Posted on 10/26/2004 12:31:01 PM PDT by Prince Charles
Copyright 2003 Valley Daily Bulletin
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario, CA)
April 4, 2003 Friday
LENGTH: 813 words
[SNIP]
Troops encounter unknown chemical items
As the military advances closer to Baghdad, signs of Iraqichemical preparedness are multiplying, although there is still no conclusive evidence Saddam Hussein's regime possesses weapons of mass destruction.
On Friday, troops at a training facility in the westernIraqi desert came across a bottle labeled "tabun" a nerve gas and chemical weapon Iraq is banned from possessing.
Closer to Baghdad, troops at Iraq's largest militaryindustrial complex found nerve agent antidotes, documents describing chemical warfare and a white powder that appeared to be used for explosives.
Col. John Peabody, engineer brigade commander of the 3rdInfantry Division, said troops found thousands of 2-by-5-inch boxes, each containing three vials of white powder, together with documents written in Arabic that dealt with how to engage in chemical warfare.
[SNIP]
ping
The site was secured means: The military didn't leave anything behind that could have been used by the enemies. You think for a minute that any officer would have given the orders to leave this compound unattended, knowing that there would be 380 TONS of stockpiled explosives? They didn't find any of that stuff - period end of story. The NBC reporter said that or her lack of reporting that means they didn't find anything.
The site was secured means: The military didn't leave anything behind that could have been used by the enemies. You think for a minute that any officer would have given the orders to leave this compound unattended, knowing that there would be 380 TONS of stockpiled explosives? They didn't find any of that stuff - period end of story. The NBC reporter said that or her lack of reporting that means they didn't find anything.
I agree that the context indicates that "nothing" in this story refers to WMD, not what they had sealed and tagged. However, the "white powder" was determined to be run of the mill explosives and was not the 380 tons of HMX and RDX that is the centerpiece of this attack on President Bush. When our troops arrived, the 380 tons was missing.
NBC BLOWS A HOLE IN NY TIMES' EXPLOSIVES STORY (KERRY SPOT)
NBC News: Miklaszewski: April 10, 2003, only three weeks into the war, NBC News was embedded with troops from the Army's 101st Airborne as they temporarily take over the Al Qakaa weapons installation south of Baghdad. But these troops never found the nearly 380 tons of some of the most powerful conventional explosives, called HMX and RDX, which is now missing. The U.S. troops did find large stockpiles of more conventional weapons, but no HMX or RDX, so powerful less than a pound brought down Pan Am 103 in 1988, and can be used to trigger a nuclear weapon. In a letter this month, the Iraqi interim government told the International Atomic Energy Agency the high explosives were lost to theft and looting due to lack of security. Critics claim there were simply not enough U.S. troops to guard hundreds of weapons stockpiles, weapons now being used by insurgents and terrorists to wage a guerrilla war in Iraq. (NBCs Nightly News, 10/25/04)
"Is it any wonder why the old traditionalist & mainstream news media sued FreeRepublic to keep us from archiving their stories here?
They want to be able to lie and not get caught doing it."
Excellent point -
"Then it was stolen by a carvan of Bedouin"
It was brought to the Syrian border as a wedding present. Very large wedding party, you understand. Lots of guests, too.
The "white powder" was not the 380 tons of HMX and RDX.
Bump for later read. Thanks!
I agree
not RDX or HMX. The "white powder that appeared to be used for explosives" mentioned in this release could actually be the explosives the Times was talking about.
I don't agree. The "white powder" was tested and found to be an explosive, but it was not the tagged by the UN material, nor was it identified as HMC or RDX. As Jim Mik reported, our troops with the embedded reporters reported finding large caches of conventional weapons (the white powder falls into that category) but not the 380 tons of HMX or RDX.
The substance in the "tiny boxes" was not identified as the HMX or RDX at issue.
This is excellent. NYT reporters don't even come close to doing their professional jobs, when the Freepers can find this stuff on Lexis.
The March 2003 inspectors visit is being reported today at least on MSNBC that the RDX or HMX seals were still there, seals not broken.
And even the conventional explosives would not have been left behind w/o either destroying them or taking them in. It's totally unbelievable that the "white powder" would have been tested and identified and then just neglected. just a bunch of balloni.
The real question here is, what happened with 380 Tons of highly explosive material when even the UN couldn't find it shortly before the army got there????
I'd respond but looks like you got yourself BANNED
So, they did find stuff. You got any evidence that they didn't leave it unattended?
They just haven't learned WHEN TO SAY WHEN. Mega Bump: http://kmclive.com.
That doesn't make sense to me.
The UN claims to have found "nothing" on March 25th 2003 during a spot visit to the site. "Nothing" referring to WMD as in ABC weapons (we can assume that, or not?).
But remembers that the seals on HMX and RDX were still intact and didn't mention the stockpile of 380 Tons of that material any further?
This whole story stinks!
The UN was bribed by Saddam with 'oil for food' and the UN wasn't supposed to find anything.
Of course there were WMD in Iraq before April 2003. All major intelligence agencies from Moscow, Berlin, Paris to Washington knew this! Of course we couldn't find anything once we invaded the country because Saddam had ample time to get this stuff out of the country, sell it to Al Kaida or whoever was knocking at his doors during those last final hours. Saddam knew his time had come and he was a desperate guy. Saddam himself or parts of his regime were in the cahoots with Al Kaida.
Where does it say that the NBC reporter identified the stuff as explosives?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.