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Politics : Proof that John Kerry is Unfit for Command -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (22114)	10/25/2004 7:49:55 PM
From: American Spirit	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 27181

White House plays down 380 Tons of high explosives in Iraq GREELEY, United States (AFP) - The White House played down the loss of 350 tonnes of high explosives in Iraq (news - web sites) which Democratic presidential challenger John Kerry (news - web sites) said was proof of the administration's "blunders." International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors were informed because the munitions were considered dual-use materials and subject to monitoring, said McClellan, traveling on Bush's re-election campaign. McClellan blamed the disappearance on "some looting that went on in Iraq toward the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom, or during and toward the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom." Bush critics have long said too few troops were deployed to secure Iraq after the collapse of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime. They blame poor planning and the mistaken assumption that Iraqis would welcome US-led forces with open arms. Democratic presidential hopeful Kerry pointed to the incident as proof Bush had failed as commander in chief. "George W. Bush, who talks tough -- talks tough -- and brags about making America safer has once again failed to deliver," said Kerry, campaigning in the northeastern state of New Hampshire. "After being warned about the danger of major stockpiles of explosives in Iraq this president failed to guard those stockpiles." Now the United States and US troops "are less safe because this president failed to do the basics, this is one of the great blunders of Iraq one of the great blunders of this administration." Kerry blasted "the unbelievable blindness, stubbornness, arrogance of this administration to do the basics," which has allowed Bush "to once again fail the test of being commander in chief." The Iraqi ministry of science and technology informed the IAEA of the disappearance of about 350 tonnes (380 tons) of mainly HMX and RDX explosives on October 10, agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming in Vienna told AFP. IAEA officials informed the US mission in Vienna, where the IAEA is based, on October 15. National security councilor Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) was informed and she told Bush, the spokesman added. The missing explosives "can be used in a nuclear explosion device" as the blast to trigger the chain reaction, Fleming said, adding: "That's why it was under IAEA verification and monitoring" before the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. McClellan said the US Department of Defense (news - web sites) "directed the multinational forces and the Iraqi Survey Group to look into this matter, and that's what they are currently doing." "The first priority, from our standpoint, was to make sure that this wasn't a nuclear proliferation risk, which it is not," McClellan told reporters. "These are conventional high explosives that we are talking about. And the president wants to make sure that we get to the bottom of this." Kerry advisor Rand Beers blasted McClellan's response as proof of how the administration "refuses to face reality and take responsibility for its mistakes in Iraq." McClellan "claims these explosives do not present a proliferation risk despite their known use in detonating nuclear devices," Beers said. The remarks "show the reckless arrogance and incompetence demonstrated by the Bush administration time and time again," said Beers. As the two campaigns traded charges, a prominent policy expert expressed doubt the spat will change any views this late in the campaign. "It's possible there may be some marginal switch of voting, but I doubt that people who have already made up their minds for Bush are going to change on this basis, especially if the Kerry people start exploiting these kind of things," he said.