This site the Al QAQAA site was well known well before we arrived. The site was on all the lists, and even the freepers knew of it as a possible nuclear weapon site. Its all over the internet that the US was there on April 5th of 2003. Its also fairly well known that the area around there is inundated with weapons and explosives that were looted from Al QaQaa which is a 3 mile x 3 mile site.
What you will see is that this site is known by the govt well before we arrived and well known by the guys as a dangerous area now.
At the bottom you will see the newsday article that has been removed from the web. It was posted on oct 15th and pointed out that the insurgents were using materials looted from Al QaQaa to kill the guys there(US TROOPS). I have put in the cached url for the newsday article and snipped in the part that refers to the Al QaQaa looting.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,71607,00.htmlFeb. 18, 2003:
• Weapons inspectors visited at least eight military and industrial sites outside Baghdad, including a chemical factory and Al Muthanna military complex, where they have been destroying artillery shells and mustard gas found. Inspectors revisited the Al Qa Qaa chemical and explosives production plant, and the Harith Missile Maintenance Workshop, which maintains anti-aircraft missiles. Teams conducted a radiation survey at the Mansour State Company, which makes electronics parts for military and civilian use as well as industrial gases and purified water, and went to the Dar al-Salam chemical plant west of Baghdad. They also searched to the al-Tahadi factory, which makes electrical cables and high-voltage generators, and a dairy factory in southern Diwaniya province.
• UNMOVIC missile inspectors tagged Al Samoud missiles and parts used in their manufacture after chief inspectors said their range exceeded the permitted ceiling of 93 miles.
• More Iraqi scientists agree to interviews with U.N. weapons inspectors only if the meetings are tape recorded, and this is unacceptable to chief weapons inspectors.
• A U-2 surveillance plane flew its first U.N. mission over Iraq.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2003/030405-chem-readiness01.htmU.S. troops find signs of chemical readiness
SOURCE: Associated Press
As the military advances closer to Baghdad, signs of Iraqi chemical preparedness are multiplying, although there is still no conclusive evidence Saddam Hussein possesses any weapons of mass destruction.
Yesterday, troops at a training facility in the western Iraqi desert came across a bottle labelled "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.
____________________________________
They thought it was a nuclear site
http://globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iraq/al_qa_qaa.htmThis was not just any old facility It was on the list they should have known!!!!!!!!!!!
snip
Accordring to the British Dossier Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction released in September 2002, parts of the al-Qa’qa’ chemical complex damaged in the Gulf War had been repaired and were operational. Of particular concern were elements of the phosgene production plant at al-Qa’qa’. These were severely damaged during the Gulf War, and dismantled under UNSCOM supervision,but have since been rebuilt. While phosgene does have industrial uses it can also be used by itself as a chemical agent or as a precursor for nerve agent.
In fact it was suppose to be the MAIN NUCLEAR IMPLOSION SITE
http://www.cdi.org/terrorism/inspections-update.cfmAl Qa Qaa was Iraq's principle facility for the production of explosives for use in implosion-type nuclear weapons. Al Furat was to mass-produce centrifuges for uranium enrichment.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A31589-2003Apr4¬Found=true
By Barton Gellman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 5, 2003; Page A19
In the first of yesterday's discoveries, the 3rd Infantry Division entered the vast Qa Qaa chemical and explosives production plant and came across thousands of vials of white powder, packed three to a box. The engineers also found stocks of atropine and pralidoxime, also known as 2-PAM chloride, which can be used to treat exposure to nerve agents but is also used to treat poisoning by organic phosphorus pesticides. Alongside those materials were documents written in Arabic that, as interpreted at the scene, appeared to include discussions of chemical warfare.
This morning, however, investigators said initial tests indicated the white powder was not a component of a chemical weapon. "On first analysis it does not appear to be a chemical that could be used in a chemical weapons attack," Col. John Peabody, commander of the division's engineering brigade, told a Reuters reporter with his unit.
http://www.williambowles.info/gispecial/gi2b84/gi_2b84.htmlThe place Al QaQaa is at
Amateur Hour In Latifiyah; Silly Reserve Captain Says “We’re Here To Stay”
Oct. 06, 2004 BY RICK JERVIS, KRT Information Services
snip
The insurgents probably are using weapons and ammunition looted from the nearby Qa-Qaa complex, a 3-mile by 3-mile weapons-storage facility about 25 miles southwest of Baghdad, said Maj. Brian Neil, operations officer for the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, which initially patrolled the area.
The facility was bombed during last year's invasion and then
OCT 15 NEWSDAY no longer on web?? Cached url
http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:LU-30UfLL5sJ:www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/chi-0409300368sep30,0,6269660.story%3Fcoll%3Dny-top-headlines+al+%22qa+qaa%22++Latifiyah&hl=enFrom the Chicago Tribune
IRAQ IN TRANSITION
Lethal road to Iraq vote
Struggle over lawless town highlights election obstacles
snip
Later that night, a six-vehicle convoy was returning from a mission in central Latifiyah when an IED exploded under one of the armored Humvees. The bomb disintegrated the Humvee's front end. Its transmission and engine parts rained down on the vehicles behind it, and the grenade launcher mounted on its roof was found in a field 30 feet away, according to a witness.
Officials blamed insurgents--described as Baath Party loyalists and an assortment of common criminals.
All five passengers survived, saved by the Humvee's armor. So far, three members from the 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines have been recommended for Purple Hearts.
Sgt. Eliasard Alcauter, a vehicle commander, was in the back seat.
"I saw a bright flash but didn't even hear the bang," said Alcauter, who suffered a mild back sprain. "Next thing I know, it was like I was riding a rodeo horse. The vehicle was bouncing up and down. It was crazy."
The insurgents probably are using weapons and ammunition looted from the nearby Qa-Qaa complex, a 3-mile by 3-mile weapons-storage site about 25 miles southwest of Baghdad, said Maj. Brian Neil, operations officer for the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, which initially patrolled the area.
The site was bombed during last year's invasion and then left unguarded, Neil said.
"There's definitely no shortage of weapons around here," he said.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
