Religions > Atheism > OT: Newscrew film shows explosives present in Iraq when America invaded...
| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"turk" |
| Date: |
30 Oct 2004 12:06:08 PM |
| Object: |
OT: Newscrew film shows explosives present in Iraq when America invaded... |
http://www.baou.com/newswire/main.php?action=recent&rid=1842
Bush gave terrorists more weapons than Saddam ever would have...
IAEA says it warned U.S. about explosives
by OfficialWire NewsDesk
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- (OfficialWire) -- 10/30/04 -- New evidence emerged in
the United States on Friday that appears to contradict claims by George W.
Bush and his administration that some 360 tons of explosives previously
located in Iraq were looted before U.S. troops occupied the country. Nine
days after the fall of Baghdad, on April 18, 2003, a news crew from
Minneapolis-St Paul station KSTP-TV, embedded with U.S. troops from the
101st Airborne Division, entered bunkers at the facility, south of Baghdad.
At one of the bunkers, troops broke what appears to be an International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) seal to get inside and found barrels filled with
powdered explosives, said Dean Staley, then a reporter at the Minnesota
station.
The film seems to suggest that explosives were present after U.S. troops had
seized control of the city-explosives that are now missing.
Earlier on Thursday, Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the IAEA, said that
U.S. officials were cautioned directly about what was stored at Al-Qaqaa,
the main high explosives facility in Iraq.
Whether the explosives were moved from the facility by the Iraqi regime
before the war began, or looted after the facility came under U.S. control,
has become a major issue in the presidential campaign.
IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei told the UN Security Council in his
report in February last year that he was concerned about the explosives,
which Iraq's Science and Technology Ministry reported as missing on October
10, 2004.
The explosives, which were sealed by IAEA inspectors two months before the
war in Iraq, could be used to demolish buildings, make missile warheads and
detonate nuclear weapons.
U.S. military commanders estimated last year that Iraqi military sites
contained anywhere between 650,000 tons and one million tons of explosives,
artillery shells, aviation bombs and other ammunition. The Bush
administration cited these official figures this week confirming that about
400,000 tons had destroyed or were in the process of being eliminated. That
leaves the whereabouts of more than 250,000 tons unknown.
"We didn't find the stockpiles we thought would be there-that we all
thought would be there. But Saddam Hussein had the capability of making
weapons, and he could have passed that capability on to the enemy. And that
is a risk we could not afford to take after September 11, 2001. Knowing what
I know today, I would have made the same decision," Bush said at a recent
campaign rally in Washington.
The problem with that rationale, if one can use that terminology when
referring to the utterances of the current U.S. president, is that with more
than 250,000 tons of weapons of all descriptions missing (whereabouts
unknown) it would appear that invading Iraq has actually had the net effect
of putting the weapons into the hands of terrorists more effectively than
Saddam Hussein would or could ever have dreamed of...Nice one Mr. President!
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| User: "JTEM" |
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| Title: Re: Newscrew film shows explosives present in Iraq when America invaded... |
30 Oct 2004 12:20:08 PM |
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"turk" <turk96@attbi.com> wrote
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- (OfficialWire) -- 10/30/04 -- New
evidence emerged in the United States on Friday that appears
to contradict claims by George W. Bush and his administration
that some 360 tons of explosives previously located in Iraq
were looted before U.S. troops occupied the country.
This is a lie.
The evidence is actually quite old. In fact, here is what was
PUBLISHED by the Associated Press back on April 5, 2003:
| Col. John Peabody, engineer brigade commander of the 3rd
| Infantry Division, said troops found thousands of five-centimetre
| by 12-centimetre boxes, each containing three vials of white
| powder, together with documents written in Arabic that dealt
| with how to engage in chemical warfare.
|
| A senior U.S. official familiar with initial testing said the powder
| was believed to be explosives. The finding would be consistent
| with the plant's stated production capabilities in the field of basic
| raw materials for explosives and propellants.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2003/030405-chem-readiness01.htm
What did they NOT report? Looting of explosives.
That hadn't taken place yet.
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| User: "wbarwell" |
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| Title: Re: Newscrew film shows explosives present in Iraq when America invaded... |
30 Oct 2004 03:02:20 PM |
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JTEM wrote:
"turk" <turk96@attbi.com> wrote
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- (OfficialWire) -- 10/30/04 -- New
evidence emerged in the United States on Friday that appears
to contradict claims by George W. Bush and his administration
that some 360 tons of explosives previously located in Iraq
were looted before U.S. troops occupied the country.
This is a lie.
The evidence is actually quite old. In fact, here is what was
PUBLISHED by the Associated Press back on April 5, 2003:
| Col. John Peabody, engineer brigade commander of the 3rd
| Infantry Division, said troops found thousands of five-centimetre
| by 12-centimetre boxes, each containing three vials of white
| powder, together with documents written in Arabic that dealt
| with how to engage in chemical warfare.
|
| A senior U.S. official familiar with initial testing said the powder
| was believed to be explosives. The finding would be consistent
| with the plant's stated production capabilities in the field of basic
| raw materials for explosives and propellants.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2003/030405-chem-readiness01.htm
What did they NOT report? Looting of explosives.
That hadn't taken place yet.
That was not the explosives in question.
Pearson did in fact destroy numerous munitions
ad other stuff later, on the 13th.
But the entry into the IAEA bunkers filmed
by the newscrew did not happen until the 18th
of April, long after all of this.
Pearson never entered these bunkers.
