LAT: Soldiers Describe Looting of Explosives

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-explosives4nov04,1,7953366,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines

In the weeks after the fall of Baghdad, Iraqi looters loaded powerful explosives into pickup trucks and drove the material off the Al Qaqaa ammunition site, according to a group of U.S. Army reservists and National Guardsmen who said they witnessed the looting.

The soldiers said about a dozen U.S. troops guarding the sprawling facility could not prevent the theft because they were outnumbered by looters. Soldiers from one unit — the 317th Support Center based in Wiesbaden, Germany — said they sent a message to commanders in Baghdad requesting help to secure the site but received no reply.

The witnesses' accounts of the looting are the first provided by U.S. soldiers, and support claims that the American military failed to safeguard the munitions. Last month, the International Atomic Energy Agency — the U.N. nuclear watchdog — and the interim Iraqi government reported that about 380 tons of high-grade explosives had been taken from the Al Qaqaa facility after the fall of Baghdad on April 9, 2003. The explosives are powerful enough to detonate a nuclear weapon.

During the last week, when revelations of the missing explosives became an issue in the presidential campaign, the Bush administration suggested that the munitions could have been carted off by Saddam Hussein's forces before the war began. Pentagon officials later said that U.S. troops systematically destroyed hundreds of tons of explosives at Al Qaqaa after Baghdad fell.

Asked about the soldiers' accounts, Pentagon spokeswoman Rose-Anne Lynch said Wednesday, "We take the report of missing munitions very seriously. And we are looking into the facts and circumstances of this incident."

[Kagemusha]

1. Let me guess.

Not enough troops! Couldn't spare them! Doing something uh, more important!

[annxburns]

2. Won't stick - sorry soldiers.

Your country cares more about who said what about Mary Cheney.

Sorry about that. You may proceed with your dying and/or mutilation now. Red state America is busy waving the flag and watching Nascar. Besides, they are too busy protectin Ameriku from gay sex to care about your reality based world ....

[krkaufman]

10. Thanks. That pretty much sums it up. n/t

[wordout]

3. whew! THATS a relief!

at least we don't have to worry about how they're going to arm the opposition for perpetual war, now do we?

[blackspade]

4. naturally...

this comes out AFTER the election.
What a crock.

[Gloria]

5. "Reward Failure, Vote Bush!"

That is my mantra now....

[DELUSIONAL]

6. That is his life's story

"Reward Failure"

[maddezmom]

7. received no reply?

not shocked anymore, just part of the plan for neverending war.

[TacticalPeek]

8. Kick.

:kick:

[Mountainman]

9. Funny how this doen't mean anything to anyone anymore

Now that Bush has won, nothing he did in the last four years matters. It is something you just have to take and go on. We are also out numbered by a country full of ignorant people.

[GiovanniC]

11. Yahoo Headline: "Report: Troops Watched Al-Qaqaa Looting"

Jesus H. Christ.

They had to stand helplessly by because they were just astronomically outnumbered.

[ender]

15. the big question here is:

why the hell are there any american soldiers left to tell this? shouldnt they have... ya know... shot people trying to steal what they were guarding?

[ezekiel333]

12. "outnumbered by looters"

[Supersedeas]

13. but 'liberal' media only has time for softballs at Press Conference

this story will soon be buried for the Media's press for bi-partisan cooperation and the Peterson trial of course.

[maddezmom]

14. don't forget: * didn't get to hug his dad and there is a new dog in the WH

:(