I HATE to do this but I must ask-the 400 tons story a RECAP?

[underpants]

I am running around here trying to get stuff done so that I can take of tomorrow and thru the election to head a GOTV phone bank so this story slipped by me a bit.

I got the first part-about the 400 tons of stuff missing. Last night I watched a bit of the W/Hannity clash of themental titans interview and as they were going to break Hannity said that a story was breaking on the FACT that these weapons were already missing-according to the 101st Airborne.

This morning I read in LBN that they were missing but the first post says "Already debunked" I missed the debunking.

Was there an AP story about the weapons being found in the first place? but now CNN and the White House are trying to spin around that?

Any one? Any links? Again sorry for asking I have to run back out of the office. Thanks in advance.

[Killarney]

1. check out talkingpointsmemo.com

Josh Marshall has a great recap.

[papau]

2. I love using Fox 4/4/03 story to show Fox today is a liar! LOL - :-)

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,83252,00.html

Allies Find Signs of Iraq's Chemical Preparedness
Friday, April 04, 2003
As the military advances closer to Baghdad, signs of Iraqi chemical preparedness are multiplying, although there is still no conclusive evidence Saddam Hussein's regime possesses weapons of mass destruction.

On Friday, troops at a training facility in the western Iraqi desert came across a bottle labeled "tabun" -- a nerve gas and chemical weapon Iraq is banned from possessing.

Closer to Baghdad, troops at Iraq's largest military industrial complex found nerve agent antidotes, documents describing chemical warfare and a white powder that appeared to be used for explosives.

U.N. weapons inspectors went repeatedly to the vast al Qa Qaa complex -- most recently on March 8 -- but found nothing during spot visits to some of the 1,100 buildings at the site 25 miles south of Baghdad.

Col. John Peabody, engineer brigade commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, said troops found thousands of 2-by-5-inch boxes, each containing three vials of white powder, together with documents written in Arabic that dealt with how to engage in chemical warfare.<snip>

[papau]

6. Will US Media dare to report this AP Wire conjecture? Insurgents got 400T!

Will US Media dare to report this AP Wire conjecture? Insurgents got 400T!

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]

7. 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.

[BUSHOUT]

3. Here's the rundown:

The IAEA tells us they warned the admin. before AND after the invasasion.

An anonymous pentagon source apparently "closely involved" with Iraq told a reporter that the explosives were confirmed intact by US troops shortly after the invasion began.

Now Drudge, WorldNetDaily, MensNewsDaily, HundredPercenter, Washington Times, and CNN are reporting that an embedded NBC reporter was with the 101st at the site and they found no explosives.

There's also a report about a team there a week before the NBC reporter and 101st which found thousands of boxes with vials of white powder determined to be "exploaives"

Go to http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/ for a better rundown.

[underpants]

4. Okay thanks -revisionist history, I'm not surprised.

:thumbsup:

[AlamoDemoc]

5. Here's what reliable news papers are saying;

"Diplomats in Vienna said the IAEA had cautioned the United States about the danger of the explosives before the war, and after the invasion it specifically told U.S. officials about the need to keep them secured.

Washington was told of the seriousness of the matter on Oct. 15, IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said in Vienna. President George W. Bush was informed days later, White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.

A Western diplomat close to the IAEA, who declined to be identified, said it was hard to understand why the U.S. military had failed to secure the facility.

"This was a very well-known site. If you could have picked a few sites that you would have to secure then . . . Al-Qaqaa would certainly be one of the main ones," the diplomat said."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20041026/IRAQ26/TPInternational/Americas

[SoCalDem]

8. I have posted (several times) the IAEA chronological log

of their inspections..

We kicked the IAEA out just before we invaded.. The stuff was there UNDER seal...we did not secure it.. The "insurgents" have it now..and they are giviing it back to us, one IED and car bomb at a time..

I'll go look for the links again..BRB:)

edit... here are the links
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2540604

second edit/....more here..including one from FOX
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=2540428&mesg_id=2540570