Posted on 10/27/2004 10:52:50 PM PDT by kattracks
A former GI with the 101st Airborne Division who was among the first Americans on the scene at Saddam Hussein's Al Qaqaa weapons depot said Wednesday there was no way the bunkers he inspected housed 380 tons of high explosives as reported by the New York Times.
"When we walked into the bunkers that apparently nobody [else] went into, there is no way there were 380 tons of explosives in those bunkers," 101st Airborne veteran Ken Dixon told the Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" Wednesday night.Instead, said Dixon, the weapons that were left behind at Al Qaqaa were "regular RPGs, rockets and hand grenades."
Dixon did say, however, he saw evidence that something had been removed before U.S. forces arrived on the scene.
"You had tire tracks in dried up mud," he told Sean Hannity. "Large tire tracks from big trucks. And you had boot prints going in and out of these bunkers."
But as far as individual looters of the sort claimed by the New York Times, Dixon said he saw "no sign" of that at all.
The Iraq war vet was critical of Sen. John Kerry for using the Times report to bash President Bush, telling Hannity on his radio show, "It definitely undermines the work we're trying to do in Iraq."
Dixon's revelations on "Hannity & Colmes" capped a day that began on Nashville radio station WTN, where he detailed what he saw at Al Qaqaa to host Steve Gill.
When the 101st arrived on April 10, 2003, the Al Qaaqa bunkers were "wide open," he told Gill, as if somebody had already been there and broken the seals placed on the high explosives by the UN.
"There was me and two other guys who were the only ones who actually went in the bunkers," he recalled. "What drew us there - they had these big metal doors and they were already open. So we thought people had already gone in there - we wanted to take a look."
While there were a few boxes inside the bunkers, Dixon told the Nashville host, "There was nowhere near what they're saying that came up missing that was inside those bunkers."
The crates that were left behind, however, had some interesting markings.
"We pretty much knew that they contained explosives from the symbols that were on the crates themselves," Dixon said. "There was nothing we could actually read because the majority of it was written in French."
And he had an interesting observation for those in the press who dismiss pre-war Iraq as a major player in global terrorism, noting that prior to stopping off at Al Qaaqa, his unit has cleaned out a terrorist training camp.
"There were terrorist training camps all over [Iraq]," he told Gill.
Sounds familiar: LOTS of weapons and munitions from non-US countries.
It is endlessly frustrating!
I saw this on H&C tonite, and I heard him on the radio earlier. Colmes tried to pick this guy apart, but he didn't succeed. The left just can't STAND the truth... in almost everything.
---"There was nothing we could actually read because the majority of it was written in French."---
Yep.
I saw that too "Ol'Turtle Head" Colmes really went after the guy with his "well, did you search every bunker ?"crap.
The facility was huge with hundreds of bunkers and buildings!!
Another group arrived and stayed for 2 weeks the day after this guy left. Don't tell me they just sat on their butts for 2 weeks, when they there are bunkers to explore.
Why is that crap? They guy makes it sound as if there was only a few bunkers...
Yeah, but Laura tore Alan to shreds later about denying what he knows to be truth, that the vets feel betrayed by Kerry and the active troops overwhelmingly support their C-I-C.
Alan officially blew it with me tonight. I will not accept our troops treated with the disrespect he showed tonight. He confirmed he is willing to sell his soul to prop up someone he knows is of low character, all due to partisanship.
What group arrived to stay for two weeks?
true IMO the guy was not a very credible witness, it seemed like he wasn't really sure where he was, evidently he was just a grunt giving his opinion to the best of his ability, Nonetheless a great soldier no doubt.
But the entire demeanor and attitude of Turtle Head was absolutly absurd , I wish the guy would have decked him
Actually, there were only 32 bunkers to check at Al Qaqaa.
"The facility was huge with hundreds of bunkers and buildings!!"
The facility was huge but I've never read how many bunkers there were, have you? I have read that there were many storage buildings however, which I'm sure were searched by other troops. IN ANY CASE, even if there were two hundred bunkers and three men searched them, that's about a half a day's work. After all, they weren't looking for finger prints, they were looking for very large containers that could have contained explosives. All they found were typical weapons and ammo.
So...The Russki's helped Saddam move W.M.D.'s to Syria...The radical left will not understand this at all.......
There were 11 thousand bunkers at Al-Qa Qaa. If there were only two that inspected them, that would have taken about a year and a half.
On another thread there's an officer from the 101st that said the forward elements were there for a day, then left. The next day the 101st HQ element moved in and set up there for 2 weeks.
I wish someone would contact General Petraus about this. He's back in Iraq now, heading up the training of the Iraqis.
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