PSX5Central
Non Gaming Discussions => Off-Topic => Topic started by: GigaShadow on October 26, 2004, 04:58:07 AM
-
Granted, when I first read the missing weapons report I was dismayed that we had let 370 + tons of explosives disappear and/or apparently left them unguarded.
I also thought this couldn\'t have come at a worse time for the Bush administration being a week from elections, but low and behold - the UN it seems, is attempting to influence the US election. Is the timing of the release of this "report" a coincidence? I doubt anyone could argue that the people in the upper echelons of the UN hate the Bush administration. I mean - he didn\'t listen to them about Iraq and now the US government is investigating the oil for food scandal.
Anyway, it seems those explosives were already missing prior to the arrival of the US military in the area.
NBCNEWS: CACHE OF EXPLOSIVES VANISHED FROM SITE IN IRAQ BEFORE TROOPS ARRIVED...
The NYTIMES urgently reported on Monday in an apprent October Surprise: The Iraqi interim government and the U.N. nuclear agency have warned the United States that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives are now missing from one of Iraq\'s most sensitive former military installations.
[The source behind the NYT story first went to CBSNEWS\' 60 MINUTES last Wednesday, but the beleaguered network wasn\'t able to get the piece on the air as fast as the newspaper could print. Executive producer Jeff Fager hoped to break the story during a high-impact election eve broadcast of 60 MINS on October 31.]
Jumping on the TIMES exclusive, Dem presidential candidate John Kerry blasted the Bush administration for its failure to "guard those stockpiles."
"This is one of the great blunders of Iraq, one of the great blunders of this administration," Kerry said.
In an election week rush:
**ABCNEWS Mentioned The Iraq Explosives Depot At Least 4 Times
**CBSNEWS Mentioned The Iraq Explosives Depot At Least 7 Times
**MSNBC Mentioned The Iraq Explosives Depot At Least 37 Times
**CNN Mentioned The Iraq Explosives Depot At Least 50 Times
But tonight, NBCNEWS reported: The 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives were already missing back in April 10, 2003 -- when U.S. troops arrived at the installation south of Baghdad!
An NBCNEWS crew embedded with troops moved in to secure the Al-Qaqaa weapons facility on April 10, 2003, one day after the liberation of Iraq.
According to NBCNEWS, the HMX and RDX explosives were already missing when the American troops arrived.
"The U.S. Army was at the site one day after the liberation and the weapons were already gone," a top Republican blasted from Washington late Monday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors last saw the explosives in January 2003 when they took an inventory and placed fresh seals on the bunkers.
Dem vp hopeful John Edwards blasted Bush for not securing the explosives: "It is reckless and irresponsible to fail to protect and safeguard one of the largest weapons sites in the country. And by either ignoring these mistakes or being clueless about them, George Bush has failed. He has failed as our commander in chief; he has failed as president."
A senior Bush official e-mailed DRUDGE late Monday: "Let me get this straight, are Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards now saying we did not go into Iraq soon enough? We should have invaded and liberated Iraq sooner?"
Top Kerry adviser Joe Lockhart fired back Monday night: "In a shameless attempt to cover up its failure to secure 380 tons of highly explosive material in Iraq, the White House is desperately flailing in an effort to escape blame. Instead of distorting John Kerry’s words, the Bush campaign is now falsely and deliberately twisting the reports of journalists. It is the latest pathetic excuse from an administration that never admits a mistake, no matter how disastrous."
Why is the U.N. nuclear agency suddenly warning now that insurgents in Iraq may have obtained nearly 400 tons of missing explosives -- in early 2003?
NBCNEWS Jim Miklaszewski quoted one official: "Recent disagreements between the administration and the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency makes this announcement appear highly political."
Developing...
http://www.drudgereport.com/nbcw.htm
-
i think people\'s mind were and is already made up before this even came out...i mean if you\'re gonna base your vote on this issue alone you shouldn\'t be voting in the first place...
certain people in the world feel a certain way about bush..it\'s no secret that most in the international world want him out of the white house, and don\'t agree with his foreign policy,..whether this stunt was political or not, bottomline is that both parties are gulity of using shady tactics against one another...
-
I didn\'t say this was the Democrats who cooked the story up. This was the UN and foreign interests who are trying to influence our election. Take the Guardian urging its readers to write voters in Ohio to urge them vote Bush out of office. If I received a letter from some foreigner telling me how to vote I would wipe my ass with it and send it back.
Personally, I think the US should be very wary of the UN in general as it doesn\'t live up to the grand ideas on which it was founded.
