NBC News says its crew was embedded with soldiers at time
Tuesday, October 26, 2004 Posted: 0545 GMT (1345 HKT)

(CNN) -- 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.

Report: Explosives already gone when U.S. troops arrived
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/26/iraq.explosives/

NBC News says its crew was embedded with soldiers at time
Tuesday, October 26, 2004 Posted: 0545 GMT (1345 HKT)

(CNN) -- 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.

Report: Explosives already gone when U.S. troops arrived
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/26/iraq.explosives/

NBC News says its crew was embedded with soldiers at time
Tuesday, October 26, 2004 Posted: 0545 GMT (1345 HKT)

(CNN) -- 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.

The International Atomic Energy revealed Monday that it had been told
two weeks ago by the Iraqi government that 380 tons of HMX and RDX
disappeared from Al Qaqaa after Saddam Hussein's government fell.

In a letter to the IAEA dated October 10, Iraq's director of planning,
Mohammed Abbas, said the material disappeared sometime after Saddam's
regime fell in April 2003, which he attributed to "the theft and
looting of the governmental installations due to lack of security."

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.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Monday that five days after
the IAEA received the letter from the Iraqi government, the agency
alerted U.S. officials in Vienna, who in turn told National Security
Director Condoleezza Rice. She then alerted Bush, McClellan said.

Once U.S. officials were alerted, the multinational force in Iraq and
the Iraq Survey Group, charged with hunting for weapons in Iraq, were
both ordered to investigate what was missing and the possible
circumstances, according to State Department spokesman Adam Ereli.

"We, from the very beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, did
everything we could to secure arms caches throughout the country,"
Ereli said. "But given the number of arms and the number of caches and
the extent of militarization of Iraq, it was impossible to provide 100
percent security for 100 percent of the sites, quite frankly."

The news of the missing explosives followed an IAEA report earlier
this month that said high-end, dual-use machinery that could be used
in a nuclear weapons program was missing from Iraq's nuclear
facilities. (Full story)

"Our immediate concern is that if the explosives did fall into the
wrong hands, they could be used to commit terrorist acts and some of
the bombings that we've seen," the IAEA's Fleming said.

She described Al Qaqaa as "massive" and said it is one of the most
well-known storage sites. Besides the explosives, it also held large
caches of artillery.

Fleming said the IAEA, which is based in Vienna, Austria, did not know
whether some of the explosives may have been used in past attacks.

The IAEA said that before the war it inspected the Al Qaqaa facility
multiple times and verified that the material was present in January
2003. The agency said the material was mentioned in reports to the
U.N. Security Council that were made public.

Ereli said coalition forces searched 32 bunkers and 87 other buildings
at the Al Qaqaa facility after the war for weapons of mass
destruction. The troops found none, but did see indications of
looting, he said. Bush declared an end to major combat operations in
Iraq on May 1, 2003.

"Some explosive material at the time was discovered, although none of
it carried IAEA seals, and this discovery was reported to coalition
forces for removal of the material," Ereli said.

Ereli said coalition forces have cleared 10,033 weapons caches and
destroyed 243,000 tons of munitions. Another 162,898 tons of munitions
are at secure locations and awaiting destruction, he said.

A senior administration official played down the importance of the
missing explosives, describing them as dangerous material but "stuff
you can buy anywhere."

The official noted that the administration did not see this
necessarily as a "proliferation risk."

"In the grand scheme -- and on a grand scale -- there are hundreds of
tons of weapons, munitions, artillery, explosives that are unaccounted
for in Iraq," the official said.

"And like the Pentagon has said, there is really no way the U.S.
military could safeguard all of these weapons depots or find all of
these missing materials."

The official said the Iraq Survey Group concluded that Saddam had no
weapons of mass destruction and documented the scope of the problem.

Threat from terrorists
A European diplomat told The New York Times that Mohamed ElBaradei,
director general of the IAEA, is "extremely concerned" about the
potentially "devastating consequences" of the vanished stockpile.

"The immediate danger" of the lost stockpiles is its potential use by
insurgents to make small, but powerful, bombs, an expert told the
Times. The expert said the explosives could be transported easily
across the Middle East.

According to the Times, the stockpiles missing from Al Qaqaa are the
strongest and fastest in common use by militaries around the globe.

The Iraqi letter to the IAEA identified the vanished explosives as
containing 194.7 metric tons of HMX, or "high melting point
explosive," 141.2 metric tons of RDX, or "rapid detonation explosive,"
among other designations, and 5.8 metric tons of PETN, or
"pentaerythritol tetranitrate."

Fleming said the IAEA, whose mission is to keep track of everything
with potential nuclear weapons applications, had been monitoring about
100 sites in Iraq, but there were only a few of special concern,
including Al Qaqaa.

"This is a real massive quantity of explosives that could have reached
the hands of insurgents and could be used with deadly force and
consequences against people in Iraq," Fleming said.

"One would have to assume it's been stolen by someone who has some
sort of nefarious purpose for it."

Political fallout
With the U.S. presidential election eight days away, news of the
missing explosives quickly became campaign fodder.

Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry immediately seized on the
information to accuse President Bush of incompetence in failing to
secure the material, charging that "this is one of the great blunders
of Iraq and one of the great blunders of this administration."

But in the wake of the NBC report, the Bush campaign fired off a
statement saying that Kerry's criticism of the president over the
missing material has "been proven false before the day is over."

"John Kerry's attacks today were baseless," Bush campaign spokesman
Steve Schmidt said. "He said American troops did not secure the
explosives, when the explosives were already missing."

Schmidt also said that Kerry "neglects to mention the 400,000 tons of
weapons and explosives that are either destroyed or in the process of
being destroyed" in Iraq.

