Did looting after the invasion give terrorists WMDs? - PhillyBlog

seand · #1 (**permalink**) 10-14-2004, 06:26 PM

It would be funny if it weren't so sad. Even though Bush's own investigators didn't find evidence of an existing nuclear weapons program under UN sanctions before the invasion, looting in the chaos after the invasion may have actually reulted in putting nuclear "dual use" technologies in the hands of Islamcist terrorists. Check it out.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/12/iraq.nuclear/

Quote:

Missing Iraqi nuke equipment worries IAEA

Senior Iraqi adviser blames U.S. for not securing equipment

Tuesday, October 12, 2004 Posted: 10:50 PM EDT (0250 GMT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The senior adviser to Iraq's Interior Ministry blamed U.S. forces Tuesday for not securing facilities where the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency says equipment that could be used to make nuclear weapons has vanished.

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, playing down the International Atomic Energy Agency's concerns, said U.S.-led coalition forces "did move quickly" to secure the so-called dual-use equipment after invading Iraq in March 2003.

"I think we share the general concern that some material might have gotten out [during the mass looting that took place] immediately after the war, but it has been brought under control," Boucher told reporters in Washington.

According to an October 1 letter from IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei to the U.N. Security Council, satellite imagery showed that not only was dual-use equipment missing, but buildings that once housed it had been dismantled. (Full story)

"The imagery shows in many instances the dismantlement of entire buildings that housed high precision equipment ... formerly monitored and tagged with IAEA seals, as well as the removal of equipment and materials (such as high-strength aluminum) from open storage areas," ElBaradei's letter said.

ElBaradei said that although some radioactive equipment taken from Iraq after the war began has shown up in other countries, none of the missing dual-use equipment or materials have been found.

IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky, speaking from the agency's headquarters in Vienna, Austria, said locating the dual-use equipment was a priority.

"The kind of equipment we're talking about ... is the sort of thing that has a multitude of industrial applications," Gwozdecky said. "We were satisfied when we were in Iraq that it was not being used for a nuclear weapons program.

"In the wrong hands, it could be turned to use in a nuclear weapons program," he said. "Until we establish that this material is in responsible hands, we have to treat it as a serious proliferation concern."

Iraqi Interior Ministry adviser Sabah Kadhim acknowledged that much of the country's dual-use equipment was missing, charging that the looting was organized and carried out by "neighboring countries."

He also alleged that "lower-level U.S. military officers" facilitated the sale of some of the equipment. CNN is seeking comment on the allegation.

A CIA report released last week by chief U.S. weapons inspector Charles Duelfer showed that some equipment could have been taken during the chaos of the 2003 invasion.

Gwozdecky said, however, that looting apparently continued after that.

"From our satellite photos, we've seen evidence that some of the facilities we used to monitor closely have been dismantled completely," Gwozdecky said, indicating that it happened over a longer period with more forethought.

"We need to answer the question, 'Where did this material go?' "

Kadhim did not put a time frame on the dismantling of the facilities and the disappearance of equipment.

Gwozdecky said the IAEA has been "alerting the relevant authorities to" its concerns about the missing equipment since the war, noting that the matter has been included in biennial reports to the Security Council.

IAEA weapons inspectors left Iraq shortly before the invasion. Since then, the Bush administration has turned down IAEA offers to return, and the agency has had to rely on satellite imagery to determine the status of Iraq's potential and former nuclear sites.

IAEA inspectors did travel to Iraq in early August for the agency's semiannual inventory of nuclear material, which now consists mostly of "yellowcake" enriched uranium, a spokeswoman said.

Except for an amount that U.S. officials notified the agency it was removing to the United States, the IAEA verified that the yellowcake remaining in Iraq was the same as before the war.

The equipment is another matter. Under the IAEA's Ongoing Monitoring and Verification mandate from the United Nations, Iraq is obligated to notify the agency if it moves any of the equipment in question.

