Posted on 10/26/2004 2:05:43 AM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
WASHINGTON -- Iraqi officials reported that thieves looted 377 tons of powerful explosives from an unguarded site after the US-led invasion last year, the top UN nuclear official said yesterday. And a former weapons inspector said he had counted about 100 other unguarded weapons sites that may have been stripped of munitions for use in the wave of attacks against US soldiers and Iraqi civilians
The explosives that were looted from the Al Qaqaa nuclear facility, apparently in April and May of 2003, had been sealed and monitored by international nuclear inspectors before the invasion. The explosives were monitored because they can be used to detonate a nuclear bomb, although Iraq was allowed to keep them because they also have civilian and conventional military uses.[snip]
[snip]
Ereli said the US military had destroyed 243,000 tons of munitions and was in the process of destroying 160,000 tons more.
But the disappearance of the HMX, or ''High-Melting Point Explosive," caused particular alarm because the lightweight substance is twice as powerful as an ordinary plastic explosive and is not easily set off by an accident as other substances are. That makes it the perfect detonator for a nuclear device, or in attacks on large buildings or planes, although the substance is not considered a weapon of mass destruction and often is used for civilian purposes such as demolition and mining.
David Kay, a former weapons inspector in Iraq for the US government who led the Iraq Survey Group that searched for weapons of mass destruction, said that although his team of 1,400 investigators found no such weapons, they found small amounts of HMX and RDX -- and hundreds of square miles of other conventional munitions -- at unguarded sites across Iraq......"
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
All the fuss over this story is only going to convince the American public of one thing.
Saddam was a threat...more dangerous that Kerry is letting on.
The guy had tons of explosives capable of detonating nuclear bombs.
Late Monday, the mystery took another twist -- NBC News, which had a crew embedded with the U.S. military during the invasion, reported that the material had already vanished by the time American troops arrived there on April 10, 2003, the day after Baghdad fell. (Report: Explosives already gone when U.S. troops arrived) http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/26/iraq.explosives/index.html
The Bush camp wasted little time in firing back, firing off a statement saying that Kerry's criticism of the president over the missing material has "been proven false before the day is over."
"John Kerry's attacks today were baseless," Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said. "He said American troops did not secure the explosives, when the explosives were already missing."
Schmidt also said that Kerry "neglects to mention the 400,000 tons of weapons and explosives that are either destroyed or in the process of being destroyed" in Iraq.
But Kerry senior adviser Joe Lockhart fired back with a statement of his own, accusing the Bush campaign of "distorting" the NBC News report.
"In a shameless attempt to cover up its failure to secure 380 tons of highly explosive material in Iraq, the White House is desperately flailing in an effort to escape blame," Lockhart said. "It is the latest pathetic excuse from an administration that never admits a mistake, no matter how disastrous."...
Lockhart did not elaborate on how the Bush campaign was distorting the NBC report.....
Good point!
Fox news didn't go into detail, but they mentioned the Pentagon responding.
I just heard E.D. questioning the Dem. mouthpiece.
The Dem said, Kerry was trying to show how bad things are in Iraq (paraphrased).
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 .
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