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.
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Continued here http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/04/04/iraq/main547667.shtml
But the NBC producer said the Americans didn't search it (major eye roll).
Well we know it was gone by April l0.
"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...."
Actually NBC imbedded reporters at the time reported that when the US forces reached the munitions depot in question, there were NO high explosives found. They were suspected to be there since the UN had said they were there in January '03, but they had been moved already in the run-up to the war.
Alright folks...very interesting.
There was another article somebody got from Lexis-Nexis and they tried to use it to assert this point...articles at the time showed no weapons were found. But, I don't believe that article because the context was around WMD.
This says all they found was powder and labels/boxes....no explosives, just the powder.
This is a very good find and raises further doubt at the story.
He was Awol PLUS he is secretly planning to bring back the draft.
Agreed. But, this just refers to powder.
So was it Talcum Powder for Saddam's baby soft a$$ or what?
Right. And the take is, "It's not anthrax powder so it doesn't count."
"Sit on this and rotate Kerry...You despicable bastard."
"Sit on this and rotate Kerry...You despicable bastard."
Normally I would say double post...but it was somehow very satisfying reading that line twice :P
Drudge@drudgereport.com
MDrudge@aol.com
Rush@eibnet.com
Hannity@foxnews.com
NY Times Public Editor:
E-mail: public@nytimes.com
Phone: (212) 556-7652
David Sanger - New York Times White House Correspondent (HE WROTE THE STORY TODAY CONTINUING THE IGNORING OF THE FACT THAT THEY INSPECTED IT IN 2003 AND FOUND NOTHING...he also was part of the triple-bylined story that came out yesterday):
E-mail: dasang@nytimes.com
Phone: (202) 862-0322
Fax: (202) 862-0340
...Anyone have any idea what they ultimately determined this white powder to be.....
Rush reported a web report from someone who had visited the Holston Ammunition Plant correctly known as the Holston Army Ammunition Plant spoke of cloth rolling bins covered in white powder. His point was that the explosive is extremely stable in the white powdery form and is safely transported in bulk carriers. It is worked as required to make it into a suitable form as required for a specific task.
The report also indicated that to move the explosives would require considerable effort and that in the raw form were virtually useless to the insurgents. They require the further processed material and the fuses etc necessary to detonate.
For the record the HAAP is here where I live and is currently run under contract by BAE, British Aerospace.
It is the only American source for these super high explosives.
...Anyone have any idea what they ultimately determined this white powder to be.....
Rush reported a web report from someone who had visited the Holston Ammunition Plant correctly known as the Holston Army Ammunition Plant spoke of cloth rolling bins covered in white powder. His point was that the explosive is extremely stable in the white powdery form and is safely transported in bulk carriers. It is worked as required to make it into a suitable form as required for a specific task.
The report also indicated that to move the explosives would require considerable effort and that in the raw form were virtually useless to the insurgents. They require the further processed material and the fuses etc necessary to detonate.
For the record the HAAP is here where I live and is currently run under contract by BAE, British Aerospace.
It is the only American source for these super high explosives.
See my post 31
Greetings all, Bush needs to hiyas Kerry hard on this story. Fox news says that becauseBush doesn't want to respond to Kerry's remarks, so they can push their message is just wrong. Bush needs to call him on the article for what it is..An election ploy by the NYT that Kerry's misleading the American public....Bush needs to ask Mr. Kerry " Why he doesn't want to believe the men in the 101 Screaming Eagles about the Explosives.". And demeans the Army he wishes to command... God save our soldiers if this Eunuch becomes commander.
Lifted from the National Review Online:
Kerry Spot reader Duane writes in: [about HDX]
A key point is that this is not dense stuff, where you can get a lot of weight into a small vehicle. If this was really in its raw form, it is white powder, like cornstarch or a light powdered sugar (NOT granulated sugar). Blow on it and it flies in the breeze- the stories I've seen haven't said much about what form it was in, but you would want it to be relatively raw so you could form it into main charges for artillery, etc. They don't pour granules into shells, it is mixed with binders and melted sonit will take a shape. You can't be a nice terrorist, happen by, stick some in your pocket, and run away while the US Army isn't looking- it isn't "plastic" (like, say, comp C4, which is a plastic matrix impregnated with HE, thus has a lot of filler to make it shapeable). The kinds of trucks you would need to haul it are like grain hoppers, and lots of them. You can't stack it on pallets.
Note to Kerry, CBS, ABC, NYT, LAT, etc...
Google is your friend!
YOU have hit it on the head, the 'explosive' is the white powder, but in that form is useless to the insurgents. By the NYT standard if they found a supply of ammonia nitrate (fertilzer) they could call that high explosive using the same difinition (this is what tim mcveigh mixed with diesel fuel to blow up the ok city fed building),
To: OXENinFLA
BY nothing, they meant chemical weapons folks. The white powder is the high explosive that the NYT is so up in arms about. Go to Kerry spot and read this article and be informed.........the 'high explosive' the ny times is refering to is not 'plastic' explosive, or even something that you can easily blow up. It is a chemical which, when combined with other chemicals, can be made into things like c-4, etc. This article doesn't prove anything....................this is what the stuff is..............A key point is that this is not dense stuff, where you can get a lot of weight into a small vehicle. If this was really in its raw form, it is white powder, like cornstarch or a light powdered sugar (NOT granulated sugar). Blow on it and it flies in the breeze- the stories I've seen haven't said much about what form it was in, but you would want it to be relatively raw so you could form it into main charges for artillery, etc. They don't pour granules into shells, it is mixed with binders and melted sonit will take a shape. You can't be a nice terrorist, happen by, stick some in your pocket, and run away while the US Army isn't looking- it isn't "plastic" (like, say, comp C4, which is a plastic matrix impregnated with HE, thus has a lot of filler to make it shapeable). The kinds of trucks you would need to haul it are like grain hoppers, and lots of them. You can't stack it on pallets.
49 posted on 10/26/2004 2:54:40 PM CDT by milwguy
I link to that 'white powder' story here ...
http://freedomstruth.blogspot.com
OMG......you are so bad!!! That REALLY made me laugh!!!
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