HELP...Right-wing radio saying weapons gone before we got there...

[goodboy]

Is this true?

[AIJ Alom]

1. no. it's called Republican damage control.

call in and set the morons straight.

[papau]

11. Use Fox story on 4/4/03 inspection - before NBC/1st Cav 4/10 arrival

Here is Fox story on 4/4/03 inspection - before NBC/1st Cav 4/10 arrival


I love using Fox 4/4/03 story to show Fox/CNN today ARE liarS! 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]

25. 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.

[Thrill]

2. NO

Its the spin. What did you expect?

[goodboy]

9. I fully expect spin, but I need to know what the facts are...

when precicely, was the last time the explosives were known to be in this location and sealed.

[aden_nak]

3. Not according to actual eye witnesses within the media.

It's a lie. But so is "Iraq had WMD and ties to al Qaeda!" and we all know people believe that shit.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

4. Even if this is true it just shows yet more incompetence

on the war planning.

[Fluffdaddy]

5. Toxic Drudge -- why Iraq missing weapons knockdown is a fraud

Help is on the way
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/


October 25, 2004
Toxic Drudge -- why Iraq missing weapons knockdown is a fraud

http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/extra/

These are facts
__________________

[fertilizeonarbusto]

6. It's debatable but likely not true.

Soldiers in the 101st are currently coming forth saying the weapons were there, all right. Anyway, I think it's irrelevant.
One last thing: if it is the case the weapons were removed before the invasion, it would have taken a very large amount of trucks. Why were they not noticed by the blanket of surveillance aircraft and satellites covering Iraq at the time? Ask the RW's that.

[goodboy]

12. good point about the lack of surveillance to back up the claim

that weapons were removed before we got there.

[democrat_patriot]

7. NBC had the story - now pulled from websit.e

NBC now reports the Pentagon story saying the WEAPONS WERE INTACT when the troops arrived.

Even the reporter who was entrenched said there were ordinates laying everywhere, and they only stopped 'as a pitstop' on the way to Baghdad, no one stayed to guard weapons.

CNN is reporting on an NBC story that they have pulled. CNN cannot do their own reporting.

[LynnTheDem]

14. WHAT NBC story that was pulled???

NBC had 3 articles, ALL of which back Kerry; they ALL referred to the Pentagon official who said the explosives were at Al Qaqaa INTACT in April, 2003.

NBC also reported on the 3rd ID troops who arrived at Al Qaqaa on April 4, 2003 and that they had found the explosives.

NBC also had a VIDEO report, where they said their own embedded reporter was with the 2nd group of troops who went to Al Qaqaa on April 10, 2003, and she had not seen any explosives herself.

Today she was on NBC again, and clarified that she DID NOT LOOK for any explosives or anythign else and neither did the troops; it was just a "pitstop".

So what's this "pulled" NBC story???

[LynnTheDem]

8. NO IT IS NOT TRUE ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!

The US military reported finding thousands of boxes of white powder in Al QaQaa on April 4, 2003.

When tested, that white powder turned out to be the EXPLOSIVES.

THEY WERE THERE AT AL QaQaa ON APRIL 4, 2003.

Then another military group were at Al QaQaa on April 10, 2003. They did not search the site (over 100 buildings) so they DON'T KNOW if the explosives were still there then, or not.

But on April 4, 2003, the US Military report shows THE EXPLOSIVES WERE THERE.

[goodboy]

15. well then the explosives were there after the invasion....nt

[democrat_patriot]

10. Check this link out

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1174935

[detroit]

13. Here you go!

If the 101st Airborn Div. "liberated" that Iraqi weapons site on April 10... then why were we there snooping for WMDs a week earlier?

http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2003/030405-chem-read iness01.htm

It is pretty obvious what happened...

The place was liberated by us or abandoned by the Iraqis in late March or early April. We then sent a team in to find WMDs. We found none. Then, the team apparently left and the place was wide-open till the 101st could be deployed to secure it on the 10th. And by then, it was too late. The place had been looted.

[goodboy]

16. so there's no question that they were there AFTER we got there.

[LynnTheDem]

17. 101st DID NOT "liberate" the site!!!

The 3rd ID DID on April 4, 2003.

The 101st AB were the SECOND GROUP to arrive at Al Qaqaa.