-
The original notification regarding the missing explosives came from Mohammed Abbas, "director of planning" in our own puppet Iraqi government. He claimed the explosives went missing or were looted AFTER Saddam\'s government fell, and while we were supposed to be guarding such stockpiles. Link (http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/26/iraq.explosives.intl/index.html)
Now we have ONE report from NBC stating that the explosives were already missing when their embedded reporter visited the site with the first US troops to arrive there. NBC also said "It remains unclear, however, how extensively the U.S. forces searched the site in the immediate aftermath of the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein." Link (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6323933/)
In my opinion, those who are quick to report and believe stories like these are making an error equal to those who are too hasty in disbelieving them on the first contrary evidence. I say reserve your judgement and wait for the full story to come in.
-
if that is in fact true then any foreign entity needs to strickly stay out of our domestic affairs..but i guess these countries in the u.n. feel that that the u.s. ultimately has the last word on any issue, and with bush at the helm, i\'m assuming they figure they have no chance at negotiations at all on any international issue..
that said it just further reinforces what i stated earlier that the u.s. has practically zero support in the world because of this war in iraq...there is no coalition of the willing...and whether the u.s, wants to realize or not..it needs china, france, germ & russia on certain issues in the int\'l community..
oh yea..these countries(china france ,germ, russia) say that whatever words was said between the u.s. & them are water under the bridge...but i think bush burned some bridges when he scorned them...i know deep down inside they are laughing at the u.s. in watching how they are struggling to get iraq under control...
-
Kissing France\'s ass is definitely not the answer. I think deep down countries like France are worrying about what further evidence we are going to uncover regarding their corruption in the UN with regards to Iraq. Then again, Chirac is immune from prosecution under French law, but his subordinates aren\'t.
As for Core\'s statement, why is the media worried over 370 tons, yet fails to mention the 400,000 tons we have already secured? CBS was planning to run this story on the eve of the election in an obvious attempt to hurt the President. One would think they learned their lesson with memogate. This story was reported over a year ago!!
News of missing explosives in Iraq -- first reported in April 2003
Anyway, Iraq is like the Walmart of conventional weapons and rounding up every last weapon is not realisitic - regardless of how well one plans. Even if the 101st "missed" finding these explosives, is that the Presidents fault? I really can\'t believe John Kerry is still going on about this today. You would think for such an "intelligent" man he would think as you do Core.
-
Yeah we were talking about this before. Funny how NOW its a plot by the UN/dems. I have respect for you man, and perhaps youre right (im not ruling that out), but why now?
We\'re all somewhat biased, but this is kinda funny.
-
The NY Times, the IAEA/UN, CBS and the Kerry campaign. They are all publicizing the hell out this weak story. Kerry even made a 30 second TV spot for it today! These explosives could have been transported somewhere before the war or destroyed when the US bombed the bunkers.
Lt. Gen. William Boykin, the Pentagon\'s deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence, said that on May 27, 2003, a U.S. military team specifically looking for weapons went to the site but did not find anything with IAEA stickers on it.
There is almost no way 380 tons of explosives could have been transported between April and May without the US Army noticing. There were log jams of US convoys on every road and unmanned predator drones flying all over the place. The insurgency hadn\'t even started yet and it would have taken quite a bit of heavy equipment to move those explosives that quickly.
The reason they did it now? A 12th hour surprise to damage the Bush campaign. None of the organizations I listed above wants Bush to win - CBS had plans to run this story on the eve of the election so Bush wouldn\'t have a chance to respond to it - just like they did in 2000 with his DUI charge. This is blatant media bias in regards to the Times and CBS who instead of doing honest reporting are trying to influence an election with outright lies. I really think Kerry has blundered in making this the grand finale of his campaign.
CBS, the NY Times and to a lesser extent NBC and ABC are very biased in their reporting of President Bush to the point where CBS fabricated a story and now has had a hand in embelishing another.
-
he\'s got a point the weekend before the weekend of the elections normally marks the oops we forgot to air this out bs. I mean in common terms is this popped up Friday and around now is when this shit seems to just magically come up just like the Bush drunken driving thing last election.
-
Frankly, at this point, it doesn\'t matter who Bush is running against. I\'m not a Kerry supporter, but I sure as hell aint voting Bush.
