link<br><br>International inspectors had Al Qaqaa ammunition depot under lock and key. We invade Iraq and allow 380 tons of high grade explosives from that depot to be looted. <br><br>These are not WMD. These are conventional explosives used to demolish buildings, make missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons.This is what is used almost daily to kill our troops and slaughter Iraqi security, with no end in sight. This is what is being used to blow up pipelines. That's over 700,000 lbs! 1lb will bring down an airliner. <br><br>The NYT story indicates that the DOD knew about this for over a year, Bremer knew and delayed action, that Bush's incompetence is here displayed front and center.<br><br>"After the invasion, when widespread looting began in Iraq, the international weapons experts grew concerned that the Qaqaa stockpile could fall into unfriendly hands. In May, an internal I.A.E.A. memorandum warned that terrorists might be helping "themselves to the greatest explosives bonanza in history."<br><br>"Bush administration would not allow the agency back into the country to verify the status of the stockpile"<br><br>We're safer now on the homeland? Our troops are safer now? <br>This story will be huge and someone in this administration needs to take responsibility. <br><br>

Hey, c'mon now. You can't expect them to secure everything. It's "hard work", you know! <br><br>The story will be huge? Yes, it certainly should be, but I'd swear I saw a reuters story on that during the middle of last week and just now the Times runs it? I don't know.<br><br>

If that's the case, obviously the media was more concerned with Teresa's 'real job' comment than a blunder of catastophic proportions that's going to kill thousands, maim thousands, keep us at war longer and make security ever more diffiicult in Iraq and here at home. Yeah, let's argue about how Teresa offended you. <br><br>

I must have missed it in the story. Exactly when did the stockpile go missing?<br><br>I mean what was the last date the "International inspectors" could confirm the presence of this material in that location?<br><br>Who was physically guarding this facility up until the time that US forces could have possibly arrived there to take over the security?<br><br><br><br>No sig right now, waiting for the next Kerry flip-flop. .

From the New York Times it sounds like stuff has been stolen during the time in which Amercian forces controlled the region. Even up until Sunday there may have been looting. It takes a long time to steal that much tonnage.<br><br>The huge facility, called Al Qaqaa, was supposed to be under American military control but is now a no man's land, still picked over by looters as recently as Sunday. United Nations weapons inspectors had monitored the explosives for many years, but White House and Pentagon officials acknowledge that the explosives vanished sometime after the American-led invasion last year.<br><br><br><br><br><br>luciferase is a four nineteener

Well, that's a pretty poorly sourced and written paragraph. (on the NYT's part, I didn't see it clarified anywhere else in the text.)<br><br>"The huge facility, called Al Qaqaa, was supposed to be under American military control"<br>According to who? Or is this a NYT opinion?<br><br>"still picked over by looters as recently as Sunday"<br>What are they looting?<br><br>"United Nations weapons inspectors had monitored the explosives for many years"<br>So, when was the last time these inspectors were in the facility and did a physical inventory?<br><br>"but White House and Pentagon officials acknowledge that the explosives vanished sometime after the American-led invasion last year."<br>All this seems to say (although it's so poorly written there could be multiple intrepretations) is that before the invasion they were there and after the invasion they were not. But again, no time context so we don't know if there was any lag between the last confirmed inspection and the time at which the US could have guarded the facility.<br><br><br><br>No sig right now, waiting for the next Kerry flip-flop. .

Since it sounds like the looters just cleared out on Sunday the properly referenced article will be forthcoming. Right now they are in "news at six" mode.<br><br>The answers to all your other questions are in the article here.<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br>luciferase is a four nineteener

