 Valley Daily Bulletin
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario, CA)
April 4, 2003 Friday

Troops encounter unknown chemical items

As the military advances closer to Baghdad, signs of Iraqichemical preparedness are multiplying, although there is still no conclusive evidence Saddam Hussein's regime possesses weapons of mass destruction.


On Friday, troops at a training facility in the westernIraqi desert came across a bottle labeled "tabun" a nerve gas and chemical weapon Iraq is banned from possessing.


Closer to Baghdad, troops at Iraq's largest militaryindustrial complex found nerve agent antidotes, documents describing chemical warfare and a white powder that appeared to be used for explosives.



U.N. weapons inspectors went repeatedly to the vast al QaQaa complex most recently on March 8 but found nothing during spot visits to some of the 1,100 buildings at the site 25 miles south of Baghdad.

Col. John Peabody, engineer brigade commander of the 3rdInfantry Division, said troops found thousands of 2-by-5-inch boxes, each containing three vials of white powder, together with documents written in Arabic that dealt with how to engage in chemical warfare.


16 posted on 10/26/2004 1:15:55 PM PDT by lilylangtree (Veni, Vidi, Vici)
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To: Howlin

>>>And that he murdered Paul Wellstone?<<<

As if I needed another reason to love W!

;^)


17 posted on 10/26/2004 1:17:25 PM PDT by snarkytart
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To: Howlin
BUSH KNEW!!!!

The Wiley Media is getting their Explosives from ACME!!!

Pray for W and The Election

18 posted on 10/26/2004 1:18:00 PM PDT by bray (Yaawn didn't Marry-up at all)
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To: Another Thought

yes but what stuff.....i have seen nothing describing HDX as white powder


19 posted on 10/26/2004 1:18:14 PM PDT by traderrob6
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To: milwguy

I think the reporterette wouldn't know what a search looks like, particularly since troops had been at the site for a week before she got there, and since they were looking for bunkers sealed by the U.N.


20 posted on 10/26/2004 1:20:39 PM PDT by js1138 (D*mn, I Missed!)
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