Posted on 10/24/2004 7:21:04 PM PDT by icecold
Edited on 10/25/2004 6:42:02 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Huge Cache of Explosives Vanished From Site in Iraq By JAMES GLANZ, WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGER
Published: October 25, 2004
This article was reported and written by James Glanz, William J. Broad and David E. Sanger.
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 24 - The Iraqi interim government has warned the United States and international nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives - used to demolish buildings, produce missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons - are missing from one of Iraq's most sensitive former military installations.
The huge facility, called Al Qaqaa, was supposed to be under American military control but is now a no man's land, still picked over by looters as recently as Sunday. United Nations weapons inspectors had monitored the explosives for many years, but White House and Pentagon officials acknowledge that the explosives vanished sometime after the American-led invasion last year.
The White House said President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, was informed within the past month that the explosives were missing. It is unclear whether President Bush was informed. American officials have never publicly announced the disappearance, but beginning last week they answered questions about it posed by The New York Times and the CBS News program "60 Minutes......"
Used to detonate nukes.
Sounds like there were weapons of mass destruction programs in Iraq.
Bush was right.
exactly right - Kerry's post war Vietnam antics are what defines his core; for him, this would simply be an extension of his already established belief system.
so are not overanalyzing - this is the thing to watch. I hope the administration is watching carefully, and so is CENTCOM.
Drudge is saying that the story was leaked by the White House
hmmmm i wonder why the NYT didnt use the phrase WMD??? admission of being wrong?
Uh, why?
How come that the NY Times thinks that if conventional explosives aren't where they thought they were, they VANISHED, BUT EXISTED BEFORE, BUT ARE UNWILLING TO CONSIDER THE SAME THING HAPPENING TO WMD, i.e. that they existed, but "vanished" by the time we got there???
Somebody did know though last year, they apparently weren't informing Condi or the IAEA. If Condi didn't know, my guess is the president didn't know either.
Again this is all idle speculation. I don't trust the facts, the first being that this material was there still in March 2003.
OK, now I'm confused.
Agree.. I estimate the Swiftie Oct. Surprise to have about a 7 or 8 effectiveness on a scale of 1-10 (1-Complete Dud, 10-Devastating).
This story here is potato buds compared to the Swiftie Surprise.
You wonder why all these Kerry looney toons have been on the political shows raving that O'Neill is a liar.. "Lie, Liar" has been hammered on O'Neill.. They know what is coming and there is nothing they can do to stop it. Their only prayer is to hammer O'Neill into the ground and hope it doesn't hurt too badly.
A light load for a tractor trailer is around 20 tons.
If loaded heavy,10 tractor trailers could move this amount but 15 would make it easier.
Hard to understand what the big deal is.
I just hope the administration's response to this tomorrow is "So?"
This has a One-Two counterpunch set-up written all over it.
Yawn - - -
Normally this would not be news. It is old hat.
The reason it is out now is that MSM and the UN need something to embarrass the admin.
They, the U.N. need cover for their little problem. The only thing new here is that the media is suddenly paying attention.
Just like the Abu Graib story. This was not covered up, it was out there and was not covered by MSM.
The U.N. just decided to gripe about it for obvious reasons. They can't stop Iran from going nuke, they ran away from Iraq and they caused the deaths of untold numbers of people for their inaction and paralysis at times of decision.(plus graft and corruption)
That is the real story the Slimes should be covering. Not 2yr old mystery's of missing or blown up or ? explosives.
Exactly! How could that much material be sneaked out under the eyes of the U.S. Marines?
This is a non-story, but nonetheless President Bush & Co. need to get on it right away in the spin department. We can be sure that the Times is publishing this stuff with the full coordination of the Kerry campaign.
Karl Rove planted the story. This is great. He's playing chess, and the NY Times and Kerry are playing checkers (to repeat the Dick Morris talking points).
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