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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ish who wrote (149176)	10/26/2004 6:45:09 PM
From: E	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

If you think the handling of the weapons and the caches of these sites, containing this "explosives bonanza" for terrorists, showed competence by the Bush administration... well, what would show incompetence? Before the invasion, at least the stuff was in packages on shelves! I started bolding this stuff, but it's all worthy of paying attention to. Won't happen, though, I know. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "However, other US outlets, including NBC's own news website, quoted Pentagon officials who said a search of the site after the US-led invasion had revealed the explosives to be intact." The explosives that were looted from the Al Qaqaa nuclear facility, apparently in April and May of 2003, had been sealed and monitored by international nuclear inspectors before the invasion. The explosives were monitored because they can be used to detonate a nuclear bomb... ... 'This is not just any old warehouse in Iraq that happened to have explosives in it; this was a leading location for developing nuclear weapons before the first Gulf War,"...It would be like invading the US in to order to get rid of [weapons of mass destruction] and not securing Los Alamos or Livermore." ... However, other US outlets, including NBC's own news website, quoted Pentagon officials who said a search of the site after the US-led invasion had revealed the explosives to be intact. The looting of the Qaqaa weapons site was first reported yesterday by The New York Times. US officials have acknowledged since the invasion that Iraq was riddled with sprawling weapons caches and that many sites were poorly guarded and subject to looting. Continued... boston.com 'There just were not enough troops to guard the number of sites. It was just crazy." At the time, there was no major insurgency and US military officials felt the war had been won, Kay said, so the Department of Defense did not fear that the weapons that disappeared in widespread looting would be used against US soldiers... Later, as the insurgency heated, at least three major bombing sites in Iraq tested positive for HMX or RDX, Kay recalled... Kay said that late into fall 2003, more than 100 large ammunition storage points had been left unsecured; everything from conventional bombs to artillery shells and rockets were unguarded....[That's nice-E] boston.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Melissa Fleming says the IAEA was concerned about the stockpile, which was held 30 kilometres south of Baghdad, and the agency made warnings about it at the time of the Iraq invasion last year. MELISSA FLEMING: Yes, a couple of times we did. First of all, it's important to note that it was a well-known site. It was inspected frequently and often by the IAEA, and it was mentioned in several statements by Mr ElBaradei to the Security Council. It was of concern directly after the invasion, when it was clear that the main nuclear site, Tuwaitha, was being looted. And so this was a site that we did alert the US to as one important to protect. DAVID HARDAKER: And what was the response from the United States at the time? MELISSA FLEMING: It received this information, there's been… there was no comment.