Army unit not ordered to make Iraqi explosives search

[Jon8503]

Somebody tell me if I am not thinking right about this. I understood it was WMDs why we had to go to Iraq immediately and we do not feel a need to search for weapons when we get there. Am I thinking right here?
USA Today Headline Tomorrow

NEW YORK (AP) — The first U.S. military unit to reach the Al-Qaqaa military installation after the invasion of Iraq did not have orders to search for the nearly 400 tons of explosives that Iraqi officials say were stolen from the site sometime following the fall of Baghdad, the unit spokesman said Tuesday.
When the troops from the 101st Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade arrived at the Al-Qaqaa base a day or so after Baghdad's fall on April 9, 2003, there were already looters throughout the facility, Lt. Col. Fred Wellman, deputy public affairs officer for the unit, told The Associated Press.

The soldiers "secured the area they were in and looked in a limited amount of bunkers to ensure chemical weapons were not present in their area," Wellman wrote in an e-mail message. "Bombs were found but not chemical weapons in that immediate area.

"Orders were not given from higher to search or to secure the facility or to search for HE type munitions, as they (high-explosive weapons) were everywhere in Iraq," he wrote.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-10-26-nbc-iraq-weapons-search_x.htm

[jefferson_dem]

1. The unspun (i.e. de-sludged) truth about the NBC report.

"His remarks appeared to confirm the observations of an NBC reporter embedded with the army unit who said Tuesday that she saw no signs that the Americans searched for the powerful explosives during their 24 hours at the facility en route to Baghdad, 30 miles to the north."

There you go. The hard facts. Not the RW spinarooni - The non-evidence of explosives means that they were not there. They were not found because they were NOT FUCKING SEARCHED FOR!

[ixion]

2. this was not simply looting

they used heavy equipment to get the stuff out of there. It wasn't just a few people carrying stuff off.

the media spin on this is disgusting, as usual.

[izzie]

3. George will find something. Anything and now.

Does this guy do anything right?

[fishnfla]

4. Bloody hands

you know what?

Now matter what happens on Nov 2nd, soldiers will keep dying