Report: Explosives already gone when U.S. troops arrived (CNN reporting on this now)

CNN ^ | 10/26/04

[ambrose]

Report: Explosives already gone when U.S. troops arrived NBC News says its crew was embedded with soldiers at time

(CNN) -- The mystery surrounding the disappearance of 380 tons of powerful explosives from a storage depot in Iraq has taken a new twist, after a network embedded with the U.S. military during the invasion of Iraq reported that the material had already vanished by the time American troops arrived.

NBC News reported that on April 10, 2003, its crew was embedded with the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division when troops arrived at the Al Qaqaa storage facility south of Baghdad.

While the troops found large stockpiles of conventional explosives, they did not find HMX or RDX, the types of powerful explosives that reportedly went missing, according to NBC.

The International Atomic Energy revealed Monday that it had been told two weeks ago by the Iraqi government that 380 tons of HMX and RDX disappeared from Al Qaqaa after Saddam Hussein's government fell.

In a letter to the IAEA dated October 10, Iraq's director of planning, Mohammed Abbas, said the material disappeared sometime after Saddam's regime fell in April 2003, which he attributed to "the theft and looting of the governmental installations due to lack of security."

Baghdad fell on April 9, 2003. According to NBC, troops from the 101st Airborne arrived the next day to find that the material was already gone.

[timbuck2]

How long does it take NBC News to talk to MSNBC? I see nothing on MSNBC about this revelation...

-T

[TrebleRebel]

CNN reported this on 2/4/2003:

SECTION: News; International

LENGTH: 2392 words

HEADLINE: Saddam Claims No Link to al Qaeda

GUESTS: Terence Taylor

BYLINE: Wolf Blitzer, Nic Robertson

HIGHLIGHT:
Saddam Hussein's media interview is not likely to change British opinion; Colin Powell's address to United Nations is likely to include technical data.

BODY:
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: U.N. weapons inspectors say they found another empty chemical warhead in Iraq, this one at an ammunition dump north of Baghdad.

Our senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, is standing by live in the Iraqi capital with this. First of all, tell us, Nic, what precisely have they found?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT:
Well, they've found another chemical warhead from exactly the same type of 122 millimeter missile as the warheads they discovered about two and a half weeks ago at an ammunition site, al QaQaa just south of Baghdad.

Now, this discovery today at al Kadji (ph), north of Baghdad, again the warhead discovered in an ammunition dump. Now, if you remember two weeks ago when Hans Blix, Mohamed ElBaradei came to Baghdad, Iraqi officials said that they would initiate their own investigation to discover if Iraq had any more of these type of warheads. Very quickly, they came up with four more. Those four -- this was two weeks ago -- were discovered at al Kadji (ph) the same place the U.N. weapons inspectors appear today to have unilaterally discovered this other chemical warhead -- Wolf.

BLITZER: So the bottom line is this is one more of several that they've already discovered, or that they've found, but presumably, if you listen to the Bush administration, there are still thousands and thousands of others that have not been located. Is that basically what we're getting right now?

ROBERTSON: Exactly. The U.N. discovered a dozen two and a half weeks ago. The Iraqis discovered four more a few days later. That makes 16. This one, the 17th. According to U.S. officials, as you say, many, many more thousands -- 29,983 the number still outstanding would be at this time, Wolf.

BLITZER: And as far as the banned weapons, the weapons, the biological, the chemical, the nuclear capabilities, the longer-range ballistic missiles, so far the only things that they've actually found -- these inspectors -- are these dozen plus chemical warheads, which are empty. Is that fair to say?

ROBERTSON: That is fair to say. Nothing beyond that. Yesterday discovering a modified Lunar missile. We've had no details from the U.N. on that. Iraqis say that had nothing to do with weapons programs -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. We have some other breaking news coming out of Baghdad. Saddam Hussein, in his own words in what's believed to be the Iraqi leader's first videotaped interview in several years. He answers questions from a British anti-war activist, and a former member of the British Parliament, Anthony Benn, even though -- or more likely because he is not a journalist, Benn was granted one-on-one access to the security-obsessed Saddam Hussein this past Sunday. In excerpts just obtained by CNN, the Iraqi president flatly denies one of the prime allegations being leveled by the U.S. and Britain.

This was after inspectors visited al-QaQaa in January

January 21,2003

SECTION: WORLD

LENGTH: 358 words

HEADLINE: U.N. inspectors revisit site

DATELINE: BAGHDAD, Iraq

BODY:
U.N. inspectors returned Tuesday to a huge complex south of Baghdad that had previously been used for the production of explosives.

Teams have visited the site of al-Qaqaa -- 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Baghdad in Yousefiya -- more than a dozen times, including several consecutive days since last week.

The site belongs to the Iraqi Military Industrialisation Commission and was listed on a dossier of weapons of mass destruction facilities released by the British government last year.

Iraq's nuclear program had previously used the facility for the production of high explosive lenses, detonators and propellants for nuclear weapons. Tuesdays's visit was from a chemical inspection team.

Inspection teams also went to:

- a missile team to a site 70 km southwest of Baghdad

- a biological team to al Taji, 30 km north of the capital and the primary location for Iraq's long-range missile program

- biological teams to the College of Agriculture and the Iba Centre for Agricultural Research at Abu Greib west of Baghdad

- a nuclear team to Basra in the south of Iraq

- a nuclear team to Tuwaitha nuclear enter, another site in the British dossier inspectors have visited several times, on the southeastern outskirts of Baghdad

- a team from the Mosul office north of Baghdad to a private gypsum factory. Gypsum is a mineral used in the manufacture of plaster of Paris, various plaster products, and fertilizers

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, addressing senior members of Parliament in London, defended the emphasis on Iraq, saying he is "sure" Saddam Hussein has chemical and biological weapons and probably has usable nuclear weapons.

