Kerry Attacks Regarding Missing Explosives Countered by NBC
Talon News
October 26, 2004
HOUSTON (Talon News) -- Speaking aboard Air Force One en route to Colorado, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan fielded questions from reporters regarding the disappearance of 380 tons of explosives from a military complex south of Baghdad. The Democrats were quick to seize upon the story, but claims by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry were refuted later on Monday by NBC News.
In stepping through the timeline of events regarding the discovery and announcement of the missing explosives, McClellan said that the Iraqi Interim Government told the International Atomic Energy Agency on October 10 that there were "approximately 350 tons of high explosives missing from Al Qaqaa in Iraq." McClellan added that the Iraqi government informed the IAEA because the munitions "were subject to IAEA monitoring, because they were considered dual-use materials."
"[T]he International Atomic Energy Agency informed the United States mission in Vienna on October 15th about ... this cache of explosives that was missing because of some looting that went on in Iraq toward the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom, or during and toward the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom," McClellan explained.
Officials believe that the explosive materials disappeared sometime around April 2003. The missing agents consist of HMX and RDX explosives, which are key ingredients in plastic explosives such as C-4 and Semtex.
The White House press secretary added that the first priority of the administration "was to make sure that this wasn't a nuclear proliferation risk, which it is not."
"These are conventional high explosives that we are talking about," McClellan said. "And the president wants to make sure that we get to the bottom of this. Now, the Pentagon, upon learning of this, directed the multinational forces and the Iraqi survey group to look into this matter, and that's what they are currently doing."
The presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) was quick to criticize the Bush administration for what it perceives as "the most grave and catastrophic mistake in a tragic series of blunders in Iraq."
"How did they fail to secure nearly 380 tons of known, deadly explosives despite clear warnings from the International Atomic Energy Agency to do so?" Kerry campaign strategist Joe Lockhart said in a statement. "And why was this information unearthed by reporters -- and was it covered up by our national security officials?"
Sen. Kerry added, "George W. Bush who talks tough and brags about making America safer has once again failed to deliver. After being warned about the danger of major stockpiles of explosives in Iraq, this administration failed to guard those stockpiles -- where nearly 380 tons of highly explosive weapons were kept. Today we learned that these explosives are missing, unaccounted for and could be in the hands of terrorists."
However, a report by NBC News counters Kerry's claims that the weapons disappeared because of post-war troop levels. In fact, the NBC News report shows that the HMX and RDX explosives were not present even when coalition forces first arrived at Al Qaqaa.
NBC News on Monday aired a report from Jim Miklaszewski who said that on April 10, 2003, only three weeks into the war, "NBC News was embedded with troops from the Army's 101st Airborne as they temporarily take over the Al Qaqaa weapons installation south of Baghdad. But these troops never found the nearly 380 tons of some of the most powerful conventional explosives, called HMX and RDX, which is now missing."
McClellan also emphasized that the weapons, although reported to the IAEA recently, have been missing for some time.
"Remember, early on -- during and at the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom, there was some looting," McClellan recalled. "Some of it was organized that was going on in the country. There were munitions caches spread throughout the country. And so -- but these are all issues that are being looked into by the multinational forces and the Iraq Survey Group."
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