Los Angeles Times - latimes.com
October 29,2004
Pentagon Tries to Account for Missing
Explosives
From Associated Press
WASHINGTON An Army unit removed 250
tons of ammunition from the Al-Qaqaa
weapons depot in April 2003 and later
destroyed it, the company's former
commander said today. A Pentagon
spokesman said some was of the same
type as the missing explosives that
have become a major issue in the
presidential campaign.
But those 250 tons were not located
under the seal of the International
Atomic Energy Agency -- as the
missing high-grade explosives had
been -- and Pentagon spokesman Larry
Di Rita could not definitely say
whether they were part of the missing
377 tons.
Maj. Austin Pearson, speaking at a press
conference at thePentagon, said his
team removed 250 tons of TNT, plastic
explosives, detonation cords, and
white phosporous rounds on April 13,
2003 -- 10 days after U.S. forces
first reached the Al Qaqaa site.
Real Estate
"I did not see any IAEA seals at any
of the locations we went into. I was
not looking for that," Pearson said.
Di Rita sought to point to Pearson's
comments as evidence that some RDX,
one of the high-energy explosives,
might have been removed from the
site. RDX is also known as plastic
explosive.
But Di Rita acknowledged: "I can't
say RDX that was on the list of IAEA
is what the major pulled out. ... We
believe that some of the things they
were pulling out of there were RDX."
Further study was needed, Di Rita
said.
Whether Saddam Hussein's forces
removed the explosives before U.S.
forces arrived on April 3, 2003, or
whether they fell into the hands of
looters and insurgents afterward --
because the site was not guarded by
U.S. troops -- has become a key issue
in the campaign.
Pearson's comments raise further
questions about the chain of events
surrounding these explosives, the
disappearance of which has been
repeatedly cited by Democrat John
Kerry as evidence of the Bush
administration's poor handling of the
war in Iraq.
Still, 377 tons of explosives amount
to a tiny fraction of the weaponry in
Iraq. U.S. forces have already
destroyed, or have slated to
destroyed, more than 400,000 tons of
all manner of Iraqi weapons and
ammunition. But at least another
250,000 tons from Saddam's regime
remain unaccounted for, and some has
insurgents.
The window in which the explosives
were most likely removed from Al-
Qaqaa begins on March 15, 2003 --
five days before the war started --
and ends in late May, when a U.S.
weapons inspection team declared the
depot stripped and looted.
Two weeks ago, Iraqi officials told
the United Nations' International
Atomic Energy Agency that the
explosives vanished as a result of
"theft and looting ... due to lack of
security."
The explosives were known to be
housed in storage bunkers at the
sprawling Al-Qaqaa complex and nearby
structures. U.N. nuclear inspectors
placed fresh seals over the bunker
doors in January 2003. The inspectors
visited Al-Qaqaa for the last time
that March 15 and reported that the
seals were not broken; concluding the
weapons were still inside at the
time.
A U.S. military reconaissance image,
taken of Al Qaqaa on March 17, shows
two vehicles, presumably Iraqi,
outside a bunker at Al-Qaqaa. But Di
Rita said that bunker was not known
to contain any of the 377 tons, and
that the image only shows that there
was activity at the depot after U.N.
inspectors left.
Elements of the U.S. 3rd Infantry
Division arrived in the area on April
3 en route to Baghdad. They fought a
battle with Iraqi forces inside Al
Qaqaa and moved on, leaving a
battalion behind to clear out enemy
fighters in the area. Troops found
other weapons, including artillery
shells, on the base, he said. They
didn't specifically search for the
377 tons of high explosives that are
missing. On April 6, the battalion
left for Baghdad.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld
and others have advanced the theory
that the materials were removed
before U.S. forces arrived, saying
looting that much material would be
impossible by small-scale thieves,
and that a large-scale theft would
have involved lots of trucks and
would have been detected.
About four days later, another large
unit, the 2nd Brigade of the 101st
Airborne Division, moved into the
area. That unit did not search Al-
Qaqaa. A unit spokesman said there
was heavy looting in the area at the
time.
On April 13, Pearson's ordnance-
disposal team arrived and took the
250 tons out in a day. That materiel
was later destroyed by U.S. forces.
His comments may suggest that some of
it was still there when U.S. forces
arrived.
On April 18, a Minnesota television
crew traveling with the 101st
Airborne shot a videotape of troops
as they first opened the bunkers at
the Al-Qaqaa that shows what appeared
to be high explosives still in
barrels and bearing the markings of
the International Atomic Energy
Agency.
U.S. weapons hunters did not give the
area a thorough search until May,
when they visited on three occasions,
starting May 8. They searched every
building on the compound over the
course of those three visits, but did
not find any material or explosives
that had been marked by the IAEA.
--
Kerry - two medals a silver and bronze star.
Bush? Well they don't give medals
for going AWOL, missing your medical and
getting grounded or falling off of a bar stool.
Kerry - a hero, Bush - a zero
Cheerful Charlie
.
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| User: "JTEM" |
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| Title: Repeat ( was Re: Newscrew film shows explosives present in Iraq when America invaded...) |
30 Oct 2004 12:27:30 PM |
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This is the SECOND TIME that the Bush administration
has lied and claimed that missing weapons had vanished
before the war.
Check out this story, provided by our resident Bushbot,
"Fred Stone":
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/breaking_1.html
An entire battery of Iraqi ballistic missiles went missing
"Before the war," according to the story and the administration,
yet the story itself clearly identifies a time AFTER the war.
The missiles were still there in May of 2003, AFTER Bush
had declared victory in Iraq, and a month AFTER U.S.
forces had reached Al Qa Qaa, verifying that the explosives
were still there.
In both cases -- the al Qa Qaa explosives and the ballistic
missiles -- the undeniable fact is that the weapons were
still there when U.S. forces took control.
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