NEW INFO re explosives (poor freeps)

[LynnTheDem]

The letter from Mohammad J. Abbas, a senior official in the Iraqi Ministry of Science and Technology, said that nearly 215 tons of HMX, 156 tons of RDX and 6 tons of PETN had gone missing after April 9, 2003, the day Baghdad fell to U.S. forces. The letter blamed a "lack of security" for the loss.

In satellite photos of the Qaqaa site taken in November 2003 and shown to The Washington Post on Monday by senior U.N. officials, signs of damage from previous U.S. bombing campaigns and looting were evident. But the facilities that stored HMX and RDX were still largely intact, according to the officials.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x932433

[geek tragedy]

1. This is good, but it doesn't mean the explosives hadn't been removed.

We're much better off pointing out the bald-faced lies of the administration on this topic.

[papau]

3. some source/links on missing tons - indicate we found intact

Nelson Report newsletter is a main source - links below


http://www.nytimes.com/pages/pageone/scan/index.html
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_10_...

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_10_...

Nelson Report newsletter is a private NEWSLETTER widely read in DC



http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2004/oct...

By WILLIAM J. KOLE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
VIENNA, Austria (AP)
<snip>
At the Pentagon, an official who monitors developments in Iraq said U.S.-led coalition troops had searched Al-Qaqaa in the immediate aftermath of the March 2003 invasion and confirmed that the explosives, under IAEA seal since 1991, were intact. Thereafter, the site was not secured by U.S. forces, the official said, also speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Iraqis told the nuclear agency the materials were stolen and looted because of a lack of security at governmental installations, Fleming said.
"We do not know what happened to the explosives or when they were looted," she told AP.

[papau]

10. Will US Media dare to report this AP Wire conjecture? Insurgents got 400T!

Will US Media dare to report this AP Wire conjecture? Insurgents got 400T!

Insurgents could possess up to 400 tons of the deadly materials often used in bombs

By William J. Kole, Associated Press

VIENNA, Austria -- The U.N. nuclear agency warned Monday that insurgents in Iraq may have obtained nearly 400 tons of missing explosives that can be used in the kind of car bomb attacks that have targeted U.S.-led coalition forces for months.
<snip>

The disappearance raised questions about why the United States didn't do more to secure the Al-Qaqaa facility 30 miles south of Baghdad and failed to allow full international inspections to resume after the March 2003 invasion.
<snip>

Al-Qaqaa is near Youssifiyah, an area rife with ambush attacks. An Associated Press Television News crew that drove past the compound Monday saw no visible security at the gates of the site, a jumble of low-slung, yellow-colored storage buildings that appeared deserted.
<snip>

Insurgents targeting coalition forces in Iraq have made widespread use of plastic explosives in a bloody spate of car bomb attacks. Officials were unable to link the missing explosives directly to the recent car bombings, but the revelations that they could have fallen into enemy hands caused a stir in the last week of the U.S. presidential campaign.
<snip>
http://www.trivalleyherald.com/Stories/0,1413,86~10669~2492592,00.html

[papau]

12. Josh Marshall posts interview NBC Producer embed - No Search

Josh Marshall posts interview NBC Producer embed - No Search


http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com /

Lai Ling Jew: When we went into the area, we were actually leaving Karbala and we were initially heading to Baghdad with the 101st Airborne, Second Brigade. The situation in Baghdad, the Third Infantry Division had taken over Baghdad and so they were trying to carve up the area that the 101st Airborne Division would be in charge of. Um, as a result, they had trouble figuring out who was going to take up what piece of Baghdad. They sent us over to this area in Iskanderia. We didn't know it as the Qaqaa facility at that point but when they did bring us over there we stayed there for quite a while. Almost, we stayed overnight, almost 24 hours. And we walked around, we saw the bunkers that had been bombed, and that exposed all of the ordinances that just lied dormant on the desert.

AR: Was there a search at all underway or was, did a search ensue for explosives once you got there during that 24-hour period?

LLJ: No. There wasn't a search. The mission that the brigade had was to get to Baghdad. That was more of a pit stop there for us. And, you know, the searching, I mean certainly some of the soldiers head off on their own, looked through the bunkers just to look at the vast amount of ordnance lying around. But as far as we could tell, there was no move to secure the weapons, nothing to keep looters away. But there was – at that point the roads were shut off. So it would have been very difficult, I believe, for the looters to get there.

AR: And there was no talk of securing the area after you left. There was no discussion of that?

LLJ: Not for the 101st Airborne, Second Brigade. They were -- once they were in Baghdad, it was all about Baghdad, you know, and then they ended up moving north to Mosul. Once we left the area, that was the last that the brigade had anything to do with the area.

