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NEWS: 'Imbedded' Video Appears to Show Explosives Looted AFTER American Invasion

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NEWS: 'Imbedded' Video Appears to Show Explosives Looted AFTER American Invasion

from JoeUser Forums
The news has been percolating all day that ABC affiliate KSTP had video, from an imbedded reporter, that show the presence of explosives at what is probably the Al-Qaqaa storage facility, immediately after the invasion -- when the site was under American control.

Reuters is now reporting that this video shows the presence of the dangerous explosive HMX, with IAEA and UN markings that show this site was inspected immediately before the war.

In other words, the explosives were looted while under American control, under Bush's watch.

After a long initial silence, the Bush campaign is now furiously spinning, first denying that the explosives disappeared after the invasion, then suggesting the troops were to blame. Don't let your surrogates blame the troops, Mr. President... take responsibility for something.

Bush supporters continue to push increasingly complex conspiracy theories to deny this news. I think that at this point, that conspiracy would have to involve ABC, Reuters, the NY Times, CBS, the Iraqi government, and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Bush isn't worthy of his loyal supporters.
politics
12,733 views 29 replies
Reply #26 from JoeUser Forums Top
Solitair -

I take you at your word and I apologize for misreading your general view on the war and withdraw the quote.

As for the before/after confusion - BOTH could easily have happened, and at least one did. Time will tell the full story, if we're lucky.

Your expectations of instantaneous knowledge of every kilo of WMD component material are simply unrealistic and fail to acknowledge the scope and scale of the problem. That possibilty would have required as a prerequisite that NONE of the declared material be moved by Saddam, something we don't yet know, and clairvoyance about where his undeclared material was stashed. Further, you seem to forget the heat the administration was under to "find the WMD's." Every day in every paper was another article headlined "NO WMD'S YET" and the left was pounding them relentlessly on it. The focus was on locating WMD's, not on high explosives.

The explosives in question may have been "subject to the strictest control" in Iraq, but the IAEA itself said that that control was as porous as Swiss cheese. So we have to pull ourselves away from the baseless assumption that all this stuff is "missing" because right now, it may not be missing at all, just unaccounted for. We have reasonable evidence that at least a sizable portion of the 219 tons at Al Qaqaa was indeed destroyed by a US munitions demolition unit.

You can argue that we should have had better accounting, but the chaos of a hot war doesn't lend itself to tidy accounting and you should acknowledge that. I just find the standard to which you appear to holding the US to be unrealistic and one your government, whichever one it is, could not even come close to satisfying.

And the timing issue is purely political. If you read elBaradei's statement closely, you'll note that the Iraqi WMD chief was responding to a "reminder" from the IAEA that just happened to be sent in September and responded to in record time by early October. So it wasn't just a matter of the Iraqi government giving ole' el a ring and saying, "By the way, did you know...." There is ample reason to suspect impure motives on the part of Mr. elBaradei.

Cheers,
Daiwa
Reply #27 from JoeUser Forums Top
Daiwa,
I don't and didn't expect instant knowledge, and I did indeed state that Bush's initial reaction of remaining quiet while the information was located was very politically savy. Commenting before having facts looks bad as can be seen by the numerous political oppertunistic comments levelled at Kerry over this issue. Six days and still no one seems to know is not a good sign though. My big issue here is that these were WMD components, held in known locations, that had been flagged as important sites to secure. Bush should have been able to pick up the phone, ask for a clear answer and get one within forty eight hours if not sooner.

I do acknowledge that in a war situation accounting is not the most important issue, but these weren't just explosives they were a crucial part of nuclear bombs. George Bush lists nuclear proliferation as the single greatest threat facing mankind yet both this nuclear bomb material and even more dangerous material from a nuclear site have gone missing. This material must be accounted for and if necessary traced and found.

It is very sad that partisan politics can actually be used to hide the enormity of this situation on both sides. Neither side actully seems to care that a dirty nuclear bomb could now be assembled by terrorists, they are too focussed on how they can spin this to gain votes.

Paul.
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #28 from JoeUser Forums Top
It is very sad that partisan politics can actually be used to hide the enormity of this situation on both sides. Neither side actully seems to care that a dirty nuclear bomb could now be assembled by terrorists, they are too focussed on how they can spin this to gain votes.


You are quite wrong, there, Solitair, but I can see how you might think so.

We absolutely must get it sorted out. My comments, and objections, relate to the political hatchet job perpetrated using unsubstantiated allegations of dereliction of duty, not the as-yet unknown details. The "You f****d your mother. Now prove you didn't." school of political tactics makes me want to puke. Unlike the NYT, I'll wait to pass judgement until we have some data, and I'm perfectly willing to let the chips fall where they may.

Cheers,
Daiwa
Reply #29 from JoeUser Forums Top
I really do hope I am wrong on that Daiwa. I hope the military does succeed in confirming that it did destroy this material and manages to recover the nuclear material that went missing from the other site.

The terrible fact is that all the crucial material required for making dirty nuclear bombs (both the high explosives and the uranium and process equipment) is unaccounted for. That's worrying. Just imaging if a suicide bomber drove a truck filled with this stuff at a US or British army base.

Paul.