Missing Explosives Story Missing Facts

Washington Dispatch ^ | 10/26/04 | CK Rairden

[Kryptonite]

The New York Times hyped an alarming “October Surprise” story on Monday. It seems the Old Gray Lady believed it had a breaking “news story” about 380 tons of “powerful explosives used to destroy airplanes, demolish buildings, make missile warheads and trigger nuclear weapons” that had disappeared in Iraq. The materials were allegedly stolen from a facility called Al-Qaqaa, an area roughly 30 miles south of Baghdad. The implication was that the United States military dropped the ball as they should have been guarding the ammo.

. . .

There is incompetence alright, and it’s in the Kerry campaign and the Old Media.

. . .

But the missing elements of the story are astonishing. And again, just as with the fraudulent document story Dan Rather tries to heave at the president, the story is falling apart in record time.

By Monday night it was learned that NBC News had imbedded reporters with the 101st Airborne as they took over the facility on April 10, 2003. The conclusion of NBC, “the troops never found the nearly 380 tons of some of the most powerful conventional explosives, called HMX and RDX, which is now missing.” The Pentagon makes the same claim.

. . .

CBS and The New York Times can now climb in bed together as discredited Old Media that many will never believe again, even in their news departments. In the minds of the American news consumer, one election season has destroyed Old Media’s fading credibility beyond repair.

And the amazing thing is, it didn’t even take Buckhead to do it this time

[Kryptonite]

Buckhead's legacy grows!

These weapons were scattered across the region before we ever got there. So Kerry is basically complaining that we didn't invade Iraq sooner, to prevent these weapons from falling into the hands of terrorists he says were never in Iraq, weapons that the UN didn't see any reason to destroy.

[smiley]

Kerry and the rats are in panic mode...stepping up attacks and ranting bogus stories....chicken littles.....every one of them....

[Kryptonite]

Thought you might be interested in this one.

[Howlin]

Mohamed El Baradei's report to the UN security council

February 13, 2003:

"We have also continued to investigate the relocation and consumption of the high explosive HMX. As I reported earlier, Iraq has declared that 32 tonnes of the HMX previously under IAEA seal had been transferred for use in the production of industrial explosives, primarily to cement plants as a booster for explosives used in
quarrying."

"Iraq has provided us with additional information, including documentation on the movement and use of this material, and inspections have been conducted at locations where the material is said to have been used. However, given the nature of the use of high explosives, it may well be that the IAEA will be unable to reach a final conclusion on the end use of this material. While we have no indication that this material was used for any application other than that declared by Iraq, we have no technical method of verifying, quantitatively, the declared use of the material in explosions. We will continue to follow this issue through a review of civilian mining practices in Iraq and through interviews of key Iraqi personnel involved in former relevant research and development activities."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,895890,00.html

[housewife101]

Ah yes, but we all KNOW that the almighty UN never makes mistakes...only Bush...I thought it was a mistake all along to go to the UN. Kerry may try to claim that as well, but after his whole "global test" and "rushing to war" bilge it doesn't hold much water except with the "old media."

[Dog]

Long live Buckhead!

[Rutles4Ever]

Idiots.

380 tons of ammunition don't just sneak across the desert. The New York Times lives in some sort of parallel universe where the world's greatest military/surveillance machine of all history wouldn't notice a convoy of a hundred or so trucks leaving a known weapons dump.

At some point, Truth takes such a beating, it becomes irrelevant. We're closer than ever...

[AAGabriel]

Interestingly in the debate just a couple of weeks ago Kerry complained that we did not guard the ammunition stockpiles. I wonder if he knew the bogus letter from the UN was in the works?

[Kryptonite]

Thanks. That has more detail than the Washington Times article from earlier today, which stated: "IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei told the U.N. Security Council one month before the allied invasion that Iraq had moved some of its highly explosive HMX from the Al Qaqaa site."

[cwb]

What's most disgusting about this weapons story is that it is the UN that was suppose to be responsible for these stockpiles. If these weapons were gone BEFORE the US arrived, it was the job of the UN weapon inspectors to not only secure these sites....but to dismantle them.

This was a pretty well-known depot, so someone needs to ask why the UN failed to eliminate this threat during the months...and even years, they had in Iraq prior to the war. The fact that they remained...to later be stolen, indicates that the UN was useless, as usual.

[Kryptonite]

That this was such a huge stockpile certainly breaks down the "looting" quote from the yet to be seen letter from the Iraqi official.

I want to see that letter, transcribed.

[housewife101]

I believe the UN got out before we bombed,didn't they? One has to wonder if they thought this such a "threat" that they now claim it is why they didn't remove them themselves.

Me thinks it a bit odd that the "bribed and coerced" left them behind for Saddam

[Kryptonite]

I think the "letter" is from an Iraqi official named Mohammed J. Abbas. It reportedly was dated October 10th, and, from an earlier AP report:

[The IAEA informed U.S. mission in Vienna on Oct. 15 about the missing explosives at Al-Qaqaa. He said national security adviser Condoleeza Rice was notified "days after that," and she then informed President Bush. ElBaradei told the council the agency had been trying to give the U.S.-led multinational force and Iraq's interim government "an opportunity to attempt to recover the explosives before this matter was put into the public domain."]

This clearly indicates a blackmail threat from the IAEA's ElBaradei, who has had a running rift with the US for years now.

[Johnny Crab]

Interestingly in the debate just a couple of weeks ago Kerry complained that we did not guard the ammunition stockpiles. I wonder if he knew the bogus letter from the UN was in the works?

In other words, what did Kerry know and when did he know it? Perhaps he also has links to the UN-loot-for-oil/food treasure chest....

[Clint N. Suhks]

This story's got legs...lets pray it lingers.

[EBH]

If my memory serves me right, didn't Colin Powell show pictures of semi-trucks moving "suspected NBC's?" Could it be that these trucks were also used to move the high explosive materials too?

[Arizona Carolyn]

This was a planned conspiracy between El Baradei, Kerry, CBS and NY Times. Kerry referred to it in the October 8th debate in St. Louis, we all missed the meaning since it had no touch stone for us to figure it all out at the time... Rush put it together and played the soundbite this morning in the first hour.

[Hugin]

If Saddam's people could stash 380 tons of explosives before our troops arrived, wouldn't a few tons of Sarin gas or a few pounds of Anthrax be a peice of cake?

[cwb]

Exactly! If this is the threat they now claim, than they should've had these materials confiscated long ago. The UN was informed ahead of time (by the British) that Al Qaqa was a depository for, among other things...WMDs. With this knowledge, one has to ask why the UN didn't have this site secured before the war.

It's a little hard to walk out with 380 tons of weapons without someone having a clue as to what's going on. Something smells in this whole ordeal.

[Kryptonite]

But Kerry said we never should've been in Iraq and should've stayed in Afghanistan. He also said there were no terrorists in Iraq, and that Saddam posed no threat.