AR: Well, Lai Ling Jew, thank you so much for shedding some light into that situation. We appreciate it.

[Garbo 2004]

4. US troops inspected al Qa Qaa before this April 4, 2003 AP report.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,83252,00.html

This would seem to be when the site was first inspected by US troops and presumably the explosives cache was confirmed as intact as the Pentagon source recently indicated.

NBC didn't arrive on the scene until April 10. Furthermore, the site is huge. How much did they search the site when they "temporarily" took over the site? And how long was their "temporary" stay?

At any rate, it would seem that NBC team were not with the first troops on the scene. Although that shot at the wall did make for a nice "action" shot.

(note: edited to use April 4 AP news story located at the much loved Fox News website. lol)

[geek tragedy]

5. Bingo!

Suck on it, Freepers!

[LynnTheDem]

6. But WHY doesn't NBC have their own NBC reporter on their site???

This NBC reporter thinks he was the first one to Al Qaqaa (he wasn't) and he's not got any explosives ID training...but aside from all that, WHY is his "debunking" that drudge and CNN are using NOT on NBC's site???

[Garbo 2004]

8. Evidently NBC didn't find their own story as significant as did Drudge

since NBC made it somewhat difficult to find on their (MSNBC) site. But the link to the video is way down this page for anyone who wants to see it. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6323933

[Guaranteed]

9. KABLOOIE!!

Just blew Drudge RIGHT out of the water!!

AGAIN!!

[nosmokes]

2. but we're safer now.

at least according to whatever passes for safer in this new reality that the sqWorm has created.

i wonder what his dictionary looks like anyhow?

[SoCalDemocrat]

7. This is what you need...

The point to make is that Bush had the troops securing the Oil fields instead of the supposed WMD sites, including these well known high explosives sites. Day #2 our troops secured Oil fields. WEEK THREE they went to the explosives site and found it looted. Big surprise.

Bush didn't secure the explosives and nuclear materials and research papers in Iraq because the planning centered on protecting the oil resources. This site has an excellent historical breakdown of what happened starting with day 1 of the invasion. You'll witness in all its glory the description of our troops moving in with all haste to secure....

Iraq's Oil Ministry and Oil refineries.

Huh?

I thought we went there to secure the WMD's?

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraqi_freedom_d2.htm



At approximately 6 p.m. on March 21, the elements of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, specifically the 5th Regimental Combat Team secured the gas oil separation plants (GOSPs), crude oil export facilities and oil wells in the Rumaylah Oil Fields. U.S. Marines from the 1st Marine Division, and U.K. Royal Marines combined their efforts to secure the critical Iraqi infrastructure.

Four GOSPs, a key pumping station at Az Zubayr, a manifold and metering station on the Al Faw peninsula, and the offshore crude oil export facilities had been secured and were critical nodes of the larger oil infrastructure in Southern Iraq. These key facilities gave the Iraqi people the ability to preserve 85 percent of the function of those fields.

The Mina al Bakr export facility was captured intact and in working order. The Khor al Amaya export facility was destroyed during the war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s, and is currently non-operating. Both facilities are capable of handling 1.6 million barrels per day when operational. After their capture, all six major GOSPs were being evaluated in order to determine what work is needed to make the areas safe to begin pumping oil again to support the people of Iraq.

Six major GOSPs, covering an area approximately 50 kilometers in length, included seven oil wells that have been sabotaged and were on fire. Oil fire fighting crews were to move into the areas at a designated time to snuff out the fires.

Some of the deserted plants were improperly shut down by Iraqis, causing oil pumping from the well to overfill the pumping station’s oil tanks. The oil was seeping around the area and posed a potential threat of explosion if the oil reaches the burning wells.

The 1st Marine Division and the UK's 7th Armoured Brigade engaged the 51st Mechanized Division outside Basra, a battle which raged for some hours. The engagement began with the Marines initiating 155mm artillery fire at 6:25 p.m. local time as multiple AH-1s began to stream ahead softening Iraqi forces. By late Friday afternoon Eastern Standard Time the 51st Mech had surrendered, marking the first time that the commander of an Iraqi division and his deputy had personnaly surrendered to the US. The roughly 8,000 soldiers that comprised the division were secured as enemey prisoners of war.

Although the oil infrastructure was confirmed to have been extensively booby-trapped, the installations were secured intact and US and British troops began clearing the demolition charges. The US V Corps secured bridges over the Euphrates in their rapid advance on Baghdad.

[LuminousX]

11. Bush knew there were no WMDs so he wasn't worried about

securing weapon depots.