WP: Iraqi Explosives Missing, U.N. Is Told (new information)

[diamond14]

note to moderators: there is significant NEW information in this news report...it is NOT the same as the NYT or AP wire reports...WP Walter Pincus (close to CIA) contributed...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62731-2004Oct25.html

Iraqi Explosives Missing, U.N. Is Told
U.S. Disputes Timing of Loss of Munitions Sealed by Inspectors at Weapons Facility

By Colum Lynch and Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, October 26, 2004; Page A18

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 25 -- The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency reported Monday that massive quantities of high explosives at an Iraqi weapons facility have disappeared, including some material under U.N. seal because of its potential use to detonate a nuclear bomb.

The disclosure came less than a month after ElBaradei warned the council that U.N. satellite photos had detected "widespread and apparently systematic dismantlement" of buildings linked to Iraq's former covert nuclear weapons program. Those buildings "housed high precision equipment" that had been subject to U.N. monitoring during Saddam Hussein's reign.

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.



Graham reported from Washington. Staff writers Walter Pincus and Robin Wright contributed to this report from Washington.

[JohnnyCougar]

1. Freepers lose again!!!

Sorry freepers...serves you right for believing Drudge lies!!

[Gloria]

5. kick

eom

[truthisfreedom]

2. kick-A$$! this is exactly what we need this week. excellent news, and

excellent, speedy reporting. thank you Washington Post!

[juliagoolia]

3. BADA BING BADA BOOM

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.

_____________________________________________________
BUSH and CREW on the CHEAP and the kids pay with limbs

[burrowowl]

4. KICK!

:kick: :kick: :kick:

[FormerOstrich]

6. I truly do not understand....

the incompetence. How many teams did we have looking for WMD all over the country? How many man-hours were invested in the search? Yet, they say they weren't tracking all material under UN seal.

The official added that U.S. authorities lacked a complete list of material that had been placed under IAEA seal. "We weren't doing accounting of everything under IAEA seal. Some stuff yes, but not all of it," he said.

Why did they lack a complete list from IAEA? I dare to say that it wasn't because IAEA didn't provide one. Could it be we were too arrogant to accept their data?

In spite of the fact the IAEA verified the stockpiles were there in January 2003 and the satellite evidence points to a post-invasion looting, they have the audacity to say that it was gone in May 2003.


ElBaradei informed the Security Council on Monday that the last time IAEA inspectors were able to verify the presence of the explosives at Qaqaa was in January 2003, two months before the U.S. invasion began.

Duelfer also said that a U.S. team inspecting the site in May 2003 turned up no evidence of explosives under U.N. seal. "My sense is, it's been looted, it's gone missing," he said of the material. "I don't know the specifics, but it's not there now.


Duelfer's tone seems to indicate a lack of concern. Perhaps this is the reason they neglected to report to the IAEA in May 2003 that the explosives were not there.

Meanwhile we are suppose to believe that they are downplaying the possibility of the explosives being used against us.

But U.S. officials in both Washington and Baghdad played down such a likelihood, noting that the car bombs and roadside explosives that have menaced troops have tended to be made from old artillery shells or dynamite.

Listening to the US officials leave one to believe the explosives were taken prior to US invasion, have not been found by the teams searching for WMD AND have not been used by the terrorist, hater of freedoms, against us. Maybe they stole it for Cement like the past.

Iraq told U.N. authorities that it had used the explosive in its cement industry.

Now you might tend to believe that this is a small out of they way site accidentally left unattended in the confusion of war except....

sprawling Qaqaa weapons facility outside Baghdad

"Coalition forces were present in the vicinity at various times during and after major combat operations," he said. "The forces searched 32 bunkers and 87 other buildings at the facility. While some explosive material was discovered, none of it carried IAEA seals."

This leaves one to conclude that troops were in the neighborhood occasionally and didn't find anything carrying the IAEA seal. My question is if they searched 32 bunkers and 87 buildings at this remote, not worthy of full time protection weapons facility: How many bunkers and buildings were NOT searched? How is it all the WMD teams didn't seem to find time to search them?

The really great thing is we call all rest assured that all is well because of our highly coordinated, fine oil machine, workings throughout the ranks...

Pentagon and State Department officials said the matter has been referred to the Iraq Survey Group, a CIA-run agency charged with accounting for what became of Iraq's unconventional weapons programs. But Charles A. Duelfer, a former U.N. weapons inspector who heads the group, said in a telephone interview that he had received no such orders.

FormerOstrich says FIRE THESE INCOMPETENT ARROGANT ASSHOLES!!!

[geek tragedy]

7. Hate to be a wet blanket, but this doesn't necessarily debunk the NBC

report.

The satellite photos show the status of the buildings, but not what's inside the buildings.

[LynnTheDem]

8. The NBC report doesn't NEED debunking!

The NBC report says a Pentagon official said the explosives were INTACT and SEALED when the troops were at the site.

It's not NBC needing debunking, it's Drudge's twisting of the NBC report and now CNN using Drudge's report instead of NBC's.

NBC report:

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 were intact. Thereafter the site was not secured by U.S. forces, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6326367

[geek tragedy]

9. There are conflicting NBC reports.

There is this, which is from the AP. There is also an NBC report that says that the soldiers there on 4-10-03 didn't find any of this stuff.

It's very confusing, but Bush has taken a serious hit.

[LynnTheDem]

12. Where?

There is no NBC report about their reporter saying there was no HE on NBC's website.

[Ramzi Al-Kaboom]

13. NBC

NBC News: Miklaszewski: “April 10, 2003, only three weeks into the war, NBC News was embedded with troops from the Army's 101st Airborne as they temporarily take over the Al Qakaa weapons installation south of Baghdad. But these troops never found the nearly 380 tons of some of the most powerful conventional explosives, called HMX and RDX, which is now missing. The U.S. troops did find large stockpiles of more conventional weapons, but no HMX or RDX, so powerful less than a pound brought down Pan Am 103 in 1988, and can be used to trigger a nuclear weapon. In a letter this month, the Iraqi interim government told the International Atomic Energy Agency the high explosives were lost to theft and looting due to lack of security. Critics claim there were simply not enough U.S. troops to guard hundreds of weapons stockpiles, weapons now being used by insurgents and terrorists to wage a guerrilla war in Iraq.” (NBC’s “Nightly News,” 10/25/04)

[Garbo 2004]

14. NBC got there a week after the 3 ID. NBC's report makes it

look like the first US troops arrived with the NBC crew on April 10. And it's not clear what the Airborne really did re: inspections, how qualified they were for identifying what they found, if they indeed inspect the entire huge site and how long they were "temporarily" there.

The 3 ID was there a week before as noted in this April 4, 2003 AP report: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,83252,00.html where they discuss some of the stuff found. And again, at that time they were looking for banned WMD's, not explosives and conventional munitions.

[wellst0nev0ter]

10. Ho Well, This Is Old News

Wait till the adoring public hears about the $70 Billion MORE dollars needed for the clusterfuck in Eye-Rack.

[SoCalDem]

11. IAEA chronological logs here..

right up til the invasion.. lists everything they found and destroyed..day by day..and linls to other articles and press releases

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2540604