<br><br>George Bush stated he is the only man who can keep this country safe from terrorism did he not? He said that as long as he is president he will not allow another 911 on his watch did he not? Those aren't the lies I'm referring to in the subject line but after reading the quote which is an excerpt from his State of the Union address I would say he failed us, he's failed the world, if this material is in fact in the hands of our enemies. <br><br>I don't know what to make of this latest incident in which 380 tons of high explosives have gone missing on his watch. Unless this material is accounted for, then I believe Mr. Bush has now armed potential terrorists and rogue nations with the material to advance their cause to do great harm in the middle east and perhaps here in america. <br><br>As was discovered, less than a pound of this explosive material was used to bring down Pan Am Flight 103, killing 270 people in all. Do you realize how many bombs could be made from 380 tons of this material, which by the way goes undetected by metal detectors and x-ray machines? One ton is enough, theoretically speaking, to bring down 2000 planes! <br><br>Do you realize how easy it is to make a bomb from this stuff? Any third grader with flour and water and newspaper could make a bomb that could be carried on your person and go undetected by any metal detector! Like Bushhole said, he has to be right every time and the terrorists only have to be right once to wreak havoc. With one ton of this stuff they could have 2000 chances to breach our borders! <br><br>And as was stated in an earlier post, this material was smuggled off the property used to store these explosives in what had to be large trucks. It's been stated that to move a pile of material of this magnitude would require 40 large trucks carrying 11 tons, or perhaps it was 75 smaller trucks carrying 5 tons each. Either way, how does a logistical process of that size go undetected by the CIA, the military, the State Department, or even by satellite? <br><br>I don't buy the notion expressed by a senior administration official, we were too busy fighting a war to notice. The war was over, according to George Bush six weeks after it started and here we are more than a year later discovering the explosives have gone missing? <br><br>This story needs to take center stage. It fly's in the face of everything the white house has told us about making the world a safer place. <br><br>George Bush you have to go! Your priorities are all screwed up. You don't know what's best for this country, nor can you protect us from further harm, and it's by the grace of god we haven't been attacked again since September 2001, for which you have taken the credit all too often. Being president is hard work, Mr. Bush and it's apparent to me, you're not up to the task.<br><br><br>

Well, I went back and re-read the thing with a clearer head than this morning. This series stuck out...<br><br>"But apparently, little was done. A senior Bush administration official said that during the initial race to Baghdad, American forces "went through the bunkers, but saw no materials bearing the I.A.E.A. seal." It is unclear whether troops ever returned.<br><br>By late 2003, diplomats said, arms agency experts had obtained commercial satellite photos of Al Qaqaa showing that two of roughly 10 bunkers that contained HMX appeared to have been leveled by titanic blasts, apparently during the war. They presumed some of the HMX had exploded, but that is unclear.<br><br>Other HMX bunkers were untouched. Some were damaged but not devastated. I.A.E.A. experts say they assume that just before the invasion the Iraqis followed their standard practice of moving crucial explosives out of buildings, so they would not be tempting targets. If so, the experts say, the Iraqi must have broken seals from the arms agency on bunker doors and moved most of the HMX to nearby fields, where it would have been lightly camouflaged - and ripe for looting."<br><br>So, we bombed the bunkers, inspected the bunkers and more than likely the materal was moved out of the bunkers and available for looting before we arrived at the site. This is what I gather from the article.<br><br><br>No sig right now, waiting for the next Kerry flip-flop. .

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p><br>So, we bombed the bunkers, inspected the bunkers and more than likely the material was moved out of the bunkers and available for looting before we arrived at the site. This is what I gather from the article. <p><hr></blockquote><p> So 380 tons of high explosives was laying about in the fields near Al Qaqaa while we went in and inspected the buildings and found them empty? This seems like an improbable explanation. I've unloaded molasses saturated bags of horse food which should be generally the density of high explosives. We were filling a standard freight car half way up with fifteen tons. Even if you filled them to the brim this would still be 13 freight cars worth of material in which to "lightly camouflage" in the nearby fields. The infantry would have seen something that would indicate the movement of this much tonnage. Even if 20 percent was destroyed in the bombing (2 of 10) it is just too much to hide.<br><br>No, it sounds like it was there. We checked it out and then we did not have the manpower to secure and guard these buildings. It also sounds like it was being pilfered up until this past Sunday so over the past year the entire 380 tons could have been stolen one ton per night to be turned into IED's. That is only 20 boxes weighing 100 pounds each which could easily be carried out with a hand cart in a short period of time.<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br>luciferase is a four nineteener