AP: Rebels may have missing explosives.

[milkyway]

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]

1. Will US Media dare to report this conjecture?

:-)

[papau]

9. 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.

[whistle]

2. Wouldn't 400 tons of high explosives be hard to hide......

...according to news reports that is the equivalent of 40 army transport vehicles, so these things would have to stand out wouldn't they?

I have a theory: the insurgents do not have the 400 tons of explosives, but someone or some group does. That someone or group is hiding the explosives in areas that are well known to our military and intelligence, but either not suspected or being ignored. That means someone in our military over in Iraq is allowing this to take place either because they are benefiting financially or are too intimidated and in fear of their own lives to say anything.

[Kagemusha]

10. You move it out in little pieces.

This stuff's like (or maybe is, not sure of the technical details) C-4. If you can just walk in and take a couple of pounds and leave and the Americans never notice or do anything, then why not do just that?

Probably the resistance was shocked at its good fortune and got more serious about looting the place as bigger time leaders became aware of it.

[whistle]

16. But where would "in" be....walk in and take from where?

...it would have be be some type of warehosue or ammunition bunker similar to Al Qaqaa, so that would be well known to US military and intelligence. 400 tons is a lot of HMX explosives. Suppose they are hidden in Iraqi homes or Mosques (unlikely) but any raids would reveal this, or direct hits would blow this stuff up, wouldn't it? No, the HMX is not at Al Qaqaa, but it is somewhere and I still say that the some in the military know where it is and just are not telling.

[Jacobin]

3. Gee, ya think?

What the hell do these dweebs think all those 'kabooms' in IraqNam are from?

[leftchick]

14. think of one of the biggest 'kabooms" by the resistance.....

The bombing of the UN building in Baghdad which killed 22. I wonder if they tested for any of these explosives.

[Davis_X_Machina]

4. AP: "Bears may shit in woods." n/t

[Ganja Ninja]

5. Now that ya think about it, could be!

:think: Who would'a believed it! </sarcasm>

[papau]

6. One more likely fact that will not be discussed in US Media.

:-(

[papau]

13. 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.

[joefree1]

7. Duh!

1,2,3,4
What we fighting for?
Don't ask Boosh, he don't have plan,
Next stop is Iraq-nam

and it's 5,6,7,8
open them pearly gates,
Now don't you stop to ask me why,
Whoopie, we're all gonna die.

Kaboom!

[Zorra]

8. The Iraqi Resistance has the explosives that the Bu$h administration

left completely unguarded?

How can anybody, and I mean anybody, be that effing stupid?

Seriously.

Are they deliberately arming the Resistance in order to prolong the war and increase war profits? Killing and wounding more American soldiers on purpose for money?

We have two options to consider here: (A) Either the Bu$h administration left these explosives unguarded because they are criminally stupid and negligent, or (B) They left them unguarded deliberately in order to prolong the war and increase war profits.

Either way, prison time is in order for the whole damn nest of snakes.

[flobee1kenobi]

15. I am now FULLY convinced

asshat could care less about the soldiers that have died to fight his bullshit war! This feeling started when I saw the bandaids with the purple hearts. Any soldier injured in battle who didnt view that as the ultimate insult has no soul. This animal values oil and profit more than human life. He is a psychotic lunatic and needs to be locked up before he does any more harm!

[whistle]

17. 145,000 U.S. marines were sent into Iraq in March and April 2003....

...and went straight to and dispersed among the oil fields and oil pipelines to guard those. The corporate private armies stood in the background waiting for the U.S. military to secure these oil installations. While waiting, some of these private armies helped themselves to the HMX stock piles 400 tons at least, probably much more, hide them in their private munition bunkers, and have been profiteering from that stash ever since. The administration has turned a blind eye and has covered this up. Our troops have been dying in increasing numbers ever since.

<edit> by marines I mean ground troops

[shance]

19. How do you know that the *resistance* has it? Where they gonna put it?

I have a difficult time thinking the *resistance* has some great storage facility with which to guard it and secure it. Its bigger than two large jets. The resistance doesnt have their own open for business compound that I have heard of with which to plant all these weapons.

[Zorra]

20. Um, those are not flowers that they are using as car bombs and as

devices for blowing up oil pipelines. Those explosives came from somewhere. The Iraqi Resistance has been successful at holding off the most powerful military on earth. They are able to do this because they are obviously somewhat intelligent and organized.

And they are certainly intelligent enough not to put all their eggs in one basket. They probably have dispersed these explosives to Resistance fighters throughout the country.

And who else would you suggest has these explosives? Al Qaeda maybe?

I'm sure it isn't the Red Cross.

[milkyway]

11. I know this point seems obvious, but the mainstream media has been

reluctant to imply that the insurgents have this stuff, and they have been using it against our troops. It's good to see the AP take this small step. This story is going to drip out for days, while the bush admin gets twisted into knots by their own lies.

[KoKo]

12. I thought the NYT's and Josh's website already reported this? It took

two days for AP to "drip" it? :eyes:

[milkyway]

18. The Nelson Report that Josh cited has not yet hit the mainstream.

It goes much further than the Times or anyone else in implicating the bush admin in a coverup for over a year. The timid mainstream media will want iron-clad proof before they report this one week before an election (and nobody will want to jump into the pool first). The Nelson Report is a highly influential private newsletter. I'm sure much of the mainstream media is well aware of it. See Josh Marshall's original two posts from Sunday.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_10_24.php#003777

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_10_24.php#003778

[KoKo]

23. I read Josh's Website...but thanks for the links for those who don't...now

tonight I watched Dobbs and scanned the cables..and it seems they are far behind "Nelson Report" and Josh's "TPM" site in reporting the TRUTH of this.

They are all dickering with the EVIDENCE and playing both sides against the middle in case it goes to Kerry or Bush...IMHO...from my scan. which WAS a SCAN, so I didn't spend much time on any of it...just did a check.

I'm working hard here in NC to get Kerry/Edwards elected...so my time to do what I used to on DU is limited.

[barb162]

21. who else would have them other than the insurgents, terrorists, etc.

I found it almost funny when the Iraq minister said these weapons could fall into the "wrong Hands, " like they would fall into the RIGHT hands or something?????

[pinniped]

22. I'm sure they're all waiting for the explosives buyback program.

n/t

[NNN0LHI]

24. I have a feeling they are going to give them back to us

Little bit at a time.

Don

[The_Casual_Observer]

25. May have them?

If they don't have them then who does?

And the wh denies that any of this is being used to kill the military, which means it is being used to kill the military.