"We've not received any such notification since the war," Gwozdecky said. "Until we learn from either Iraq or any country that might have received or have knowledge about where this material went, we have a concern on our hands."

Boucher contended that "the Iraqis have been able to put into place the kind of monitoring and control systems that are necessary" to keep track of nuclear equipment and material.

In his letter to the Security Council, ElBaradei said that in late September the Iraqi Ministry of Science and Technology asked the agency to assist in selling the remaining yellowcake, dismantling and decontaminating former nuclear facilities and resuming the IAEA's monitoring and verification activities.

ElBaradei said the discussions about the requests are still taking place. Kadhim said the Iraqi interim government has indicated it would welcome the IAEA's return, but that the Security Council must back the agency's presence there.

In the first presidential debate, President Bush and Sen. John Kerry agreed that nuclear proliferation is the single most serious threat facing the United States.

Bush justified the war in Iraq in part by contending Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was on the brink of developing a nuclear weapon he might use against the United States or give to terrorists.

The Duelfer report concluded that Saddam terminated his nuclear weapons program after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

seand · #2 (**permalink**) 10-25-2004, 12:33 PM

Our man "W" on the job in Iraq, making sure that terrorists never (oops! strike that - I mean always) get their hands on of WMD's.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp..._explosives_dc

[quote="seand"]U.N.: Hundreds of Tons of Explosives Missing in Iraq

14 minutes ago

*Top Stories - Reuters

By Louis Charbonneau

VIENNA (Reuters) - Nearly 380 tons of explosives are missing from a site near Baghdad that was part of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s dismantled atom bomb program but was never secured by the U.S. military, the United Nations (news - web sites) said Monday.

Reuters Photo

*

The head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, will immediately report the matter to the U.N. Security Council, a spokeswoman for the agency said.

The missing explosives could potentially be used to detonate a nuclear weapon or in conventional weapons, the agency said.

"ElBaradei has decided to inform the Security Council today," spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said.

The New York Times, which broke the story Monday, said U.S. weapons experts feared the explosives could be used in bombing attacks against U.S. or Iraqi forces, which have come under increasing fire ahead of Iraq (news - web sites)'s elections due in January.

The U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been barred from most of Iraq since the war and has watched from afar as its former nuclear sites have been systematically stripped by looters.

Fleming said ElBaradei informed Washington of the seriousness of the matter on Oct. 15 after learning about the disappearance of the explosives on Oct. 10.

One substance found in large quantities at the Al Qaqaa facility was the explosive HMX, which Fleming said had "a potential use in a nuclear explosive device as a detonator."

Prior to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, the HMX had been sealed and tagged with the IAEA emblem while being stored at Al Qaqaa.

Iraq was permitted to keep some of its explosives for mining purposes after the IAEA completed its dismantling of Saddam's covert nuclear weapons program after the 1991 Gulf war.

Fleming said HMX also had civilian and conventional military applications. In the months prior to the second Gulf war, the IAEA was certain that none of the dual-use materials were being used in a nuclear weapons program.

Diplomats at the IAEA have warned that materials useable in nuclear weapons could easily be shipped out of Iraq and sold to countries like Iran or terrorist groups believed to be interested in acquiring nuclear weapons.

U.S. FAILED TO SECURE KNOWN NUCLEAR SITE

The New York Times report cited White House and Pentagon (news - web sites) officials -- as well as at least one Iraqi minister -- as acknowledging that the explosives vanished from the site shortly after the U.S.-led invasion amid widespread looting.

The minister of science and technology, Rashad M. Omar, confirmed the explosives were missing in an interview with The Times and CBS Television in Baghdad.

A Western diplomat close to the IAEA, who declined to be named, said it was difficult to understand why the U.S. military had failed to secure the facility despite knowing how sensitive the site was.

"This was a very well known site. If you could have picked a few sites that you would have to secure then ... Al Qaqaa would certainly be one of the main ones," the diplomat said.

*

U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) was informed about the missing explosives only within the last month, the Times said, adding that it was unclear whetherPresident Bush (news - web sites) was aware.

