AP: Pentagon official says explosives were intact in March 2003

[milkyway]

when U.S. forces searched Al-Qaqaa.

October 25, 2004 at 12:23:42 PDT

U.N.: Tons of Explosives Missing in Iraq
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.

<snip>

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2004/oct/25/102504973.html

This story will have strong legs that will last thru the election. Much of the mainstream media is taking a hard look at this and scrambling to find out what happened. And it emphasizes Kerry's criticism of bush's handling of Iraq--he has incompetently managed the war.

[whistle]

1. But then in May the Iraq explosives mysteriously disappeared....

...how convenient!

[mom cat]

6. I just wonder who could have taken them. Yuo can't hide tons od explosives

under your coat! :nuke:

[leftchick]

9. either the US military knows where they are....

which is quite possible. Or since the place was not locked up for over a year it became a regular Looters Free For All! With people sneaking in daily taking a little here and a little there. Or a lot here and there.

[truthisfreedom]

10. most likely they were taken in smaller batches to thousands of hiding

places where they have been distributed for use in blowing up pipelines, roadside bombs, and are being readied for attacks on US soil and in airplanes. we'll be facing this 760,000 pounds of high explosive for the rest of our lives. bush is not incompetent. he's the antichrist.

[AIJ Alom]

2. this story is even bigger. because this blows Republican arguments out of

the water !!!!

"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."

Holy COW !!!!

[Lindacooks]

26. I saw some yahoo on a cable talk show

yammering on about how 'this proved that Saddam Hussein had WMDs!!'

He totally ignores the fact that the U.S. was supposed to secure and destroy those 'WMDs'; instead the oil was deemed more important and got protection.

Imagine if Hussein really HAD had WMDs - since the U.S. was unable to secure explosives, how in the hell were they going to secure nuclear weapons, biological and chemical weapons??????

[MADem]

35. Saddam had oil and fertilizer

So technically, yeah, he DID have WMDs--like Timmy McVeigh did.

They need to get off that horse, it refuses to ride. But it does make them look like delusional idiots every time they continue to insist that Saddam had more than he did. Saddam was a bullshit artist, a really good bullshit artist. He was also a con man of the first order, paying off people, to include US corporations, to get around the embargo. There are plenty of people who would shit bricks if their collusion with that creature came out...and a lot of them are registered republicans, of that I have no doubt.

[Pirate Smile]

3. Well, it was more important to guard the Oil Ministry.

[leftchick]

4. pissing off the old timers in the Pentagon is coming back to...

Bite Them In The ASS!! Take that rummy the dummy you putrid wretch!
This makes it SOOOOO obvious they had no fucking intention of stopping WMD or any other fucking weapon from getting in the hands of "terrists"! All they cared about was the OIL! Since the invasion there has been 24/7 guarding of the Oil Ministry and every oil pipeline and installation the US has the manpower for.

I can't WAIT till Greg Palast lets loose with his information from the pentagon regarding those oil fields and US designs on them...
PRE- Sept. 11!!!

[dansolo]

30. And of course the irony is

That these explosive are probably what has been used to blow up the oil pipelines. Then again, that could be their plan, to have the oil infrastructure attacked to drive up the price of oil and provide more work for Halliburton. They probably didn't plan on the explosives also being used on the US troops.

[maddezmom]

5. rove's head is going to fall off his spin machine

The explosives have been intact and secure since 1991......now after we invade they are poof, "up in the air" no one knows.

[MisterP]

11. and we cut $ for tracking nukes in the ex-USSR,

but we're somehow safer?

[democracy eh]

7. hmmm I guess they weren't trucked into Syria by Saddam

as the Freeps asserted

[Jacobin]

8. Uh oh.

This is NOT what Smirky's mouth piece was saying today.....I'm shocked that they didn't get their stories straight!!

Could someone be lying? About national security?

[Beetwasher]

12. "Well, There Were All These Arab Guys Going In And Out W/ Trucks

"...and when we asked them what they were doing they always had a plausible reason, you know, one guy said he was a plumber, another guy said he was delivering a pizza, which was kind of odd, because, you know, most pizza guys don't drive 3 ton trucks and the nearest pizza place is a couple thousand miles from here, but hey! What am I supposed to do? Check EVERYONE or something? Yeesh, I'm busy dodging bullets ya know! Come to think of it, maybe I shoulda been a bit more hard on the guy who said he was delivering a candygram..."
-Unidentified coalition member on the missing explosives.:eyes: TIC!!!!

[Inland]

15. "Publishers' Clearing House Prize Patrol." "Jehovah's Witnesses"

But what was really bad was they let guys through identifying themselves only as "George Tenet" or "Jack Mehoff"

[KittyWampus]

13. It Seems Probable That A Black Market Has Or Will Be Set Up For This

stuff.

A LOT of money could be made selling this...

is this the sort of opportunity a Crime Family would pass up?

[mom cat]

14. Who had the means, the motive and the opportunity? Could it be........

Subject: And why did we keep the IAEA out... so we could take the stuff ?
Message:
Who else could have taken it. Weren't we monitoring it by satellite? It would have had to be a pretty big operation not to see. Just how big a job would it be to move that much stuff: How many trucks, how long would it take, who had the ability to do it with a war going on? And didn't I read this morning that one of the explosives that went missing can be used to detonate a nuke...So why did McClellan harp on the fact that the explosives that were lifted are not nuclear? And whet about the buzz about a possible nuclear detonation in the US before the election. Is this what we are being primed for? And wouldn't it be convenient for the explosives to be linked to the stolen material....Which we just found out about 10 days ago? Then we could "prove" that it was the terrorists! And for how long did the Allawi puppetry know about the loss? And they first called the IAEA? yeah right!..You might think that they might have stepped across the hall in the Green Zone office space that they share... or pick up the phone and call some US official. It is not even a long distance call from one side of the Green Zone to the other. This pack of lies won't wash!

