Posted on 10/26/2004 2:19:22 PM PDT by Ragtime Cowgirl
Inquiry Launched Over Missing Explosives in IraqBy Donna Miles WASHINGTON, Oct. 26, 2004 -- Multinational Force Iraq and the Iraq Survey Group are examining facts and circumstances regarding when several hundred tons of explosives went missing from the former Al-Quaqaa military facility in Iraq and where they are now, defense officials said today. "The president wants to make sure that we get to the bottom of this," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters traveling with President Bush aboard Air Force One Oct. 25. McClellan said the Defense Department ordered an inquiry of the missing weapons, directing Multinational Force Iraq and the Iraq Survey Group to come up with a comprehensive assessment about what happened to them. The Iraqi government reported an estimated 350 tons of missing explosives Oct. 10 to the International Atomic Energy Agency, a U.N. monitoring group that last inventoried the facility in January 2003. During that visit, the U.N. inspectors counted the munitions and equipment and tagged them with IAEA seals that indicate they are "dual use," or have conventional-weapons applications. These munitions were generally permitted to remain in Iraq. In contrast, "single use" munitions with nuclear applications were destroyed or rendered harmless. The IAEA returned to the site two months later, in March 2003, and confirmed the equipment it had tagged was still there. However, coalition forces found no evidence of the weapons in question when they first arrived at the sprawling Al-Quaqaa facility, 30 miles south of Baghdad, about April 10, 2003, according to a defense official. The troops searched 32 bunkers and 87 other buildings, finding some weapons and explosive material, but nothing close to the quantity reported missing by the Iraqi government, and none with IAEA seals, he said. In an Oct. 10, 2004, letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohammed J. Abbas, general director of the Iraqi Ministry of Science and Technology's Planning and Following Up Directorate, reported that 195 tons of high-melting explosive, 141 tons of rapid-detonating explosive, and 6 tons of pentaerythrite tetranitrate, another type of explosive commonly known as PETN, "registered under the IAEA custody were lost" after April 9, 2003. Abbas blamed the loss on "the theft and looting of the governmental installations due to lack of security." However, the defense official said there's no verification that looting ever occurred at the site. Citing lack of accountability over the materials between the March IAEA visit and April 10, he said it's possible that regime loyalists or other groups emptied the facility before coalition forces arrived in Baghdad. Although none of the missing material poses a nuclear-proliferation risk, the Defense Department takes the report of the missing munitions "very seriously," he said. Since Operation Iraqi Freedom began in March 2003, coalition forces have discovered that Saddam Hussein's regime stored weapons in countless locations, including schools, mosques and hospitals, the official said. In addition, he said, the former regime forced many Iraqi citizens to hide weapons in their homes and neighborhoods. Many Iraqis "have bravely stepped forward" to share information leading to more weapons, the official said. The Iraq Survey Group report, more commonly known as the "Duelfer Report," named after chief weapons inspector Charles A. Duelfer, cited strong progress in identifying weapons in Iraq. The report, released earlier this month, notes that since mid-September alone, coalition forces have reviewed and cleared more than 10,000 weapons caches and destroyed more than 240,000 tons of weapons and munitions. Another 162,000 tons of munitions await destruction.
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Although none of the missing material poses a nuclear-proliferation risk, the Defense Department takes the report of the missing munitions "very seriously.."
Since Operation Iraqi Freedom began in March 2003, coalition forces have discovered that Saddam Hussein's regime stored weapons in countless locations, including schools, mosques and hospitals, the official said. In addition, he said, the former regime forced many Iraqi citizens to hide weapons in their homes and neighborhoods.
Many Iraqis "have bravely stepped forward" to share information leading to more weapons...
...since mid-September alone, coalition forces have reviewed and cleared more than 10,000 weapons caches and destroyed more than 240,000 tons of weapons and munitions. Another 162,000 tons of munitions await destruction.
~*~
Tonight Brit is going to be interviewing an NBC reporter who as with our 101st Airborne and says soldiers DID search the weapons facility.
I love it! This allows the President to come out tomorrow and report that this report is false and make Kerry look even worse!!! it also makes any other report look foolish and over the top....
This is interesting.
OOps, does this mean the vaunted U.N. and more importantly, phony with IAEA andanti-American Egyptian El Baradai, will now be given the "Oil for Food" exposure? Hopefully it won't take nearly as long to begin to name names and countries.
Excellent. Thanks for the heads-up!
This reminds me of the "looting" of the Iraqi National Museum. The cries of anguish from the left over the entire museum being looted. And then finding out that the exhibits had all be stored for safekeeping BEFORE the fighting started.
The Iraqi declarations indicate that out, of the 228 tonnes of HMX available in Iraq at the end of 1998, 196 remained at the facility where the HMX was previously under IAEA seal. Iraq also declared that it had blended the remaining 32 tonnes with sulphur and turned them into 45.6 tonnes of "industrial explosive" provided mainly to cement plants for mining. The material balance, current stock, whereabouts and final use of such material are currently being investigated.
Good post.
But between you and Former Military Chick, you're pinging me so hard I can barely catch my breath. It's becoming painful.
No need to remove me. I love it! All the information. Keep up the hard work, ladies.
Lost between April 9 and April 10? 380 tons that would take a convoy of tractor trailer trucks to move?
And he attributes this to "theft and looting?"
Methinks Mr. Abbas has some splainin to do.
Didn't this take place during the height of the Oil for Fools program? What kind of money would this stash be worth to a couple of "UN inspectors"...
Right On! I wanted to post that this morning...
People are sick of the VLWC* inventing "evidence" and making
up stories, "reporting" stuff skewered to make it look
incriminating to the President. This election (plus years
of the same sort of behavior by the lamestream media) has
just about made people not believe them any more. I used
to trust Rather and Jennings and the other talking heads
years ago, but no more. I'm through with them, and I'm
somebody out here who they would consider just an
uneducated boob of a Nobody from Nowhereville and I've
had it with Rather and the whole bunch. *The Vast Left
Wing Conspiracy - VLWC
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1257884/posts
I was serving as a [identifying information removed by the Kerry Spot] staff member during the time in question. The Commander on the site had complete real time intelligence on what to expect and possibly find at the Al-QaQaa depot. The ordinance in question was not found when teams were sent in to inspect and secure the area. When this information was relayed, Operational plans were adjusted and the unit moved forward. Had the ordinance in question been discovered, a security team would have been left in place.
IF THIS IS THEIR OCT SURPRISE...I THINK THE SURPRISE MIGHT BE ON THEM IN THE END!!!
"http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1257884/posts"
Thanks for the link, mother. It's a good one. I should've known only good things, much like me, have been passed down in the family genes. :)
Your welcome,"son"...;)
self bump
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