But Blair still urged giving inspectors time to do their job, adding that a report due to the U.N. Security Council next week would be telling.

"Let's wait and see what turns up on January 27," the prime minister said. "I have said that's an important day, but not the end of it. It depends on what the weapons inspectors find."

"There is no way out for Saddam other than disarming Iraq," he said.

-- CNN Producer Ingrid Formanek contributed to this report.

[jmstein7]

Good reporting!

[freedomlover]

When DUmmies are saying CNN s#cks I start looking for flying pigs.

[Halgr]

Don't ya know that DU exists for entertainment purposes only.

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

[js1138]

Nothing at on on MSN.com

[jimbo123]

Send NY Times editorial fraud complaints to:

retrace@nytimes.com

[mathluv]

I saw on another thread that the today show was not mentioning the NBC embed's story.

[AFPhys]

I'll have to take a look at this video at a later time.

Thanks for the link.
.

[mware]

Someone on another thread mentioned that Howard Fineman said that Kerry is irrelevant, Bush is fighting against news reports now.

[txradioguy]

Gee how could the NYT and CBS have missed this SMALL detail intheir reporting?? /sacrcasm

[txradioguy]

"Iraq isn't like here. There are a few major two lane freeways that connect all the cities,"

That is true. But the Iraqi's WILL however drive anything over any vehicle over any type of road at any time. It doesn't matter what they are hauling. It would not surprise me at all to find out that some of them loaded up some big Mercedes 2 1/2 ton trucks with the stuff and tokk off over some gravel road with it.

[finnman69]

http://polipundit.com/index.php?p=4795

And The Winner Is…


I issued a challenge – to name the latest media scandal, as Polipundit readers had named Rathergate. Polipundit readers did not disappoint. The entries had me laughing out loud. Many chose to write a headline, rather than submit a name, and they came up with some doozies. Please read them all in the comments section of this post.

Instead of trying to count votes, I decided to do as I did with Rathergate, and just choose my favorite. (Actually my favorite is posted here, but it was just a little too cute. )

Some of the top contenders were Cache ‘N Kerrygate, Times-Ammo-Gate and NYT SurpriseGate, but there were many, many other entertaining entries.

And the winner is… NYTrogate .

[EDINVA]

just about every US unit had an embedded reporter, but NYT and CBS in their rush to get this story out before the election couldn't check to see who among their colleagues might have had first hand information ?

[jrpascucci]

My mail to the NYT.

Subject: Someone needs a firing...

...actually, lots of people.

You announce on Monday morning that the Bush Administration "lost" 340 tons of explosives. By Monday night, it's been found that an embedded reporter was with the group that first got to the site, and it was already missing.

By anybody's standards, this is shoddy journalism. But, really, what's going to happen is your editors are going to vaguely partially retract it on page 23 in 4-point type.

The 'Old Gray Lady' is dead. Welcome down to the same rathole CBS inhabits.

You might as well go to all the way and move to the tabloid format instead of pretending to be an actual, you know, newspaper. You can start running with the articles you really want to run 'DNA proves Batboy is Karl Rove's son', 'Aliens in the Whitehouse? Experts explain the President's coat bulge at the first debate! It is a spine, but it's NOT HIS..."

You're done. Sickening, really, how an infestation of partisan liberals can so quickly destroy a reputation built up over years of hard work and solid efforts. That's what you get...

[LibSnubber]

I must say, I haven't been this pleased about a CNN story - ever. Now all they've got to do is correctly report this at least 50 times to undue all their erroneous reporting from yesterday.

[jimfrommaine]

I wish the President would call Senator Kerry out on this. Kerry has played politics with national security, the lives of our troops. Enough is enough. Make him answer to this nonsense. Jim

[TheForceOfOne]

I have said this before and I will say it again, The media is a bigger threat to us than John Kerry. While John Kerry is "Unfit for Command" he is just the puppet the DNC and the MSM propped up to face our Commander in Chief George W Bush in a time of war the are traitors to our country. After Dean imploded the chose him because they thought he had the best chance to defeat Bush regardless of his stance or political record being on the extreme left and out of the mainstream. The coordinated attacks by the liberal MSM and the DNC should ring alarm bells from here to eternity. The election will not be close Bush will win in a landslide count on it if we all vote. Without the bias of the MSM there would not be a horse race being depicted as it is because Bush would be up by 20%. I think the efforts this election of the blogger's to stifle the MSM has gone untold but at the same time we should consider the blogging war that is going on and its power and find a way to secure the downfall of the MSM from a biased pimp for the DNC. We cannot get rid of the MSM but we can control it. The after effects of the election when the smoke clears will have all eyes on the power of the Internet and the next election will be fought more on the Internet than on the TV screen. You may see political moderation of sites like google to omit information that detracts from their view point to cancel us out. We need to really think about what is going to happen because them Democrats are crazy and the despise the freedom of speech we enjoy and they will do anything they can to stop it. Just my opinion.

[Let's Roll]

But, but, but - you mean our October Surprise was really old news after all?

Or in keeping with the theme - The NYT's explosive charges against the Bush Admin were a dud?

[brazzaville]

Good morning.

"Man- 380 tons of explosives in a single day!"

And we are supposed to believe looters to the stuff.

Michael Frazier