US & Iraqi deaths under occupation caused by Bush's carelessness

[Bucky]

According to TPM (as if you don't have TPM bookmarked already), the insider newsletter The Nelson Report is reporting that the explosives used by Iraqi insurgents to kill both our troops and Iraqi civilians who cooperated with the occupation came from stockpiles looted just after the occupation began.

The IAEA had the explosives under guard during the inspections regime because they also had legitimate civilian construction uses. But these aren't just car bomb explosives--they're also nuke-triggering explosives. While our troops were sent to guard a bunch of oil wells, the Baathists (or other would-be resisters) went and looted the IAEA stores and prepared to kill with them.

Here's some of Josh Marshall's quoting from the Nelson Report:

Despite pressure from DOD to keep it quiet, the IAEA and the Iraqi Interim Government this month officially reported that 350-tons of dual-use, very high explosives were looted from a previously secure site in the early days of the US occupation in 2003. Administration officials privately admit this material is likely a primary source of the lethal car bomb attacks which cause so many US and Iraqi casualties.

In the first presidential candidate debate, on foreign policy, Democratic nominee John Kerry charged that captured munitions and weapons were being turned against Coalition Forces, with US troops suffering 90% of the casualties. But the specifics of the losses from the Al Qa Qaa bunker and building complex, only now being reported, were apparently unknown outside of DOD and the US occupation authorities. The Bush Administration barred the IAEA from any participation in the Iraq invasion and occupation process, and blocked IAEA requests to help in the search for WMD and other dangerous materials.

As part of the UN sanctions regime still in place when the US invaded, the IAEA had “under seal” 350 tons of RDX and HDX explosives, since singly, and in combination, these materials can be used in the triggering process for a nuclear weapon. However, the explosives were allowed to remain in Iraq due to their conventional use in construction, oil pipe lines, and the like.
Since the explosives went missing last year, sources say DOD and other elements in the Administration sought to block the IAEA from officially reporting the problem, and also tried to stop the new Iraqi Interim Government from cooperating with the IAEA. But finally, on Oct. 10, the Iraqi’s formally notified the IAEA, and on Oct. 15, the IAEA formally notified the Bush Administration

This is somebody's October surprise, but it's mostly the real world reminding Mr Bush and Mr Rumsfeld why you're not supposed to go to war for dumb reasons. Geeze, this one really is burning me up. More useless deaths. More chaos that could have been prevented. More shit that probably no one will ever be held accountable for.