[NashVegas]

16. wrong headline, and a dupe

actual headline: U.N.: Tons of Explosives Missing in Iraq

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x929463

[milkyway]

17. This is a different story, from a different outlet with different info.

[Dem2theMax]

18. Gee, Tom Brokaw said we didn't know they were there.

Of course as I watched the "Nightly News Lies" my mouth dropped open. I pray this story goes :nuke:

[BUSHOUT]

19. I saw the same claim made on the FOX and MSNBC websites...

this afternoon.

I've been really confused as to why CNN has been letting administration spokespeople to claim that when soldiers came through they found "some" explosives, but none with an IAEA seal on them.

I guess it's just lazy media again. They'll pick up on the oversight (we'll help them!) and the story will get more legs tomorrow.

[Amigust]

25. Bush's media friends trying to minimize

the story's impact. imo

[BUSHOUT]

20. I sent this part to CNN, CNN.com, and CNN headline news. we want truth...

Asked them why they're allowing a different impression to be created by administration spokespersons they speak with.

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.

SEND THEM YOUR QUESTIONS!!!

[cubsfan forever]

41. Did it! n/t

Professor 2

[DrBB]

21. WHEN will they ask "are these explosives right now killing our troops"?

So far the non-blogospheric press has danced as daintily and far as possible from that question. This story at least pushes it one more step in that direction.

Are the insurgents using this stuff in the IEDs and car bombs that have been blowing up our troops?

That's the radioactive question. And I want to see Scotty confronted with it and watch him bluster and stammer. WHY DON'T THEY ASK IT?

[Kimber Scott]

23. Well, they are blowing up people and they got the bombs from somewhere

and if it wasn't from this unprotected site, it was probably from another. It's a question that's already answered.

[Kimber Scott]

22. Let's hope none of these bombs have made it into US ports in uninspected

containers.

Thanks, Bush. You make me feel safer every day.

[Tesibria]

24. Drudge is reporting that NBC is reporting ...

...that the explosives vanished prior to troop arrival.


... gonna be interesting to watch this play out ..

[blackcat77]

29. Drudge LIES!

All the NBC report said was that the one unit with which the reporter was embedded didn't find it. Several other reports have confirmed that the supplies were intact later and even the hand-picked, puppet govt of Iraq reports that the explosives were looted after Sept 2003.

No way will this lie stand up to the light of day. This is Drudge's October surprise for his buddy George.

[hippywife]

33. CNN seems to be playing along

it's their big headline this morning:

Report: Explosives already gone when U.S. arrived

in huge letters on their front page.

[LocalGuy]

27. Sadly, I guess you can

make the case that these WERE THE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION...

I've made lots of Kerry calls and feel good about next Tuesday.

[machiado]

28. No you can't

These were SECURED by the UN inspectors and watched by the IAEA, until they all had to evacuate due to an impending invasion by the US.

[Garbo 2004]

32. No if they were considered WMD's the UN would have had them destroyed. n/t

[leftchick]

34. how lame....

These were acounted for and sealed by the IAEA well before the invasion. Assuming that he even read the reoprt, the fact that idiotface chose to ignore them and let them get into the hands of "terrists" shows utter incompetence and a lack of caring for our troops.

try again... :eyes:

[kegler14]

40. Sorry, dude

but these were not WMD. These were conventional explosives, not biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.

[robbedvoter]

42. If so, we surely liberated them from UN opression!

Nice try!

[Seabiscuit]

31. DIS' IS DESPICABBLE!!!

[byronm]

36. Why is CNN & CBS reporting incorrectly?

They're saying there is proof that it was already gone when we got there..

I think its time to "DU" the story and break the cover up!

[cubsfan forever]

39. Excellent point!

How could they know that it was missing BEFORE the invasion?

Professor 2

[sidpleasant]

37. High explosives and precision machine tools missing

A few weeks ago the IAEA reported that an entire factory full of precision machine tools that could have been used to make parts for atomic bombs had been stolen, and now we find out that hundreds of tons of chemical explosives that could be used to initiate a fission bomb are gone too. Let's see, is there anyone in the neighborhood of Iraq that would be interested in parts and tooling for a nuclear weapons program? Hmm...could it be - Iran? Did Bush's incompetence in planning for the war and its aftermath allow the Iranians to grab the remnants of Saddam's bomb program? That might be even scarier prospect than Iraqi insurgents getting the explosives, and maybe Kerry should hit Bush over the head with it.

[maddezmom]

38. to keep all info together here are current DU links

Transcript from McClellan's press gaggle today. The missing explosives
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x931213

Kerry demands answers about missing explosives
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x930050

Huge Cache of Explosives Vanished From Site in Iraq -NYT, front page
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x929463

Pentagon says its unclear if explosives disappeared after Iraq site fell uder US control
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x930969

White House plays down loss of explosives in Iraq
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=931606&mesg_id=931606

CNN - Report: Explosives already gone when U.S. troops arrived
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=932531&mesg_id=932531

[milkyway]

43. Thanks!

[milkyway]

44. Also, Josh Marshall has been all over this story. He was first to break it

online Sunday (not his own reporting, but commenting on the Nelson Report story that was in their private newsletter). He also hinted at the Times and 60 Minutes reports to come. He's been superb at quickly debunking the various lies. Maybe you should include a link to his site also.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

[Supersedeas]

45. but but but Corp Execs at CNN say that Rove said that NBC said....