-
Yeah....Right...like the UN are out to fix the Election... :rolleyes:
I mean no one has done that BEFORE *coff*2000 and buying your way in to the white house with help from lots of money and half your family[/i]*coff*
Oh and Remember PEOPLE... this time the Winner is who ever the FOX news editor says so and not the voters ;)
-
Originally posted by ooseven
Yeah....Right...like the UN are out to fix the Election... :rolleyes:
I mean no one has done that BEFORE *coff*2000 and buying your way in to the white house with help from lots of money and half your family[/i]*coff*
Oh and Remember PEOPLE... this time the Winner is who ever the FOX news editor says so and not the voters ;)
This statement shows your ignorance to American politics and that you base your knowledge on the subject from a Michael Moore film. :rolleyes:
-
I was listening to Glenn Beck this morning and he said that it would take 100 men with 40 dump trucks 10 full 12 hour days to move this much material.
Yeah, It\'s certainly the military\'s fault. I mean they are the ones that saw all these guys working and all of these trucks going by without doing anything about it.
-
Originally posted by videoholic
I was listening to Glenn Beck this morning and he said that it would take 100 men with 40 dump trucks 10 full 12 hour days to move this much material.
Yeah, It\'s certainly the military\'s fault. I mean they are the ones that saw all these guys working and all of these trucks going by without doing anything about it.
Exactly, logic dictates that it is very improbable that terrorists stole these explosives after the invasion.
-
Originally posted by GigaShadow
Exactly, logic dictates that it is very improbable that terrorists stole these explosives after the invasion.
If thats so, then theres only one question left to ask - WHO?
-
I think what is sad is that everyone just assumes this is true and is running with it. Kerry is jumping all over it, but it seems so freaking irrational that it could possibly happen as easily as being presented.
THere are a ton of accounts now coming out that when we arrived in Baghdad there were none of these weapons.
I mean to instantly blame Bush for everything is just getting old.
-
Originally posted by The Hurricane
Frankly, at this point, it doesn\'t matter who Bush is running against. I\'m not a Kerry supporter, but I sure as hell aint voting Bush.
Wow.....really..........exciting
-
Kerry made a um... mistake. Talk about a rush to judgement without knowing the facts? I also wonder if Saddam\'s WMD\'s went to Syria as well??
Russia tied to Iraq\'s missing arms
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Russian special forces troops moved many of Saddam Hussein\'s weapons and related goods out of Iraq and into Syria in the weeks before the March 2003 U.S. military operation, The Washington Times has learned.
John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, said in an interview that he believes the Russian troops, working with Iraqi intelligence, "almost certainly" removed the high-explosive material that went missing from the Al-Qaqaa facility, south of Baghdad.
"The Russians brought in, just before the war got started, a whole series of military units," Mr. Shaw said. "Their main job was to shred all evidence of any of the contractual arrangements they had with the Iraqis. The others were transportation units."
Mr. Shaw, who was in charge of cataloging the tons of conventional arms provided to Iraq by foreign suppliers, said he recently obtained reliable information on the arms-dispersal program from two European intelligence services that have detailed knowledge of the Russian-Iraqi weapons collaboration.
Most of Saddam\'s most powerful arms were systematically separated from other arms like mortars, bombs and rockets, and sent to Syria and Lebanon, and possibly to Iran, he said.
The Russian involvement in helping disperse Saddam\'s weapons, including some 380 tons of RDX and HMX, is still being investigated, Mr. Shaw said.
The RDX and HMX, which are used to manufacture high-explosive and nuclear weapons, are probably of Russian origin, he said.
Pentagon spokesman Larry DiRita could not be reached for comment.
The disappearance of the material was reported in a letter Oct. 10 from the Iraqi government to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Disclosure of the missing explosives Monday in a New York Times story was used by the Democratic presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry, who accused the Bush administration of failing to secure the material.
Al-Qaqaa, a known Iraqi weapons site, was monitored closely, Mr. Shaw said.
"That was such a pivotal location, Number 1, that the mere fact of [special explosives] disappearing was impossible," Mr. Shaw said. "And Number 2, if the stuff disappeared, it had to have gone before we got there."
The Pentagon disclosed yesterday that the Al-Qaqaa facility was defended by Fedayeen Saddam, Special Republican Guard and other Iraqi military units during the conflict. U.S. forces defeated the defenders around April 3 and found the gates to the facility open, the Pentagon said in a statement yesterday.
A military unit in charge of searching for weapons, the Army\'s 5th Exploitation Task Force, then inspected Al-Qaqaa on May 8, May 11 and May 27, 2003, and found no high explosives that had been monitored in the past by the IAEA.
The Pentagon said there was no evidence of large-scale movement of explosives from the facility after April 6.
