Weapons carried off 'in hired lorries' - Sydney Australia paper

[steve2470]

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/28/1098667915337.html?oneclick=true

Looters stormed the weapons site at Al Qaqaa in the days after US troops swept through the area in early April last year on their way to Baghdad, gutting office buildings, carrying off munitions and even dismantling heavy machinery, Iraqi witnesses said.

The Iraqis on Wednesday 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 Al Qaqaa employees and the third was a former employee who had come back to retrieve his records, to keep them out of US hands.

A mechanic, Ahmed Saleh Mezher, said employees asked the Americans to protect the site but were told this was not the soldiers' responsibility.

<snip>

[LuminousX]

1. Any receipts with dates on them...?

sorry, couldn't resist. It would be nice for timelime confirmation though.

[glitch]

2. Leave it to the oz press to bother to interview the witnesses.

Our media sucks.

[chiburb]

3. Oz press didn't interview anyone... this is from today's NY Times.

[steve2470]

4. 4 Iraqis Tell of Looting at Munitions Site in '03

he's right, here it is...

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/28/international/middleeast/28bomb.html?hp&ex=1099022400&en=b50b42da5ffd60de&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[glitch]

6. I stand corrected and apologize to the NYT

that hurt.

[KharmaTrain]

5. It's Sad This Story Is Moving Too Quick For Us...

Yep, that's an NYT article that was plastered all over this place this morning until the KSTP video showed up.

NEITHER has hit the media, and I'm hoping that Senator Kerry makes mention of it at one of his appearances today and forces the media to look into it.

This is so damn frustrating to have two smoking guns here and unable to mobilize a media circus like the wingnuts can.