From The Associated Press, 10/27/04:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=736&e=5&u=/ap/20041027/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_weapons_q_a
What Happened to Missing Iraq Explosives
By CHRISTOPHER CHESTER, Associated Press Writer
The disappearance of nearly 400 tons of powerful explosives from a
former Iraqi military installation has become a heated issue in the
presidential campaign and has led to criticism and confusion over when
and how the materials vanished, what more U.S. troops could have done
to protect them from theft and who, if anyone, is to blame.
Here are some questions and answers about what we do know at this
point, and what remains unknown or in dispute:
Q. Why was the U.N. nuclear agency involved in monitoring explosives
at the Al-Qaqaa site?
A. Although the missing materials are conventional explosives known as
HMX and RDX and PETN, the nuclear agency considered HMX a "dual use"
substance powerful enough to ignite the fissile material in an atomic
bomb and set off a nuclear chain reaction. The agency put seals on the
stocks of HMX, and also monitored the amount of RDX and PETN to ensure
they were not taken. All three are referred to as "high explosive
material," or "high explosives."
___
Q. What value are high explosives to looters?
A. The material can be used for a variety of purposes, from car bomb
attacks to cooking fuel. After the invasion, Iraqi civilians were
looting anything of value that they thought they could sell or barter
later. Both HMX and RDX are key components in plastic explosives such
as C-4 and Semtex.
___
Q. Aren't there caches of these kinds of explosives throughout the
country? Why all the fuss about this particular site?
A. Al-Qaqaa was considered the pre-eminent site in Iraq for high
explosive stockpiles. When Iraq declared the HMX, RDX and PETN after
the 1991 Gulf War, nuclear agency experts concentrated the high
explosives at Al-Qaqaa so they could be monitored, according to a U.N.
official. U.S. troops on the ground found high explosives throughout
the country.
___
Q. When were the explosives last seen at the site?
A. U.N. nuclear inspectors observed the explosives in January 2003 and
placed fresh seals over the doors of bunkers that housed the
explosives. Inspectors visited Al-Qaqaa in March and reported that the
seals were not broken. The team made its last visit March 15 and
pulled out of the country before the March 20 invasion.
___
Q. If the explosives were still there in March 2003, when did they
disappear?
A. The Iraqis reported to the U.N. nuclear agency that 377 tons of
explosives were stolen sometime after U.S. troops seized Baghdad on
April 9, 2003. But President Bush suggested Wednesday that the cache
may have disappeared before U.S. troops first got to Al-Qaqaa, and his
spokesman said Saddam Hussein's regime itself may have removed the
material.
___
Q. When did U.S. troops arrive at the site, how aggressively did they
search for the weapons and did they secure the facility when they
left?
A. The Army's 3rd Infantry Division reached Al-Qaqaa around April 3,
2003, fought with Iraqi forces, occupied the site and left after two
days for Baghdad.
On April 10, 2003, troops from the 101st Airborne Division's 2nd
Brigade spent 24 hours at the site, searched for chemical weapons --
but not high explosives -- and then headed to Baghdad to join the 3rd
Infantry Division, which had seized the capital the previous day.
An NBC reporter embedded with the unit said there was no talk among
the 101st of securing the area after they left.
Although a spokesman for the unit says looters were already at the
site, Al-Qaqaa is a large installation with more than 100 buildings
that could house weapons, and it is unclear how much -- if any -- of
the extremely heavy material had been carted away by that point.
___
Q. Did U.S. troops ever search the facility for the high explosives?
A. It appears that the first time U.S. troops searched specifically
for high explosives was on May 27, 2003, after visits by American site
survey teams on May 8 and May 11 and a purported request by the U.N.
nuclear agency on May 3. The troops found that the seals had been
broken. It's not clear whether they did a further accounting of the
materials themselves.
___
Q. If the U.S. found the seals broken, did they inform the nuclear
agency?
A. That's not clear. The nuclear agency says it first learned of the
disappearance of the explosives from the Iraqi government on Oct. 10,
2004. The Pentagon would not say whether it had informed the nuclear
agency that the high explosives were not where they were supposed to
be.
___
Q. Why didn't U.S. troops make an effort earlier than May 27, 2003 to
secure the explosives?
A. It appears that there were no orders for them to search for high
explosives -- only for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.
Saddam's alleged hidden stockpiles of these weapons of mass
destruction were the Bush administration's justification for the war.
The nuclear agency had warned about HMX in a report to the United
Nations in February 2003 but did not specifically mention Al-Qaqaa.
___
Q. Was the U.N. nuclear agency in Iraq in the immediate aftermath of
the invasion?
A. No. The inspectors pulled out before the invasion, and the U.S.-led
coalition has not allowed their return for a resumption of general
inspections. The coalition did invite inspectors to return briefly on
two occasions for specific tasks, neither at Al-Qaqaa.
___
Q. Did the nuclear agency have legal custody of the site once the
coalition invaded?
A. The agency never had legal custody, was not in charge of the
facility or responsible for securing it overall.
________________________________________________________
There you have it.
Harry
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