Photojournalist saw Iraqis watching military leave open explosive bunkers

[goodhue]

EXCLUSIVE: 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS RAISES NEW QUESTIONS ABOUT UNGUARDED EXPLOSIVES

Updated: 10/28/2004

http://kstp.com/article/stories/S3740.html?cat=64

Photojournalist Joe Caffrey recalls seeing Iraqis watching them as they went through the bunkers. As his crew and the troops from the 101st departed each bunker, they left them open.

"We weren't quite sure what we were looking at, but we saw so much of it and it didn't appear that this was being secured in any way," said photojournalist Joe Caffrey. "It was several miles away from where military people were staying in their tents."

Caffrey also recalls overhearing a military briefing after curious soliders had encountered another bunker.

"Apparently two soldiers had gone in to these bunkers, lit a match for light and the fumes or powder... whatever it was, exploded and burned their clothes off," he said. "Shortly thereafter, everyone was told to stay away from these bunkers"

Another bunker encountered by the 101st Airborne and the 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS crew was locked with chains and a seal left by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency. According to the IAEA, the seal marked a facility suspected of holding "dual-purpose" materials that could be used to produce nuclear weapons.

[Eloriel]

1. These guys are great

I'm so glad they're not sitting on this. Could this be the revival of honest-to-goodness and honest investigative journalism??

They surely deserve Pulitzers out of this. (Are Pulitzers given to broadcast media or cable? I oughtta know that... but I don't.)

[goodhue]

2. kick for Joe Caffrey

[goodhue]

3. kick

[annabanana]

4. who are the people in these pictures?...n/t

[JHB]

5. Let's look at that again:

See the thin wire attached to the disk? That's a seal. Like the IAEA used. Like Saddam's Army DIDN'T use on their own.

[fob]

9. You know JHB it goes much deeper than just a picture of an intact seal.

What that really means is that inspections work, saddam even under threat and ACTUAL invasion (remember the war started in what late march early april and this photo is from AFTER ther fall of Baghdad on April 9th) still didn't use these conventional weapons to defend himself.

Think about that. That little chain and tiny wire were all that saddam and his army had to break to get at this stuff, yet they did not. Inspectors catalogued it, and "secured" it and told saddam to leave it alone. Need for war - NONE.

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. So we only committed a small number of troops

to go into this site, break open the locks and then leave. Then we proceed to pretend this site didn't exist for the next year and a half.

Gosh, maybe we should have just set up a roadside fireworks stand. At least we would have made money off the deal.

[JHB]

7. Not "we"

Chim-Chim and his monkey-boy PNAC Gallery.

[goodhue]

8. kick

This should be the big news story this weekend. Please don't let it drown out.

[donsu]

10. they were stupid enough to light a match!

guess they were never supplied with flashlights. (were they ordered to strike a match?)

[KansDem]

11. This really irritates me to no end...

Apparently two soldiers had gone in to these bunkers, lit a match for light and the fumes or powder... whatever it was, exploded and burned their clothes off," he said. "Shortly thereafter, everyone was told to stay away from these bunkers"

Get these guys some flashlights! Wouldn't you think that anyone in the White House with an IQ above room temperature would know that this whole Iraq expedition would result in inspecting these kinds of bunkers, and FLASHLIGHTS would be an absolutely necessary tool????

I mean, how stupid is it to say "Iraq has WMDs, which are stored in bunkers. F*ck Saddam, we're going in (to find and secure these WMDs), but we're not going to provide something as simple and necessary as flashlights to assist our soldiers..."?????

[goodhue]

12. Pictures above are from April 18th.