"The movement of 377 tons of heavy ordnance would have required dozens of heavy trucks and equipment moving along the same roadways as U.S. combat divisions occupied continually for weeks prior to and subsequent to the 3rd Infantry Division\'s arrival at the facility," the statement said.
The statement also said that the material may have been removed from the site by Saddam\'s regime.
According to the Pentagon, U.N. arms inspectors sealed the explosives at Al-Qaqaa in January 2003 and revisited the site in March and noted that the seals were not broken.
It is not known whether the inspectors saw the explosives in March. The U.N. team left the country before the U.S.-led invasion began March 20, 2003.
A second defense official said documents on the Russian support to Iraq reveal that Saddam\'s government paid the Kremlin for the special forces to provide security for Iraq\'s Russian arms and to conduct counterintelligence activities designed to prevent U.S. and Western intelligence services from learning about the arms pipeline through Syria.
The Russian arms-removal program was initiated after Yevgeny Primakov, the former Russian intelligence chief, could not persuade Saddam to give in to U.S. and Western demands, this official said.
A small portion of Iraq\'s 650,000 tons to 1 million tons of conventional arms that were found after the war were looted after the U.S.-led invasion, Mr. Shaw said. Russia was Iraq\'s largest foreign supplier of weaponry, he said.
However, the most important and useful arms and explosives appear to have been separated and moved out as part of carefully designed program. "The organized effort was done in advance of the conflict," Mr. Shaw said.
The Russian forces were tasked with moving special arms out of the country.
Mr. Shaw said foreign intelligence officials believe the Russians worked with Saddam\'s Mukhabarat intelligence service to separate out special weapons, including high explosives and other arms and related technology, from standard conventional arms spread out in some 200 arms depots.
The Russian weapons were then sent out of the country to Syria, and possibly Lebanon in Russian trucks, Mr. Shaw said.
Mr. Shaw said he believes that the withdrawal of Russian-made weapons and explosives from Iraq was part of plan by Saddam to set up a "redoubt" in Syria that could be used as a base for launching pro-Saddam insurgency operations in Iraq.
The Russian units were dispatched beginning in January 2003 and by March had destroyed hundreds of pages of documents on Russian arms supplies to Iraq while dispersing arms to Syria, the second official said.
Besides their own weapons, the Russians were supplying Saddam with arms made in Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria and other Eastern European nations, he said.
"Whatever was not buried was put on lorries and sent to the Syrian border," the defense official said.
Documents reviewed by the official included itineraries of military units involved in the truck shipments to Syria. The materials outlined in the documents included missile components, MiG jet parts, tank parts and chemicals used to make chemical weapons, the official said.
The director of the Iraqi government front company known as the Al Bashair Trading Co. fled to Syria, where he is in charge of monitoring arms holdings and funding Iraqi insurgent activities, the official said.
Also, an Arabic-language report obtained by U.S. intelligence disclosed the extent of Russian armaments. The 26-page report was written by Abdul Tawab Mullah al Huwaysh, Saddam\'s minister of military industrialization, who was captured by U.S. forces May 2, 2003.
The Russian "spetsnaz" or special-operations forces were under the GRU military intelligence service and organized large commercial truck convoys for the weapons removal, the official said.
Regarding the explosives, the new Iraqi government reported that 194.7 metric tons of HMX, or high-melting-point explosive, and 141.2 metric tons of RDX, or rapid-detonation explosive, and 5.8 metric tons of PETN, or pentaerythritol tetranitrate, were missing.
The material is used in nuclear weapons and also in making military "plastic" high explosive.
Defense officials said the Russians can provide information on what happened to the Iraqi weapons and explosives that were transported out of the country. Officials believe the Russians also can explain what happened to Iraq\'s weapons of mass destruction programs.
-
This is so Kerry. I can\'t believe this guy has a shot.
-
But Bush is the terrible liar.
-
Again, how is Bush a liar? You have to prove that he knew something and intentionally said otherwise. Not his administration, but he himself.
-
My main problem is the administration saying that they knew about the weapons but have no idea where they went. A cache of 380 tons of explosives is not exactly a couple peashooters under a mattress. If you are planning an invasion you should be able to notice any large scale movements out of the country.
I just don\'t understand how people accept an answer like "We don\'t know where they are" when it has been stated that the explosives were known to still be in the bunkers just before the US led invasion. That, to me, is unacceptable.
