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
What stature will they have after the election?
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If Bush doesn't win, then look for MSM stories to 'highlight the positive progress in the Iraq war', in order to make Kerry look good right off the bat.
The problem we have is the media will use this and the other October Suprises pulled on us to hammer a negative aura around Bush.
We have yet to pull one October Suprise on Kerry, and we have been hit would about five.
I pray you are correct but I don't know.
The orange IATA transport stckers are marked EXPLOSIVES 1.1 D. According to ABC news, this means it was HMX. You need the 4-digit UN classification number (which should be on the barrels) to identify the substance. 1.1 D simply means "mass explosion hazard," not any particular substance.
Johnson approved every strike in Viet Nam the night before!
Yes...and if you think about it this is what Kerry is saying Bush should have done and why I believe Kerry say's he would do it "differently" than Bush.
He wants to be ordering troops around from the Whitehouse with his big map...moving tanks and ships around playing risk in the Oval Office.
The 101st was not at the complex on the date ABC claims this video was taken. It was at some other site, which makes their "point" moot (and wrong):
Timeline on missing explosives in Iraq
excerpt:
-- April 9: The 3rd Infantry Division captures Baghdad.
-- April 10: Troops from the 101st Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade spend 24 hours at the site, search for chemical weapons -- but not high explosives -- and then head to Baghdad. An NBC reporter embedded with the unit said there's no talk among the 101st of securing the area after they leave.
-- May 3: The nuclear agency purportedly notifies the U.S. Mission in Vienna of its concerns about the Al-Qaqaa facility.
~snip~
Pass it on.
You are a much better man than I.
YES YES YES!!! It was even stated on the IAEA report. THEY DID NOT CHECK INSIDE THE BUNKERS, ONLY THE SEALS ON THE OUTSIDE WERE CHECKED. SOMEONE STILL COULD HAVE GOTTEN INSIDE THE BUNKERS WITHOUT BREAKING THE SEALS. SO IAEA HAD NO IDEA WHETHER THE HMX WAS STILL ACTUALLY INSIDE. ABC IS NOT REPORTING THE WHOLE TRUTH. RAT BASTARDS!! WHY ARE THEY ALLOWED TO GET AWAY WITH THIS!!!!
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Because they can. They are counting on millions to believe half-truths, distortions, and outright lies. For instance, a co-worker of mine recently had to leave the break room after the conversation got politically heated...he told me that at least one of the women there said that she "found out everything she needed to know about President Bush from Fahrenheit 9/11".
I think you're right. It's not like the 2000 surprise - an old DUI story has impact because it's short and people understand it.
Check the link in my #85--more info there that might interest you.
Helpful observation. Thanks.
I should have pinged you to my posts on the other thread, too.
The 101st was at Al Qaqaa on April 10. This ABC story says they were there on April 18. That's wrong. My guess is these images were taken at another site which makes the story irrelevant.
See #80 for the link but yes to everything you posted.
1. The fiberboard barrels are a 1.1D hazardous substance vs. a hazardous finished material. The difference between the definitions of a substance and material is somewhat important. The substance is quite stable otherwise it wouldn't be in fiberboard barrels packing group III.
2. I suspect the boosters UN0042 were stored with the barrels in the same bunker due to compatibility (The "D" in the hazard classification") Those boxes in the still pictures are NOT, NOT proximity fuses. They are Boosters.
3. The plastic box with the plastic cylinders appear to be 60mm Mortar Rounds packaged as the Germans do. I suspect they are of German origin. Also stored in the same bunker due to hazard classification compatibility.
4. The 6 label is definitely a toxic inhalation hazard. I've never seen an X before. They are always in zones A, B, C or D. That is internationally. The label is probably a subsidiary (secondary) risk label of another primary risk. * This is rare for a munition.
5. The barreled substance and the boosters look like typical mining/quarrying operations materials. Example Bore a hole,pour the substance down the hole, prime the booster with a cap,lower the booster into the hole full of substance, let 'er rip.
THE ONLY 1.1D BLASTING AGENT IN A DRY FORM THAT HAS A SUBSIDIARY HAZARD CLASS OF 6. (Toxic Inhalation Hazard) IS;
DINITROPHENOL UN0076
Amazingly it has the same physical characteristics as those shown in the picture.
There is one other 1.1D/6 but that is a liquid and is also in the nitro family - Nitroglycerine.
Dinitrophenol is a blasting agent commonly used in "melt and pour" operations when manufacturing explosives.
I'm not an expert, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
This man is an elitist idiot IE no common sense.
High explosives have never been the issue except for the last 5 days .
But now High explosive = WMDs with the NYT, CBS, UN crowd - absolutely silly.
But one of the boxes says "Al QaQaa" on it.
Regardless of how this story gets spun, even assuming everything the left says turned out to be true, it's still a non-story.
The Wall Street Journal put it best yesterday (Wed) when it said that sure 380 tons sounds like a lot, but it has to be viewed in the context of the hundreds of thousands of tons of HE already seized, most of which has already been detonated, and who knows how many more thousands of tons hidden out there somewhere.
As I explained to Roger Ebert (yes, THAT Roger Ebert -- I'm in an e-mail debate with him on the whole Iraq situation right now), it's a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul on these 300+ tons, transferred from one Baathist gov't that supports terrorism (Iraq) to another Baathist gov't that supports terrorism (Syria).
So all the terrorists have gained under the worst possible circumstances at Al QaQaa after the invasion that ABC/CNN/NY Times can cook up is nothing more than access to the same 300+ tons of HE that the already had in Iraq, but they have LOST access they once had to those hundreds of thousands of tons of HE that the U.S. seized. I think we came out ahead.
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