A Look at Explosives Missing in Iraq

AP ^

[Joe Hadenuf]

I'm telling you is is OLD news

Does this mean these hundreds of tons of explosives no longer exist?

[luvie]

No, it just means that they were missing long before we went in there last year. They are probably some of the stuff the insurgents are bringing back in from Iran, Syria, etc.!!! Why, I want to know, are they just noticing this NOW!! Rush says it is just to boost Kerry's relevance. He says "repackaged".

[SheLion]

Listen to Kerry do it. Here
http://images.radcity.net/5145/792261.mp3

Boy, I clicked on that link and it froze my computer up tighter then a drum.

[UCANSEE2]

Of course, Iraq only had that 500 tons of uranium to use in their nuclear powerplants, cause............

they didn't have any natural energy resources, SUCH AS "OIL", available.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Working fine here. It is a radio ad where Kerry argues for both sides of many issues in his own voice.

[DocRock]

I was just doing a little research to see how close the 500 tons of Uranium were from this location. To my surprise, it is only 12 to 20 Kilometers away. Check it out:

Tuwaitha

Al-qa-qaa

Check these out, pretty good info and links.

UCANSEE2 wrote:
"Of course, Iraq only had that 500 tons of uranium to use in their nuclear powerplants, cause............ they didn't have any natural energy resources, SUCH AS "OIL", available."

My exact argument against Kerry's plan to give Iran nuclear fuel as a "test". Why do they need it?

[Joe Hadenuf]

No, it just means that they were missing long before we went in there last year.

What was the specific date when they became missing?

[demlosers]

A more comprehensive version of of the same article from yahoo:


A Look at Explosives Missing in Iraq

By The Associated Press

A glance at the destructive power of the nearly 380 tons of conventional explosives the International Atomic Energy Agency says have gone missing from a former military installation in Iraq (news - web sites):

HMX: High melting explosives, as they are scientifically known, are among the most powerful in use by the world's militaries today. HMX, also known as octogen, is made from hexamine, ammonium nitrate, nitric acid and acetic acid. Because it detonates at high temperatures, it is used in various kinds of explosives, rocket fuels and burster chargers.

___

RDX: Also referred to as cyclonite or hexogen, RDX is a white crystalline solid usually used in mixtures with other explosives, oils or waxes. Rarely used alone, it has a high degree of stability in storage and is considered the most powerful of the high explosives used by militaries.

___

PLASTIC EXPLOSIVES: Experts say both HMX and RDX are key ingredients in plastic explosives such as Semtex and C-4, puttylike military substances that easily can be shaped. Libyan terrorists used just 1 pound of Semtex in 1988 to down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.

C-4 or its main ingredients were used in the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole (news - web sites) in Yemen that killed 17 U.S. sailors. Traces of RDX were found in an investigation of explosions that crippled two heavily fortified Israeli tanks, indicating Palestinian militants have obtained at least small quantities of the extremely potent material.

Just 5 pounds of either plastic explosive would be enough to blow up a dozen jetliners, experts say.

___

NUCLEAR USE: Experts say HMX can be used to create a highly powerful explosion with enough intensity to ignite the fissile material in an atomic bomb and set off a nuclear chain reaction.

[demlosers]

This just blows me away.

You shouldn't be the NYT is blowing smoke - nothing new. 380 tons is a very miniscule amount compared to how much high explosives Saddam had in his total munitions inventory.

RDX is a very common high explosive used by world militarizes. It's common as dirt.

RDX can be found in Air Intercept Missiles, Air-to-Ground Missiles, C4 demo blocks, and many more weapon systems. What do you think are in those RPGs that are shot at our troops?

[Boot Hill]

8	“RDX and HMX are just like TNT.”

In all primary measures, TNT is nothing at all like RDX and TNT.

	TNT	RDX	HMX
velocity of detonation, km/s	6.94	8.64	9.10
detonation pressure, GPa	18.9	33.8	39.3
heat of detonation, kJ/g	4.23	5.54	5.67

8	“They have almost the same chemical composition.”

They are from entirely different chemical classes. TNT is a monocyclic aromatic explosive, while RDX and HMX, are open chain aliphatic explosives.

8	“Nitro is more explosive than these other two TNT-derivatives.”

"Nitro" is a generic term for any of a half dozen different explosives. In any event, none of the explosives generically referred to as "nitro" are anywhere close to RDX or HMX in any parameters that might be interpreted as being "more explosive".

--Boot Hill

[luvie]

Well, according to Rush and Tony Snow on their shows (and I know I am just passing on their opinions) we have known that these weapons had not been monitored since 1998, when the inspectors were kicked out of Iraq during Clintoon's time. This bunch of weapons were part of tons of weaponry that were left hidden around the country by Sadaam. And--if they are so important, doesn't that justify us going in there to stop Sadaam from using them (WMDs)!!! How can Kerry now say that if these are missing that it is so important and yet he has been constantly saying that Iraq HAD no WMDs!!!

[brooklin]

The US supposedly had control of the area where these explosives were. What is the story here? you would think that someone stealing 400 tons of anything wouldn't go un-noticed. This isn't the first time that crap has been taken on our watch... if it's been stolen.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Oh, so it seems we don't have a clue when they went missing.

[luvie]

Probably not--but they didn't go missing LAST WEEK! The way the media is spinning this, it is some brand new cache of weapons that we just let walk off recently. They have probably been gone for years, and like the president has said in an e-mail I got today, we have captured tens of thousands of tons of weapons that has never gotten air time and all of a sudden they are raving over a comparatively small amount. Yes, it is still serious, but they have probably been in the hands of terrorists since the '90's!

[Just mythoughts]

"Some of you people clearly have no idea how paranoid and stupid this appears."

Right back at YOU!