Free Republic

As Washington officials questioned the reliability of an Iraqi official who reported that 377 tons of explosives went missing after the war, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency acknowledged yesterday that his agency is in no position to know what exactly happened. IAEA Director Mohammed ElBaradei confirmed in an interview yesterday that the sole source for the story that dominated the news last week was a letter sent to the agency on October 10 from an Iraqi official, Mohammed Abbas. "All we know (is that) the Iraqis reported to us the material is missing," Mr. ElBaradei told The...

October 30, 2004EXPLOSIVESFacts and Questions About Lost MunitionsBy WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGER he report that hundreds of tons of high explosives are missing from the Qaqaa munitions facility in Iraq has loomed over the last week of the presidential campaign, and led to a blur of charges and countercharges about what actually happened, and why the news came out so close to Election Day.Senator John Kerry has seized on the news, first reported by The New York Times and CBS' "60 Minutes," to reinforce his argument that the Bush administration bungled the postwar occupation of Iraq. President...