NY Times: Iraqis Tell of Looting at Munitions Site

NY Times ^ | 10/28/04

[ambrose]

MISSING EXPLOSIVES

4 Iraqis Tell of Looting at Munitions Site in '03

By JAMES GLANZ and JIM DWYER

Published: October 28, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 27 - Looters stormed the weapons site at Al Qaqaa in the days after American troops swept through the area in early April 2003 on their way to Baghdad, gutting office buildings, carrying off munitions and even dismantling heavy machinery, three Iraqi witnesses and a regional security chief said Wednesday.

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The Iraqis described an orgy of theft so extensive that enterprising residents rented their trucks to looters. But some looting was clearly indiscriminate, with people grabbing anything they could find and later heaving unwanted items off the trucks.

Two witnesses were employees of Al Qaqaa - one a chemical engineer and the other a mechanic - and the third was a former employee, a chemist, who had come back to retrieve his records, determined to keep them out of American hands. The mechanic, Ahmed Saleh Mezher, said employees asked the Americans to protect the site but were told this was not the soldiers' responsibility.

The accounts do not directly address the question of when 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives vanished from the site sometime after early March, the last time international inspectors checked the seals on the bunkers where the material was stored. It is possible that Iraqi forces removed some explosives before the invasion.

But the accounts make clear that what set off much if not all of the looting was the arrival and swift departure of American troops, who did not secure the site after inducing the Iraqi forces to abandon it.

"The looting started after the collapse of the regime," said Wathiq al-Dulaimi, a regional security chief, who was based nearby in Latifiya. But once it had begun, he said, the booty streamed toward Baghdad.

Earlier this month, on Oct. 10, the directorate of national monitoring at the Ministry of Science and Technology notified the International Atomic Energy Agency that the explosives, which are used in demolition and missiles and are the raw material for plastic explosives, were missing. The agency has monitored the explosives because they can also be used as the initiator of an atomic bomb.

Agency officials examined the explosives in January 2003 and noted in early March that their seals were still in place. On April 3, the Third Infantry Division arrived with the first American troops.

Chris Anderson, a photographer for U.S. News and World Report who was with the division's Second Brigade, recalled that the area was jammed with American armor on April 3 and 4, which he believed made the removal of the explosives unlikely. "It would be quite improbable for this amount of weapons to be looted at that time because of the traffic jam of armor," he said.

The brigade blew up numerous caches of arms throughout the area, he said. Mr. Anderson said he did not enter the munitions compound.

The Second Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division arrived outside the site on April 10, under the command of Col. Joseph Anderson. The brigade had been ordered to move quickly to Baghdad because of civil disorder there after Mr. Hussein's government fell on April 9.

They gathered at Al Qaqaa, about 30 miles south, simply as a matter of convenience, Colonel Anderson said in an interview this week. He said that when he arrived at the site - unaware of its significance - he saw no signs of looting, but was not paying close attention.

Because he thought the brigade would be moving on to Baghdad within hours, Al Qaqaa was of no importance to his mission, he said, and he was unaware of the explosives that international inspectors said were hidden inside.

Pentagon officials said Wednesday that analysts were examining surveillance photographs of the munitions site. But they expressed doubts that the photographs, which showed vehicles at the location on several occasions early in the conflict, before American troops moved through the area, would be able to indicate conclusively when the explosives were removed.

Col. David Perkins, who commanded the Second Brigade of the Third Infantry Division, called it "very highly improbable" that 380 tons of explosives could have been trucked out of Al Qaqaa in the weeks after American troops arrived.

Moving that much material, said Colonel Perkins, who spoke Wednesday to news agencies and cable television, "would have required dozens of heavy trucks and equipment moving along the same roadways as U.S. combat divisions occupied continually for weeks."

He conceded that some looting of the site had taken place. But a chemical engineer who worked at Al Qaqaa and identified himself only as Khalid said that once troops left the base itself, people streamed in to steal computers and anything else of value from the offices. They also took munitions like artillery shells, he said.

Mr. Mezher, the mechanic, said it took the looters about two weeks to disassemble heavy machinery at the site and carry that off after the smaller items were gone.

James Glanz reported from Baghdad for this article and Jim Dwyer from New York. Ali Adeeb contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Khalid W. Hussein and Zainab Obeid fromAl Qaqaa.

[nmh]

The NYT is backing off the original story.

Hopefully this will kill Kerry and highlight how wasily he lies without regard to the facts.

It sounds more and more like the U.N. helped DELAY out getting over there. We should have been over there sooner so that this kind of stuff wouldn't "vanish". Kerry and the press are making Bushs case.

[rwfromkansas]

Call the DOD.

[jimbo123]

Lame response from NY Crimes. Just like Dan Rather's typewriter font experts after he was busted.

[JustaCowgirl]

They are a disgrace to journalism.