-
Now the Iraqi\'s think there might have been only 3 tons there... this story is such bull$hit. Kerry is desperate to launch an assault based on a NY Times story which has no credible facts. And to think some of you want this guy over Bush. Amazing. In the end whose fault is this if they did exist? The IAEA\'s of course. Why the hell didn\'t they destroy these things when they had the chance? Like their "seal" holds some magical power. :rolleyes:
Discrepancy Found in Explosives Amounts
Documents Show Iraqis May Be Overstating Amount of Missing Material
Oct. 27, 2004 — Iraqi officials may be overstating the amount of explosives reported to have disappeared from a weapons depot, documents obtained by ABC News show.
The Iraqi interim government has told the United States and international weapons inspectors that 377 tons of conventional explosives are missing from the Al-Qaqaa installation, which was supposed to be under U.S. military control.
But International Atomic Energy Agency documents obtained by ABC News and first reported on "World News Tonight with Peter Jennings" indicate the amount of missing explosives may be substantially less than the Iraqis reported.
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 three tons of RDX were 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 United States launched "Operation Iraqi Freedom" in March 2003.
The missing explosives have become an issue in the presidential campaign. Sen. John Kerry has pointed to the disappearance as evidence of the Bush administration\'s poor handling of the war. The Bush camp has responded that more than a thousand times that amount of explosives or munitions have been recovered or destroyed in Iraq.
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.
ABC News\' Martha Raddatz filed this report for "World News Tonight." Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=204304&page=1
-
Originally posted by videoholic
Again, how is Bush a liar? You have to prove that he knew something and intentionally said otherwise. Not his administration, but he himself.
I was just mocking people.
-
It truely is sad just how much this story has swelled. The democrats are running with it and there is absolutely nothing to substantiate anything being caused by Bush or even the US.
Problem is that the trailer trash of the world is so uninformed that there is no telling how they are going to vote.
Would it be so wrong to not make you have a high school education to vote? Nevermind. That\'s off topic.
-
Now a TV station in Minnesota is claiming they have seen the high explosives... but they can\'t be certain. :rolleyes:
TV Video May Show Explosives at Al-Qaqaa
WASHINGTON - Videotape shot by a Minnesota television crew traveling with U.S. troops in Iraq (news - web sites) when they first opened the bunkers at the Al-Qaqaa munitions base nine days after the fall of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) shows what appeared to be high explosives still in barrels and bearing the markings of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The video taken by KSTP of St. Paul on April 18, 2003, could reinforce suggestions that tons of explosives missing from a munitions installation in Iraq were looted after the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. The video was broadcast nationally Thursday on ABC.
"The photographs are consistent with what I know of Al-Qaqaa," David A. Kay, a former American official who directed the hunt in Iraq for unconventional weapons and visited the site, told The New York Times. "The damning thing is the seals. The Iraqis didn\'t use seals on anything. So I\'m absolutely sure that\'s an IAEA seal."
The question of what happened to the tons of explosives has become a major issue in the closing days of the presidential campaign.
Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites) says the missing explosives — powerful enough to demolish a building, bring down a jetliner or set off a nuclear weapon — are another example of the Bush administration\'s poor planning and incompetence in handling the war in Iraq. President Bush (news - web sites) says the explosives were possibly removed by Saddam\'s forces before the invasion.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld entered the debate Thursday, suggesting the 377 tons of explosives were taken away before U.S. forces arrived, saying any large effort to loot the material afterward would have been detected.
"We would have seen anything like that," he said in one of two radio interviews he gave at the Pentagon (news - web sites). "The idea it was suddenly looted and moved out, all of these tons of equipment, I think is at least debatable."
The Pentagon also declassified and released a single image, taken by reconnaissance aircraft or satellite just days before the war, showing two trucks outside one of the dozens of storage bunkers at the Al-Qaqaa munitions base.
The particular bunker is not one known to have contained any of the missing explosives, and Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita said the image only shows that there was some Iraqi activity at the base when it was taken, on March 17. Di Rita said the image says nothing about what happened to the explosives.
Rumsfeld, in one radio interview, also cast doubt on the suggestion of one of his subordinates that Russian forces assisted the Iraqis in removing them.
John Shaw, the deputy U.S. undersecretary of defense for international technology security, suggested to The Washington Times in an interview that the Russians may have been involved, prompting an angry denial from Moscow.
Rumsfeld said, "I have no information on that at all, and cannot validate that even slightly."
But at issue is whether the weapons were moved before or after U.S. forces occupied that region of the country in early April. No one has been able to provide conclusive evidence either way, although Iraqi officials blamed it on poor U.S. security after Baghdad fell.