U.S. administration officials said Sunday the Iraq Survey Group, the Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites) task force that searched for unconventional weapons, had been ordered to investigate the disappearance, the newspaper said.

Vienna diplomats said the IAEA had cautioned the United States about the danger of the explosives before the war, and after the invasion it specifically told U.S. officials about the need to keep the them secured.

[quote]

chrissayer · #3 (**permalink**) 10-25-2004, 12:48 PM

This latest is just such an incredible story.

We have secured the site, we controlled it. And then we apparently walked away leaving all these TONS of explosives to whomever could cart them away.

This alone should be grounds for firing Bush.

chrissayer · #4 (**permalink**) 10-25-2004, 07:59 PM

377.000 tons of explosives = 740,000,000 pounds.

BOOM!

Ezra · #5 (**permalink**) 10-25-2004, 08:14 PM

Ezra doing a tmcgee / rlc impression:

Quote:

1) It's the Iraqi's fault.
2) It's Clinton's fault.
3) No big deal.

chrissayer · #6 (**permalink**) 10-25-2004, 09:04 PM

So many excuses, so little time.

My favorite, however, was an administration security expert who said that the loss of the 377,00 effin tons of HMX wasn't disclosed because the government "didn't want to give the enemy any information they could use."

They took the damn stuff. They no more about where it is that does the Bush adminstration.

Keep it a secret, by all means.

chrissayer · #7 (**permalink**) 10-25-2004, 09:08 PM

HMX and RDX are the major components of plastic explosives.
HMX - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMX
RDX - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RDX

Car bombs are often made of HMX.

The flight that went down at Lockerbee, Scotland was blown up with HMX.

The terrorist caught coming into Washington state with plans to attack LAX had a trunk full of HMX.

Administration officials say that the loss of this material is "no big thing." You can buy it on the market easily, they argue.

Oh, mr arms dealer. I'd like to buy 377 TONS of HMX and RDX, please. Charge it to the US government. Thanks.

Ezra · #8 (**permalink**) 10-26-2004, 07:06 AM

On CNN the anchor says 377 tonnes of explosives have disappeared.... we hopw that it has not fallen into the wrong hands.... :shock:

WHERE ARE THE RIGHT WINGERS MAKING LIGHT OF THIS???

OR

WHERE ARE THE RIGHT WINGERS TAKING THIS AS A ****ING HINT AS TO HOW SAFE BUSH IS MAKING US????

EDIT: I went to freerepublic... and I see why now... It was Kerry's fault... the explosives were gone the day before the US showed up.... so, I can expect not to get any sort of intellegent response.

hr · #9 (**permalink**) 10-26-2004, 07:38 AM

Maybe. I would not consider NBC a tool of the Whitehouse.

Report: Explosives already gone when U.S. troops arrived
NBC News says its crew was embedded with soldiers at time
Tuesday, October 26, 2004 Posted: 3:01 AM EDT (0701 GMT)

Officials fear the missing explosives could be used in bombings like those occurring regularly in Iraq.

(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.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/...ves/index.html

380 tons = 760,000 lbs. Still a tremendous amount of HE.

seand · #10 (**permalink**) 10-26-2004, 06:01 PM

760,000 pounds of explosive material, one pound of which the DN this morning pointed out was enough to completely destroy a 727 in the Lockerbie bombing and the administration's response is that "a lot of arms went missing during the time of the invasion", no big deal. What would be a big deal, an H-bomb with a bow and card marked "Dear Al Queda"? The reason this site was on the IAEA's short list was because it was sucha large stockpile of one of the only conventional explosives powerful enough to ignite a nuclear explosion.

I especially love the Bush campaign's response that the fact what must of been literally many, many truckloads of high explosive disappeared just before our troops got there means that it was not really their fault. In other words they decided to sit on this from what must have Day 4 or 5 of the invasion and hoped noone noticed. At the very least, it certainly adds a whole new level of irony to that "Mission Accomplished" bush Phot-op on the aircraft carrier.

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