Posted on 10/28/2004 4:36:02 PM PDT by Cavalier79
Oct. 28, 2004 — The strongest evidence to date indicates that conventional explosives missing from Iraq's Al-Qaqaa installation disappeared after the United States had taken control of Iraq.
Barrels inside the Al-Qaqaa facility appear on videotape shot by ABC television affiliate KSTP of St. Paul, Minn., which had a crew embedded with the 101st Airborne Division when it passed through Al-Qaqaa on April 18, 2003 — nine days after Baghdad fell.
Discrepancy Found in Explosives Amounts
Alleged American Al Qaeda Warns of U.S. Attacks Video Suggests Explosives Disappeared After U.S. Took Control Person of the Week: Complete Coverage Experts who have studied the images say the barrels on the tape contain the high explosive HMX, and the U.N. markings on the barrels are clear.
"I talked to a former inspector who's a colleague of mine, and he confirmed that, indeed, these pictures look just like what he remembers seeing inside those bunkers," said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington.
The barrels were found inside sealed bunkers, which American soldiers are seen on the videotape cutting through. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency sealed the bunkers where the explosives were kept just before the war began.
"The seal's critical," Albright said. "The fact that there's a photo of what looks like an IAEA seal means that what's behind those doors is HMX. They only sealed bunkers that had HMX in them."
After the bunkers were opened, the 101st was not ordered to secure the facility. A senior officer told ABC News the division would not have had nearly enough soldiers to do so.
It remains unclear how much HMX was at the facility, but what does seem clear is that the U.S. military opened the bunkers at Al-Qaqaa and left them unguarded. Since then, the material has disappeared.
ABC News' Martha Raddatz filed this report for World News Tonight
Yep. Same is true of the Halliburton crap in terms of hurting Bush, and the now (completely forgotten and irrelevant, as I predicted) Wash Times UN Security Council/Kerry story in terms of hurting Kerry.
Nothing will affect undecideds from here on in than a very simple personal scandal story. It has to be photos of either Bush or Kerry gleefully strangling live kittens or somthing.
So?
It is my understanding that they went back and were there for like two weeks...used it as a temporary base..
You thought right.
An old DUI story has impact because there is very visceral emotional reaction that has been hammered into many of us since we were children: drunks are bad. It's not always fair nor rational but that's what the entire point was...this story takes intense thought even to get to a slight emotional level of annoyance...and that won't sway anyone or in the case of 2000 keep anyone at home...
"My guess is these images were taken at another site which makes the story irrelevant."
I was responding to this comment. One of the boxes says "Al Qaqaa". Maybe I misunderstood what you were saying.
Big picture, folks, big picture:
Bombs, Iraq, terrorists, soldiers - everything about this "story" says ONE THING THAT PEOPLE WILL REALLY HEAR:
WE ARE STILL AT WAR.
Those five words = votes for Bush.
Everyone relax.
The President should have completely ignored this story. You cannot secure every site that needs secured and if this pans out, obviously better precautions should have been taken, but that is not on the President.
In typical Democratic fashion, Kerry thinks the President should be choosing sites to bomb from the Oval office. Remind you of any other great Democratic wartime leader?
Ms. Raddatz is married to Tom Gjelten, NPR's diplomatic correspondent.
Exactly. The story has always been that our troops found conventional weapons and some explosives, but not the sealed HMX and RDX they had been apprised of (and Kerry has been lying saying nobody told them to look for).
However, I have a real problem with ABC asserting the 101st was at Al Qaqaa on April 18. The timeline by all other sources, including the Pentagon, is they were there April 10. This is either another site or ABC gave the wrong date (though they say "April 18, nine days after Baghdad fell" indicating it is not a typo).
I said that somewhere else too.
These are not IAEA seals! These are transportation markings. It's missing the UN number to tell you what it is. Key information is missing from the ABC report!
I think the original statement concerning the 101st was 2 days before Baghdad fell!
Right. The fiberboard containers have have no stenciled, marking that I can see like nomeclature, stock number, quantity, lot number, DODIC, ect...
See the link posted here for a timeline:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1260694/posts?page=87#87
April 18 is not on it.
Further, don't think I'm relying on the Boston Globe's timeline. I just grabbed the nearest Google find. I heard Brett Baier give the detailed timeline yesterday verified by the Pentagon.
This ABC video comes from a different facility making the story completely unrelated to the charges being leveled by Kamp Kerry (aided by the NYT, etc)
The IATA UN classification number for HMX in 0226. This should appear as UN 0226 in bold black lettering enclosed by a black rectangle, and must be on two opposing sides of the container.
The"23----" that appears on the barrel near the IATA sticker may be a sloppy rendition of a UN number improperly executed. If so, this is not HMX.
Never was there an original statement like that.
You're thinking of the 3rd ID that was in fact at the complex on April 3.
If I may modestly point out, it took me all of 2 seconds to see the problem with the date in the ABC story compared with the timeline of the movements of the 101st as regards Al Qaqaa.
I don't think this ABC video was taken at the site in question (although they say it was).
"Further, don't think I'm relying on the Boston Globe's timeline. I just grabbed the nearest Google find. I heard Brett Baier give the detailed timeline yesterday verified by the Pentagon.
This ABC video comes from a different facility making the story completely unrelated to the charges being leveled by Kamp Kerry (aided by the NYT, etc)"
Thanks for the info.
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