[lit-ideas] Iraq explosives

Click here: AOL News - TV Video May Show Missing Explosives =20
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=3D20041029044209990014

Bush  can't say Hussein smuggled them out before our attack anymore....  hop=
e=20
 enough people get wind of this news to make a difference.

<<TV  Video May Show Missing Explosives
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WASHINGTON (Oct. 29) - Videotape shot by a Minnesota television crew =20
traveling with U.S. troops in Iraq when they first opened the bunkers at the=
 =20
Al-Qaqaa munitions base nine days after the fall of Saddam Hussein shows wha=
t =20
appeared to be high explosives still in barrels and bearing the markings of=20=
the =20
International Atomic Energy Agency.

AP
Soldier with 101st Airborne examines contents of a barrel in  bunker at=20
Al-Qaqaa facility April 18, 2003.
Watch: An Explosive  Discovery
Broadband Only: New Evidence Found =20

The video taken by KSTP of St. Paul on April 18, 2003, could reinforce =20
suggestions that tons of explosives missing from a munitions installation in=
  Iraq=20
were looted after the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. The video was =20
broadcast nationally Thursday on ABC.
=20
"The photographs are consistent with what I know of Al-Qaqaa," David A.  Kay=
,=20
a former American official who directed the hunt in Iraq for unconventional=20=
=20
weapons and visited the site, told The New York Times. "The damning thing is=
=20
the  seals. The Iraqis didn't use seals on anything. So I'm absolutely sure=20
that's an  IAEA seal."
=20
The question of what happened to the tons of explosives has become a major =20
issue in the closing days of the presidential campaign.
=20
  =20
Talk About It =20


=B7 Chat | Post Messages  =20

Democrat John Kerry says the missing explosives - powerful enough to =20
demolish a building, bring down a jetliner or set off a nuclear weapon - are=
  another=20
example of the Bush administration's poor planning and incompetence in =20
handling the war in Iraq. President Bush says the explosives were possibly =20=
removed=20
by Saddam's forces before the invasion.
=20
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld entered the debate Thursday,  suggestin=
g=20
the 377 tons of explosives were taken away before U.S. forces  arrived,=20
saying any large effort to loot the material afterward would have been  dete=
cted.
=20
"We would have seen anything like that," he said in one of two radio =20
interviews he gave at the Pentagon. "The idea it was suddenly looted and mov=
ed  out,=20
all of these tons of equipment, I think is at least debatable."
=20
The Pentagon also declassified and released a single image, taken by =20
reconnaissance aircraft or satellite just days before the war, showing two =20=
trucks=20
outside one of the dozens of storage bunkers at the Al-Qaqaa munitions  base=
.
=20
  =20
More on This Story =20


=B7 Soldier Describes Removing Explosives   =20

The particular bunker is not one known to have contained  any of the missing=
=20
explosives, and Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita said the  image only shows=20
that there was some Iraqi activity at the base when it was  taken, on March=20=
17.=20
Di Rita said the image says nothing about what happened to  the explosives.
=20
Rumsfeld, in one radio interview, also cast doubt on the suggestion of one =20
of his subordinates that Russian forces assisted the Iraqis in removing  the=
m.
=20
John Shaw, the deputy U.S. undersecretary of defense for international =20
technology security, suggested to The Washington Times in an interview that=20=
the =20
Russians may have been involved, prompting an angry denial from Moscow.
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Rumsfeld said, "I have no information on that at all, and cannot validate =20
that even slightly."
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But at issue is whether the weapons were moved before or after U.S. forces =20
occupied that region of the country in early April. No one has been able to=20=
=20
provide conclusive evidence either way, although Iraqi officials blamed it o=
n =20
poor U.S. security after Baghdad fell.
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The Pentagon has said it's looking into the matter, and officials note that=20=
=20
400,000 tons of recovered Iraqi munitions have either been destroyed or are=20=
=20
slated to be destroyed.>>


Julie Krueger
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