Iraq Video Shows U.S. Soldiers Checking Missing Arms, ABC Says
Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Explosives that went missing from Iraq's al-Qaqaa facility were still present after the U.S.-led invasion, according to ABC News, which aired a videotape shot at the site last year by a network affiliate.
U.S. soldiers are shown breaking into a bunker and then looking into crates and barrels marked ``explosive'' on the tape from KSTP, a station in St. Paul, Minnesota. KSTP's crew was embedded with the U.S. 101st Airborne Division when it passed through al-Qaqaa on April 18, 2003, ABC said on its Web site.
Almost 350 tons of high explosives went missing from the facility after April 9, 2003, due to a ``lack of security,'' the International Atomic Energy Agency said in an Oct. 25 letter to the UN Security Council. The IAEA, which inspected the arms dump before the war, today said a metal seal shown on a bunker door in the tape appears to be the type left by the agency's inspectors.
The disappearance of the explosives has become an issue in the U.S. presidential campaign as the Nov. 2 election approaches. Democratic challenger John Kerry cited it as evidence President George W. Bush ``failed to secure Iraq and keep it from becoming what it is today, a haven for terrorists.'' Bush said the matter is being investigated.
``Our military is now investigating a number of possible scenarios, including that the explosives may have been moved before our troops even arrived at the site,'' Bush said two days ago in Lititz, Pennsylvania, accusing Kerry of making ``wild charges'' for political gain.
HMX Explosive
The missing material includes about 195 tons of the explosive HMX, which had been under IAEA seal, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said in its letter to the Security Council.
In the footage, soldiers are shown using bolt-cutters to break a chain. Soldier are also seen pointing at what may be an IAEA seal on another bunker.
The seal in the footage appears to be an IAEA seal, an assistant at the IAEA press office, who declined to be identified, said in a telephone interview from Vienna. The agency can't confirm the origin of the seal from the footage, she said.
``The fact that there's a photo of what looks like an IAEA seal means that what's behind those doors is HMX,'' David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, said on the tape. Only bunkers that had HMX in them were sealed, he said.
A group calling itself the al-Karar Brigade of al-Islam's Army Brigades said it has the explosives and will use them against foreign troops in Iraq, according to a videotape from the group obtained by the Associated Press and shown by broadcasters worldwide.
The group said it got the material through members of ``the American intelligence,'' according to their videotape. The speaker was surrounded by masked, armed men in front of a black banner with the group's name. The claim couldn't be independently verified.
A U.S. military spokesman contacted by telephone in Baghdad today said questions about the ABC footage should be directed to the Pentagon. Lieutenant Colonel Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.
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