NY Times Flashback: Paper Reported Saddam Transferred High Explosives
Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2004 11:15 a.m. EDT
NY Times Flashback: Paper Reported Saddam Transferred High Explosives
The New York Times claimed this week that hundreds of tons of high explosives had been removed from the Al-Qaqaa weapons depot while the facility was under U.S. control.
But Times reporters knew way back in Feb. 2003 that the removal process was instigated - not by looters or insurgents after the U.S. liberation - but instead by the government of Saddam Hussein.
On Feb. 15, 2003, the Times reported on an address to the United Nations Security Council by Mohamed ElBaradei, the UN's chief nuclear watchdog. In quotes covered extensively by the paper, ElBaradei shared his concern about the removal of high explosives from facilities like Al Qaqaa:
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"We have also continued to investigate the relocation and consumption of the high explosive HMX," ElBaradei explained a month before the U.S. invasion.
"As I reported earlier, Iraq has declared that 32 tons of the HMX, previously under I.A.E.A. seals, had been transferred for use in the production of industrial explosives, primarily to cement plants as a booster for explosives used in quarrying."
Baradei noted that Saddam's government had even confirmed the movement of the HMX, in quotes also picked up by the Times 21 months ago:
"Iraq has provided us with additional information, including documentation on the movement and use of this material, and inspections have been conducted at locations where the material is said to have been used.
"However, given the nature of the use of high explosives," ElBaradei said, "it may well be that the I.A.E.A. will be unable to reach a final conclusion on the end use of this material. While we have no indication that this material was used for any application other than that declared by Iraq, we have no technical method of verifying quantitatively the declared use of the material in explosions. . . . "
While the Times, CBS News and the presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry continue to insist that the removal of HMX and other high explosives took place sometime after the liberation of Iraq began on March 19, 2003, they have yet to address ElBaradei's Security Council report clearly indicating those claims are not true. |