They are a disgrace to America, not just journalism. This has got to be one of the most dishonest, corrupt institutions in this entire country.

They need to suffer major,major repercussions for this. The leftist media is not going to develop any accountability at all while these scumbags continue to get away with more and more outrageous criminal activity like this. And I do believe this is morally criminal, whether or not they can be proven to have broken actual laws.

[Soul Seeker]

So, is this the equivalent of the NYT's giving the "Viet Cong" a forum?

I would question the allegiance of these "Iraqi's".

[Vortexsg]

Boy can we say that they are getting desperate. I smell backfire.

[Drango]

I thought the NYT's said our number one priority after Baghdad fell was that we guard the Museums :-)

A number of FReepers (and liberals) wanted GI's to die to defend those art and historical treasures.

[Perdogg]

Did you see the story in tomorrow's NYT?


NY Times: Iraqis Tell of Looting The Food King

[Republic Rocker]

Never buy a NYSLIMES...BUY THE POST! Thats how it works.

[Jim_Curtis]

New York Times reporters are still walking around in Iraq? Do our Snipers know about this? Why would our Generals allow this.

[badpacifist]

Ya Ya NYT you betcha! Sure I am sure all the military traffic streaming towards Baghdad wouldn't mind. Considering the fact that most of the people shooting at our guys were in civilian dress. So a bunch of jokers with big trucks with bombs and explosives on them wouldn't make the APACHE GUNSHIPS or PLANES or TANKS or APCs even look twice. Come on MSM. We may be a bit dumb but it looks like we is smarter than you!

[Txsleuth]

They are trying every shape to find one that will fit. Just like a kid. The media never, ever learns but being the most powerful newspaper in the world, they can and do get away with it. If you read the whole article,, basically what was looted was OFFICE SUPPLIES!!!!!!!!!!!!

In the meantime, Kerry keeps sliming the troops for not guarding the explosives, oh he says the president's name because he is running against the president, but it was the TROOPS that were over there -- not Bush!

[Jet Jaguar]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1259411/posts

Message from Lt. Col. Wellman from the 101st Airborne, Ft. Campbell, KY

Commander Says Unlikely Large-Scale Removal of Explosives Occurred After U.S. Invasion

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1259459/posts

ABC News - IAEA Says only 3 tons of high explosives left at Al QaQuaa when last checked

DRUDGE SIREN:

GERTZ // THURSDAY // WASH TIMES: Russian special forces troops moved many of Saddam Hussein's weapons and related goods out of Iraq and into Syria in the weeks before the March 2003 U.S. military operation, The Washington Times has learned. John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, said in an interview that he believes the Russian troops, working with Iraqi intelligence, “almost certainly” removed the high-explosive material that went missing from the Al-Qaqaa facility, south of Baghdad.

Russia tied to Iraq´s missing arms; Pentagon: Weaponry relocated before war


http://www.drudgereport.com/

[bootyist-monk]

As I read this, they are in essence conceding that the weapons could not have been moved after the invasion (the US News Photog says that the roads were a traffic jam of American vehicles). The Colonel says it would have taken dozens of vehicles and heavy equipment. That leaves only the only possible answer: the explosives were gone before the start of the invasion. The Times is backing away from its own story, leaving Kerry high and dry.

Side note for Kerry lurkers. These explosives, along with 1/2 a million tons of other weapons, were under the control of a terrorist named Saddam. They would still be under his control if your guy had his way. Get a frickin' clue.

[Wild Irish Rogue]

" that once troops left the base itself, people streamed in to steal computers and anything else of value from the offices. They also took munitions like artillery shells, he said. "

Given the choice, would looters take a box of unknown white powder or something tangible that they could sell or use ?
Logic, common sense, decency and two working neurons dictate the latter.
Kerry believes the former and also, that smiling US soldiers helped terrorists load their pick ups and probably demanded a tip.

[pctech]

Looks like NYT is trying to cover their butts now. If this continues, it will the equivalent of Bush's DUI report right before the 2000 elections, only worse.

[ChadGore]

Re: inducing the Iraqi forces to abandon ? ?

Only the NYT could spin a 101st battle VICTORY into inducing the Iraqi forces . .

ROFL !!!!!!!!

[af_vet_1981]

spin spin spin ...... your dead nyt....... dead..... kerry just lost the election...... just lost it .... he dissed the military just like he did in 71...... he just lost the election....

If you put it to a tune, it just might work.

[ShakinItUpHereBoss]

What the heck are Russian Special Forces doing moving this stuff to Syria? (please respond)

[cookcounty]

"Two witnesses were employees of Al Qaqaa - one a chemical engineer and the other a mechanic "

You didn't get to be a Chemical engineer in Traq unless you were a loyal Baathist. And I can guarantee you that you didn't get a job at this top secret facility unless your loyalty to Saddam was pretty certain.