Let's get some letters to the editor on the 350 metric tons of explosives

[ekwhite]

Here is a copy of a letter I just fired off to the LA Times. Let's get some letters out to the newspapers in this country, especially in the swing states. Let's keep this thing on the front page as long as possible.

To the editor:

Every day, it seems that more evidence of the incompetence of the Bush administration comes out. The latest evidence: 350 metric tons of missing high explosives. This material was under lock and key, and was being monitored by the IAEA before the Iraq war, but we let it slip through our hands. One pound of this material can bring down an airliner or destroy a Humvee. Now the insurgents and their allies have tons of HMX and RDX to play with. A nearly unlimited source of material for Improvised Explosive Devices and Car Bombs, like those that have been killing our soldiers in Iraq.

The Al Qa Qaa facility where these high explosives were stored was listed as a "medium priority," and the Pentagon has since tried to downplay the importance of this facility. Is this how we support our troops - by leaving tons of high explosives that could be used against our troops unguarded? By trying to sweep embarrassing news under the rug?

The Bush Administration lied about the justification for the invasion of Iraq, they lied about Weapons of Mass Destruction, and then Bush joked about it, after we failed to find any. The Bush Administration allowed Abu Ghraib prison to become a badge of shame for our country, and now they have let 350 metric tons of high explosives slip through their grasp. They have failed miserably in their prosecution of the war in Iraq, and have made America less safe, not more safe. On November 2nd, we need to remove Bush from office, and vote in someone who can clean up the mess they have made.

[wtmusic]

1. great letter!

and welcome to DU

:bounce: :toast: :bounce:

[papau]

2. some source/links

Nelson Report newsletter is main source - links below


http://www.nytimes.com/pages/pageone/scan/index.html
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_10_...

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_10_...

Nelson Report newsletter is a private NEWSLETTER widely read in DC



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

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.

[papau]

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

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]

4. 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.

[NewJeffCT]

5. is that how she really spells her name?

Lai Ling is Chinese, but the word pronounced "Jew" in Chinese is spelled Zhu (a very common Chinese last name)

[NewJeffCT]

6. good letter - welcome to DU

Letters to the Editor are very important... I try to write several per week.