[goodboy]

18. Yes or No: The weapons were there after we got there...nt

[LynnTheDem]

27. YES.

In March 2003 the IAEA did an inventory and found 377 tonnes of the explosives at Al QaQaa.

On April 4, 2003 the 3rd ID arrived at Al Qaqaa and found "thousands of boxes" of white powder that tested out to be the explosives. The 3rd ID did not count them all or search the entire site, as it's HUGE; over 100 buildings. They reported that UN seals were still in place.

On April 10, 2003 the 2nd group of troops arrived at Al QaQaa. They didn't search or check anything, this was just a "pitstop" for them on their way to Baghdad.

So we KNOW via the US military's own report that there were explosives at Al Qaqaa on April 4, 2003; this was widely reported in the media on April 5, 2003.

We do not know what happened to those 377 tonnes after that, 'cept they're now all gone.

[JHB]

19. It's a Lie: it was a suspected WMD site, under close observation

If a bunch of trucks started cleaning it out, it would have been seen and you would have heard about it long before now as "evidence of WMDs".

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_10_24.php#003800 :

As we noted earlier, there's a relatively brief window of time we're talking about when this stuff could have been carted away -- specifically, from March 8th (when the IAEA last checked it) until April 4th when the first US troops appear to have arrived on the scene.

Certainly there would have been time enough to move the stuff. That's almost a month. But this would be a massive and quite visible undertaking. As the Times noted yesterday, moving this material would have taken a fleet of about forty big trucks each moving about ten tons of explosives. And this was at a time -- the week before and then during the war -- when Iraq's skies were positively crawling with American aerial and satellite reconnaissance.

Considering that al Qaqaa was a major munitions installation where the US also suspected there might be WMD, it's difficult to believe that we wouldn't have noticed a convoy of forty huge trucks carting stuff away.

As the LA Times notes in Tuesday's paper, it's just not particularly credible ...

Given the size of the missing cache, it would have been difficult to relocate undetected before the invasion, when U.S. spy satellites were monitoring activity at sites suspected of concealing nuclear and biological weapons.
"You don't just move this stuff in the middle of the night," said a former U.S. intelligence official who worked in Baghdad.



If we had seen something like that happening, it's hard to figure we wouldn't have bombed the convoy, since the US had complete air superiority through the entire campaign. And if the thought that WMD might be on those trucks had prevented such an attack, certainly there would have been running surveillance of where the stuff was going and where it ended up.

[russiamommy]

22. Does it matter?

This is my first post. I've been lurking for a long time and finally decided to jump in.

My question is: Why does it matter? This doesn't seem be being addressed here or elsewhere. The fact of the matter is that we knew this stuff was there before we ever invaded. One of the first priorities should have been to secure whatever weapons we knew about and then go about looking for more, right? No matter when this stuff disappeared, there should have been a major investigation into what happened to it. Even if it did disappear before we attacked, why haven't we been looking for it for the last 18 months? This story is just as damaging if the stuff was gone before the invasion and it took until "ten days ago" for the WH to know about it!!!

Anyone agree?

[Vox_Reason]

23. I agree

And welcome to DU!
:toast:

[JHB]

26. Agreed

Spaciba, russianmommy, and welcome to Du

[patricia92243]

20. CNN said same thing.

[mzmolly]

21. Who kicked out inspectors? That is the question ...

Answer: GEORGE W BUSH.

See my thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1174576

[kentuck]

24. Yes. In fact, they were stolen while the UN had control of them...

And they were stolen before Bush ever invaded. Saddam had no control over them at all. They would have disappeared even if Bush had not invaded...Do you believe that?? If so, turn the right-wing radio back on...

[LynnTheDem]

29. No they were NOT stolen while the UN had control of them.

They disappeared AFTER APRIL 4, 2003. AFTER BUSH INVADED.

[Demfromct]

28. Cite the MSNBC story

This is driving me nuts. MSNBC's imbeds saw explosives there on April 10. Fauxnews had a report that a lot of explosives were there April 4. THE WAR STARTED IN MARCH! Drudge report is false.

They should have had this munitions destroyred or guarded. Also, they should have known 18 months ago that munitions were looted. How does the Pentago not know that these munitions were even missing?

They had other priorities, guarding oil fields, toppling Sadamm's staute. That was more important than kepin bombs out of the hands of unsurgents. Great job guys.