KAAAAAAAAABOOOOM! Iraqi Al QaaQaa witnesses materialize!

[ciaobox]

From the NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/28/international/middleeast/28bomb.html?oref=login&oref=login

4 Iraqis Tell of Looting at Munitions Site in '03
By JAMES GLANZ and JIM DWYER

Published: October 28, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 27 - Looters stormed the weapons site at Al Qaqaa in the days after American troops swept through the area in early April 2003 on their way to Baghdad, gutting office buildings, carrying off munitions and even dismantling heavy machinery, three Iraqi witnesses and a regional security chief said Wednesday.

The Iraqis described an orgy of theft so extensive that enterprising residents rented their trucks to looters. But some looting was clearly indiscriminate, with people grabbing anything they could find and later heaving unwanted items off the trucks.

Two witnesses were employees of Al Qaqaa - one a chemical engineer and the other a mechanic - and the third was a former employee, a chemist, who had come back to retrieve his records, determined to keep them out of American hands. The mechanic, Ahmed Saleh Mezher, said employees asked the Americans to protect the site but were told this was not the soldiers' responsibility.

Much more here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/28/international/middleeast/28bomb.html?oref=login&oref=login


Snipped.

[Fluffdaddy]

1. Forget the GOP's spin.......... read the facts. And spin it right back in

their damn face

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

[Bucky]

18. Does this mean Bush's original defense was spoken w/o all the facts?

Yet another humUUUngo gotcha! Bush attacked Kerry earlier today for using this as a campaign issue without having all the facts. Then Bush made clear that he knew the munitions were gone before our guys got there. But, it turns out, he knew no such thing.

Bush is being undone by his own reflexive lying.

[LynnTheDem]

21. There bush goes again...JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS.

And as we all know, bush believes anyone who jumps to conclusions is UNFIT to be CiC.

[Cerridwen]

2. Busted! - thanks for posting this - n/t

[sundancekid]

3. thanks for posting, but you must observe the 4 paragraph limit rule in

order not to violate the copyright laws ... just a reminder for you ...

[ciaobox]

4. Sorry Sundance! My bad

Mosh on!

[CottonBear]

5. post in LBN

snip to 4 paragraphs w/ link

[high density]

6. Huh???

So they weren't just just stealing office chairs and vases??? Whut??? How could that be?????

:eyes:

[ciaobox]

7. According to Rummy...

Looting is evidence of true freedom!

[meow mix]

8. those were obviously russian military wearing super-secret disguise

they were desperate for some explosives. ran out in russia..

[Quixote1818]

9. Kick

:kick:

[goodboy]

10. WOW! so that is IT for the Chimp! right? (nt)

[Quixote1818]

12. I think this looks REAL BAD! It also keeps the story growing!

[goodboy]

16. definitely shows bush is wrong that the explosives were not there

prior to our arrival.

[Roland99]

11. ABC News reporting only 3 tons of RDX were at the Al Qaqaa site

http://www.abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=204304&page=1

The information on which the Iraqi Science Ministry based an Oct. 10 memo in which it reported that 377 tons of RDX explosives were missing — presumably stolen due to a lack of security — was based on "declaration" from July 15, 2002. At that time, the Iraqis said there were 141 tons of RDX explosives at the facility.

But the confidential IAEA documents obtained by ABC News show that on Jan. 14, 2003, the agency's inspectors recorded that just over 3 tons of RDX was stored at the facility — a considerable discrepancy from what the Iraqis reported.

The IAEA documents could mean that 138 tons of explosives were removed from the facility long before the start of the United States launched "Operation Iraqi Freedom" in March 2003.

[Quixote1818]

13. You missed this part of the ABC Report

Another Concern


The IAEA documents from January 2003 found no discrepancy in the amount of the more dangerous HMX explosives thought to be stored at Al-Qaqaa, but they do raise another disturbing possibility.


The documents show IAEA inspectors looked at nine bunkers containing more than 194 tons of HMX at the facility. Although these bunkers were still under IAEA seal, the inspectors said the seals may be potentially ineffective because they had ventilation slats on the sides. These slats could be easily removed to remove the materials inside the bunkers without breaking the seals, the inspectors noted.

[Roland99]

14. So the HMX may have been gone before, too?

[Randi_Listener]

15. Oh, only 6000 lbs.

That makes all the fucking difference. :eyes:

[Bucky]

19. Just one pound of the stuff took out that airplane over Lockerbie

But that was terrorism from the Libyans, so I guess it doesn't count anymore

[Roland99]

26. Is there a link to that? Something that shows this is the same explosive?

[kerry2win]

17. story might of faded

but the freepers had to disprove it..boy did that backfire.Fox news looks like bigtime asses on this one.NOW IT'LL KEEP GOING AND GOING AND GOING THRU TUESDAY!!

[DeepModem Mom]

20. kick

[JSJ]

22. doesn't change my opinion that the looting was a bush operation

[helpisontheway]

23. Well

I was at the gym and they had CNN headline on and they were saying that the Pentagon is now saying there is no proof that the weapons disappeared after the troops were there? They were still basically saying Pentagon believed the stuff was missing prior to the troops getting there.

[ohio_dem_52186]

24. Reports also say that the Iraqi Gov't Supports Kerry's side

in the initial memo. Convenient how Bush glorifies the Iraqi Gov't one day and then "denegrates" them the next. How can he be Commander in Chief when he keeps flip-flopping? Whoa, debate flashback.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6323933/

Two weeks ago, Iraqi officials told the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency that the explosives vanished from the al-Qaqaa installation as a result of “theft and looting ... due to lack of security.”

The ministry’s letter said the explosives were stolen sometime after coalition forces took control of Baghdad.

[Bongo Prophet]

25. An orgy of theft. Huh.

Free people are free to do that I guess.


But the accounts make clear that what set off much if not all of the looting was the arrival and swift departure of American troops, who did not secure the site after inducing the Iraqi forces to abandon it.


but, but....Army says that "would have required dozens of heavy trucks and equipment moving along the same roadways as U.S. combat divisions occupied continually for weeks."

Unlikely right?
"...enterprising residents rented their trucks to looters."

Ain't looters..er, free people clever, and a free market grand?

...a chemical engineer who worked at Al Qaqaa and identified himself only as Khalid said that once troops left the base itself, people streamed in to steal computers and anything else of value from the offices. They also took munitions like artillery shells, he said.

Mr. Mezher, the mechanic, said it took the looters about two weeks to disassemble heavy machinery at the site and carry that off after the smaller items were gone.

They are much more efficient than say...Halliburton,
Priceless.
What great watercooler talk eh? What's that sound in the distance?
Karmic explosions I bet.

Another single finger salute from W.