Posted on 10/26/2004 2:19:08 PM PDT by Nice50BMG
NEW YORK - An NBC News reporter embedded with a U.S. army unit that seized an Iraqi installation three weeks into the war said Tuesday that she saw no signs that the Americans searched for the powerful explosives that are now missing from the site.
Reporter Lai Ling Jew, who was embedded with the Army's 101st Airborne, Second Brigade, said her news team stayed at the Al-Qaqaa base for about 24 hours.
"There wasn't a search," she told MSNBC, an NBC cable news channel. "The mission that the brigade had was to get to Baghdad. That was more of a pit stop there for us. And, you know, the searching, I mean certainly some of the soldiers head off on their own, looked through the bunkers just to look at the vast amount of ordnance lying around.
"But as far as we could tell, there was no move to secure the weapons, nothing to keep looters away."
On Monday night, NBC reported that its embedded crew said U.S. troops did discover significant stockpiles of bombs, but no sign of the missing HMX and RDX explosives.
The NBC report came after the U.N. nuclear agency told the Security Council on Monday about the disappearance of the 377 tons of high explosives, mostly HMX and RDX, which can be used in the kind of car bomb attacks that have targeted U.S. forces.
Iraq (news - web sites) blamed "theft and looting ... due to lack of security."
The disappearance raised questions about why the United States didn't do more to secure the Al-Qaqaa facility 30 miles south of Baghdad.
Pentagon (news - web sites) spokesman Bryan Whitman said coalition forces were present in the vicinity of the site both during and after major combat operations, which ended on May 1, 2003. He said they searched the facility but found none of the explosives in question or weapons of mass destruction.
"The forces searched 32 bunkers and 87 other buildings at the facility, but found no indicators of WMD," Whitman said Monday.
That raised the possibility that the explosives had disappeared before U.S. soldiers could secure the site in the immediate invasion aftermath.
However, Iraq's Ministry of Science and Technology told the IAEA the explosives disappeared sometime after coalition forces took control of Baghdad on April 9, 2003.
The NBC team accompanied the 101st Airborne at Al-Qaqaa the following day — on April 10, 2003.
Lai Ling told MSNBC that there was no talk among the 101st of securing the area after they left.
She said the roads were cut off "so it would have been very difficult, I believe, for the looters to get there."
Does anyone have some OTG (on the ground) intelligence from the 101st?
heres some intelligence for you...380 tons is about the size of a yacht! one wouldnt have to SERACH for it..
The reporter is an idiot.
A commander always secures his location.
And she would recognize them how?
Let not your heart be troubled. Dana Lewis (former NBC reporter) was embedded with the 101st Airborne and will be on Special Report with Brit Hume tonight at 6 pm, according to another FR thread.
Well she either lied then or she is lying now
My bet is that she is lying now
NO, but I'm sure they were following a "direct order" from Bush to NOT SEARCH, so terrorists could get the bad stuff and blow them up with it. They were probably too busy trying to find the looted antiques anyway < Bigtime sarcasm on >
Doesn't the NBC video played last night show munitions? Seems to me they found something?
not to mention how hard it would be to move 760,000 pounds of weapons over said roads...but, hey, they can make it happen in Hollywood, so that must mean it's possible.
A gentleman sending me e-mail from a ".mil" address writes:
But I was there at Al QaQaa on April 10th with the 101st, I can rest assure you that [NBC producer interviewed on MSNBC earlier today] Lai Ling Jew is lying about it, she seems to be expressing a convenient contrary opinion of the time. The very first thing we do when we move into an area is clear it of any enemy combatants, including going inside warehouses full of ordinance, which we did immediately when we reached there.
Another gentleman sending me e-mail from a ".mil" address writes:
Operational plans in modern warfare are continually rolling and are available to combat commanders in a real time network environment. The original pre-invasion Operation Plans listed the Al-QaQaa weapons depot as a priority security site. After the 101st Airborne Division inspected the site, the security priority was downgraded and the Operational Plan was modified.
More from a Kerry Spot reader with a ".mil" e-mail address, stating he was among the soldiers who secured Al QaQaa on April 10th with the 101st:
I can tell you what happened at my squad level. When we arrived there, humvees with Mark-19's and other mounted weapons immediately secured the parameter with appropriate manpower backup. On the foot level we broke up into squads and went building to building and cleared them; mind you, we couldn't do them all. But we found what had been typical finds, caches of AK-47's, artillery rounds and bullets. There was absolutely no talk of a big find, and what I could sense no worries of anything that should have been there. Of course, we were still worried about the possibilities of chemical weapons but they never panned out.
I am a little perturbed at the gross mischaracterization of what went on there. From what I remember of the NBC crew, they did not go out with us, and they may have in fact been asked to not to go on the search with us, due to the dangers that may have possibily come up. Now this part is my opinion, but don't you think that if they had gone out with us they would have video?
you think Lai-Ling is Lie-ing?
Watch NBC reporter Dana Lewis with Brit Hume tonight.
I guess Kerry and the media are saying the Military failed at doing their job huh?
And check out the last few lines. The roads were blocked. We're talking about 380 tons here--not something you stuff in your shirt and walk away with. This stuff was already picked through.
Brit is going to be interviewing an NBC reporter who was there and says our soldiers DID search the weapons facility.
Stay tuned...
RUSH played the NBC report today, they said the 380 tons of RDX etc were NOT THERE, implying they must have looked for it or they wouldn't have reported that it wasn't there.
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.