The Pentagon has said it\'s looking into the matter, and officials note that 400,000 tons of recovered Iraqi munitions have either been destroyed or are slated to be destroyed.
-
Why does the news hate America? (http://www.kstp.com/article/stories/S3741.html?cat=1)
ABCNews wants the terrorists to win. (http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=206847)
-
Originally posted by Black Samurai
Why does the news hate America? (http://www.kstp.com/article/stories/S3741.html?cat=1)
ABCNews wants the terrorists to win. (http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=206847)
Didn\'t I post that story earlier today?
Why yes I did!
Kerry Doesn\'t Have The Facts (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,137017,00.html)
-
If the pentagon is saying they destroyed a sizeable portion of the explosives then why is the administration saying that they don\'t know what happened?
BTW, Why are you blaming the timing of this news on liberals and the media when the Iraqi interim government came forward with the info?
-
Its a non story... yet our MSM is making it into a story. Also the IAEA were the proponents in this story. We knew about it a year ago - why all of a sudden was it going to be on 60 Minutes on Sunday? Why make it an issue now? Please... I know you aren\'t that naive. I mean they and John Kerry are acting like terrorists might have gotten a hold of Sarin or worse. Yeah it can blow up a plane, but so can a hand grenade.
Yes, unaccounted for weapons are bad, but geez Iraq was one big arms stockpile. Of course every last piece of explosives is not going to accounted for and to accuse the President of incompetence for some missing explosives which are equal to less than 1 percent of what we have already secured or destroyed is absurd.
-
Dude, the IAEA is involved with materials that have potential nuclear use. HMX is High Melting Point Explosive. We aren\'t talking about bottle rockets here.
The Iraqi government contacted the IAEA almost two weeks ago about the missing explosives. The Administration tried to spin the story like they were probably gone before we got there. It has now been proven that they were indeed still there after we invaded and were filmed and inspected by US troops. The rest of you people on the right would like to spin it as being meaningless but this is far from a non-story. (http://www.kstp.com/article/stories/S3723.html)
-
Originally posted by Black Samurai
Dude, the IAEA is involved with materials that have potential nuclear use. HMX is High Melting Point Explosive. We aren\'t talking about bottle rockets here.
The Iraqi government contacted the IAEA almost two weeks ago about the missing explosives. The Administration tried to spin the story like they were probably gone before we got there. It has now been proven that they were indeed still there after we invaded and were filmed and inspected by US troops. The rest of you people on the right would like to spin it as being meaningless but this is far from a non-story. (http://www.kstp.com/article/stories/S3723.html)
Are you a weapons expert? Funny how no one has said that those containers are definitely the missing munitions. It says they appear to be, but they aren\'t sure. No one knows with any certainty of whether they were there or not. That video isn\'t definitive proof - can you identify what is in those boxes? The experts can\'t with any certainty. Stop trying to claim they were definitely there because no one knows - not even the Iraqi\'s. This is so ironic - you act like this video is breaking news when I posted it early this morning - I guess you and liberal media do have something in common. :rolleyes: It is evident you didn\'t read the post above yours or my last post regarding the Pentagon statement saying the destroyed 250 tons from that very site. Which, if that is the case - the story about it missing is false.
It is a non story for another reason. If insurgents had it wouldn\'t they have used it by now? In a year of hostilities against coalition forces? Ya think? Use a little common logic here BS. This stuff isn\'t easily transported and certainly couldn\'t have been put in Abdalla the terrorist\'s pocket. Certainly not a story worthy of all the attention it is getting.
The head of the IAEA has had fundamental disagreements with the Bush Administration and it is a common fact that the UN as a whole only wants US money and troops when peacekeeping duties are necessary.
This leads to my last question... why did the IAEA let him keep the explosives? I thought Saddam didn\'t have any banned munitions?
-
Originally posted by GigaShadow
Are you a weapons expert? Funny how no one has said that those containers are definitely the missing munitions. It says they appear to be, but they aren\'t sure. No one knows with any certainty of whether they were there or not. That video isn\'t definitive proof - can you identify what is in those boxes?
I\'m no expert but I\'m willing to bet that whatever was in those canisters was explosive.
(https://psx5central.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kstp.com%2Fkstpimages%2FAl-Qaqaa-pix_05a.jpg&hash=3fb5aea403e5461e7c1b7cccffdf865f81c49ffc)
Hey, but what do I know.
-
A lot of munitions explode. Was it HMX? You obviously don\'t know.