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......"
This story is nothing to panic over. Iraq was harboring tons of weapons, despite Michael Moore's image of a peaceful nation filled with children happily flying kites. Saddam held these weapons with impunity, since the UN was impotent and the French wanted to arm him even more.
All the Times has done here is document that Saddam got rid of some of his weapons before we invaded. He had them trucked somewhere, probably Syria, and from there some of them have made it into the hands of terrorists. How is that President Bush's fault? It was under the watchful eye of the UN that Saddam amassed these weapons, with the help of the French, and the ignorance of Jim McDermott, Sean Penn, and the DUmmies at Demon-Rat Underground.
The White House will bat this one out of the park tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the state polls are starting to trend our way, as Frank Luntz predicted Thursday night.
It's no time for complacency. The establishment press will pull out all stops to try and salvage Jean Francois Kerry, but it won't work. Gigolo Boy will not be president of the United States. And the Swiftvets and POWs he betrayed and tormented will be vindicated.
The Fox reporter also said something like the "looting"
could have happened as late as LAST SATURDAY
"Could have," schmood have. Although Fox news is not as biased as the MSM, that does not mean that NO liberals work there. This probably written by the 4th string rewrite "person," late on Sunday night. The above statement is not justified by the NYT article. Unless Fox has some other FACTS, there is no validity to the Fox statement. None.
DG
What did I miss here? I thought it was discovered missing when we got there...not after we had been there securing it. In other words, there was nothing for us to secure as it was all ready gone. Correct me, please, if I am wrong.
DG
Boy, I can't find where it "makes it clear" that we captured it. Where do you find that?
"Next the Times will reveal that there are thousands and thousands of missing AK-47 "Assault Rifles"?"
Given their delusional belief in gun control, it probably is important-- to them!
Because you keep saying we "captured it" and that seems to be what you are basing this "we screwed up" argument on. I've read it twice now and don't see where it says that or where there is evidence of that. In the end, I don't think this story hurts Bush, and may in fact have the potential to hurt Kerry.
Good thoughts...
Old media is not so smart after all!!!
When did it go missing?
According to the article, BEFORE the marines arrived, DURING the initial major combat (invasion).
Are you suggesting it went missing in March 2003?
Yes. Or before.
There is no statement, or evidence which indicates that we ever "captured it," or "owned the entire country," WHEN it was removed from the site.
Who cares? We obviously screwed this up. I care. Your conclusion is merely the emotional response the NYT wanted to evoke. It is a FEELING, not factual. Please do not continue to propagate this FEELING, on FR. Thank you. DG
Um - Dumb question here possibly, but the article states that the "stockpile disappeared after early April 2003" but major operations weren't completed until mid-April.
How then can the left spin this as being a failure on any part by GWB?
I think it is WONDERFUL for Bush.
This is only the 999th article in the NYT about how much of a quagmire Iraq is and how the UN is oh-so-much-smarter than ol' USA. the 1000th article means nothing.
Iraq is awash in arms. BFD, we knew that.
Did you know the Mahdi army 'weapons buyback' program yeilded *18,000 weapons*???
18,000 in a slum of 1 million residents. Enough arms in the slum for 2 divisions.
Yet the disarmed and Sadr city is becalmed instead of enflamed. Funny how NYTimes doesnt want to talk about that.
It's annoying to see that ignoramus El Baradai spouting off here, when he's let nuke development happen in several countries and been clueless and unhelpful to stopping it.
Read between the line - the UN had 12 years of inspections and didnt get it destroyed; they really dont know where the stuff is, could be anywhere. the best they can do is point fingers, like they did over the enruched uranium in Iraq, until we just scooped it up and took it to Oak Ridge Tennessee, end of story.
We'll do the same here.
"However, the International Atomic Energy Agency has taken the position that the uranium is Iraqi property and the agency "cannot give them permission to remove it," a diplomat said."
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Putzes .... we waited until July and got the interim Govt's permission to take it.
The UN also refused to help with Saddam's trial. those UN bureaucrats really *hate* the liberation of Iraq.
"The explosives could also be used to trigger a nuclear weapon..."
As if these missing explosives were even remotely the determining factor in setting off a nuclear weapon...
This was written to scare the ignorant and nothing more.
Shame on the NYT (like that's anything new...).
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