But Kerry senior adviser Joe Lockhart fired back with a statement of
his own, accusing the Bush campaign of "distorting" the NBC News
report.

"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," Lockhart said. "It is the
latest pathetic excuse from an administration that never admits a
mistake, no matter how disastrous."

Lockhart did not elaborate on how the Bush campaign was distorting the
NBC report.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
"John Kerry gave the enemy for free what I and many of my comrades in
North Viet Nam prison camps took torture to avoid saying." -- Paul
Galanti POW Jan. 1966 - Feb. 1973

"Long term commitment in relationships is only necessary because it takes
so damn long to raise children. Marriage may well be some kind of trick
to keep the males around beyond sexual satiation." -- Captain Compassion

"Progress is the increasing control of the environment by life.
--Will Durant

Joseph R. Darancette
res0mp8t@NOSPAMverizon.net

Report: Explosives already gone when U.S. troops arrived
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/26/iraq.explosives/

NBC News says its crew was embedded with soldiers at time
Tuesday, October 26, 2004 Posted: 0545 GMT (1345 HKT)

(CNN) -- 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.

The International Atomic Energy revealed Monday that it had been told
two weeks ago by the Iraqi government that 380 tons of HMX and RDX
disappeared from Al Qaqaa after Saddam Hussein's government fell.

In a letter to the IAEA dated October 10, Iraq's director of planning,
Mohammed Abbas, said the material disappeared sometime after Saddam's
regime fell in April 2003, which he attributed to "the theft and
looting of the governmental installations due to lack of security."

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.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Monday that five days after
the IAEA received the letter from the Iraqi government, the agency
alerted U.S. officials in Vienna, who in turn told National Security
Director Condoleezza Rice. She then alerted Bush, McClellan said.

Once U.S. officials were alerted, the multinational force in Iraq and
the Iraq Survey Group, charged with hunting for weapons in Iraq, were
both ordered to investigate what was missing and the possible
circumstances, according to State Department spokesman Adam Ereli.

"We, from the very beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, did
everything we could to secure arms caches throughout the country,"
Ereli said. "But given the number of arms and the number of caches and
the extent of militarization of Iraq, it was impossible to provide 100
percent security for 100 percent of the sites, quite frankly."

The news of the missing explosives followed an IAEA report earlier
this month that said high-end, dual-use machinery that could be used
in a nuclear weapons program was missing from Iraq's nuclear
facilities. (Full story)

"Our immediate concern is that if the explosives did fall into the
wrong hands, they could be used to commit terrorist acts and some of
the bombings that we've seen," the IAEA's Fleming said.

She described Al Qaqaa as "massive" and said it is one of the most
well-known storage sites. Besides the explosives, it also held large
caches of artillery.

Fleming said the IAEA, which is based in Vienna, Austria, did not know
whether some of the explosives may have been used in past attacks.

The IAEA said that before the war it inspected the Al Qaqaa facility
multiple times and verified that the material was present in January
2003. The agency said the material was mentioned in reports to the
U.N. Security Council that were made public.

Ereli said coalition forces searched 32 bunkers and 87 other buildings
at the Al Qaqaa facility after the war for weapons of mass
destruction. The troops found none, but did see indications of
looting, he said. Bush declared an end to major combat operations in
Iraq on May 1, 2003.

"Some explosive material at the time was discovered, although none of
it carried IAEA seals, and this discovery was reported to coalition
forces for removal of the material," Ereli said.

Ereli said coalition forces have cleared 10,033 weapons caches and
destroyed 243,000 tons of munitions. Another 162,898 tons of munitions
are at secure locations and awaiting destruction, he said.

A senior administration official played down the importance of the
missing explosives, describing them as dangerous material but "stuff
you can buy anywhere."

The official noted that the administration did not see this
necessarily as a "proliferation risk."

"In the grand scheme -- and on a grand scale -- there are hundreds of
tons of weapons, munitions, artillery, explosives that are unaccounted
for in Iraq," the official said.

"And like the Pentagon has said, there is really no way the U.S.
military could safeguard all of these weapons depots or find all of
these missing materials."

The official said the Iraq Survey Group concluded that Saddam had no
weapons of mass destruction and documented the scope of the problem.

Threat from terrorists
A European diplomat told The New York Times that Mohamed ElBaradei,
director general of the IAEA, is "extremely concerned" about the
potentially "devastating consequences" of the vanished stockpile.

"The immediate danger" of the lost stockpiles is its potential use by
insurgents to make small, but powerful, bombs, an expert told the
Times. The expert said the explosives could be transported easily
across the Middle East.

According to the Times, the stockpiles missing from Al Qaqaa are the
strongest and fastest in common use by militaries around the globe.

The Iraqi letter to the IAEA identified the vanished explosives as
containing 194.7 metric tons of HMX, or "high melting point
explosive," 141.2 metric tons of RDX, or "rapid detonation explosive,"
among other designations, and 5.8 metric tons of PETN, or
"pentaerythritol tetranitrate."

Fleming said the IAEA, whose mission is to keep track of everything
with potential nuclear weapons applications, had been monitoring about
100 sites in Iraq, but there were only a few of special concern,
including Al Qaqaa.

"This is a real massive quantity of explosives that could have reached
the hands of insurgents and could be used with deadly force and
consequences against people in Iraq," Fleming said.

"One would have to assume it's been stolen by someone who has some
sort of nefarious purpose for it."

Political fallout
With the U.S. presidential election eight days away, news of the
missing explosives quickly became campaign fodder.

Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry immediately seized on the
information to accuse President Bush of incompetence in failing to
secure the material, charging that "this is one of the great blunders
of Iraq and one of the great blunders of this administration."

But in the wake of the NBC report, the Bush campaign fired off a
statement saying that Kerry's criticism of the president over the
missing material has "been proven false before the day is over."

"John Kerry