Report: Explosives already gone when U.S. troops arrived
The mystery surrounding the disappearance of 380 tons of powerful explosives from a storage depot in Iraq has taken a new twist, after a network embedded with the U.S. military during the invasion of Iraq reported that the material had already vanished by the time American troops arrived.
NBC News reported that on April 10, 2003, its crew was embedded with the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division when troops arrived at the Al Qaqaa storage facility south of Baghdad.
While the troops found large stockpiles of conventional explosives, they did not find HMX or RDX, the types of powerful explosives that reportedly went missing, according to NBC.
…
Baghdad fell on April 9, 2003. According to NBC, troops from the 101st Airborne arrived the next day to find that the material was already gone.
Prior to the Iraq war, the high-grade explosives at Al Qaqaa had been under the control of IAEA inspectors because the material could be used as a component in a nuclear weapon, IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said. IAEA and other U.N. inspectors left the country in March 2003 before the fighting began on March 19.
Now, about Kerry’s “meeting” with the “whole” UN Security Council… it seems to me that story isn’t getting a heck of a lot of interest in the MSM.
Interestingly, the NYTimes (and CBS, which had intended to do the story Oct 31! OCtober surprise!)
knew very well there was a good chance they were wrong. In the article itself, a bit more than
half-way in -
‘A senior Bush administration official said that during the initial race to Baghdad, American
forces “went through the bunkers, but saw no materials bearing the I.A.E.A. seal."‘
NZBear also noted this.
It may have been a very cursory inspection (April 10? One day after Saddam’s statue was taken
down on TV?), but to know troops (and an NBC reporter) went through at least some of it and
not try to find out is more than irresponsible, it is tantamount to a direct lie. Three
sentences of a four-online-page article is not sufficient for a copout.
.
Josh Marshall says the Pentagon says nothing like a search (except a quick look for
enemy personnel) was done until May 27. No IAEA-sealed explosives were found then. Again, though,
neither the Times or, apparently, CBS actually asked anyone.
Comment by John Anderson — 26 Oct, 2004 @ 20:30