Then the Pentagon and other sources left April 18 out of their timeline all week. They specifically issued a timeline you know, and April 18 is not on it as regards Al Qaqaa.
I think the date is indeed a problem for this particular story.
Then the Pentagon and other sources left April 18 out of their timeline all week There was a thread yesterday from someone who's friend was in Iraq, and he said that some troops HQ'd for 2 weeks near Al Qaqaa right after April 10. See http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1259535/posts for more info, but here is the main part:
As soon as this Al-Qaqaa story "broke" I thought of calling my friend (an officer and unit commander attached to the 101st during Operation Iraqi Freedom) to find out what really happened. Well, I just got off the phone with him and after joking that he was directing traffic for all the Iraqi trucks that looted explosives out of Al-Qaqaa, I asked him what this story is really all about. Turns out several of his unit's men were with the 2nd Brigade that first arrived at Al-Qaqaa, secured it, spent the night, then moved out. The day they left, the 101st Division Command Staff (which my friend was attached to) then moved into Al-Qaqaa and set up temporary HQ for TWO WEEKS! While there he walked around and inside bunkers and saw all sorts of stuff stacked up and lying around: AK-47s, RPGs, rockets, bombs, ammo, and black powder used in making weapons as that's what the Al-Qaqaa facility was - manufacture and storage.
Did he see any IAEA sealed bunkers? No. Did he see anything other than field weapons/munitions? No. Did they allow Iraqis to drive trucks into HQ and help themselves to weapons? Gimme a break! Would the 101st Division Command Staff HQ next to 380 tons of HMX, RDX and PETN during combat? I would think not.
The complete pentagon timeline is either not being released because
- there is some classified information that would need to be released that is being debated
- they are gathering all the info to present as a coherent case to kill this story once and for all, and plan on getting the final story out sometime tomorrow
- they are incompetent
We'll see in the next few days.
NOTE: The video crew admits that they didn't go into bunkers with IAEA seals.
A 5 Eyewitness News crew in Iraq may have been just a door away from material that could be used to detonate nuclear weapons. The evidence is in videotape shot by Reporter Dean Staley and Photographer Joe Caffrey at or near the Al Qaqaa munitions facility
Go http://www.kstp.com/ to watch the video. In it, they go thru one bunker, using bolt cutters on a chain locking the door. then they come upon the one with the IAEA seal, and the soldier says "This one's going to be alot harder to get into".
Ultimately they say they never got in, but they show a picture of a soldier climbing up to look thru a vent in the side of the building.