http://www.abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=204304&page=1

Oct. 27, 2004 — Iraqi officials may be overstating the amount of explosives reported to have disappeared from a weapons depot, documents obtained by ABC News show.

But International Atomic Energy Agency documents obtained by ABC News and first reported on "World News Tonight with Peter Jennings" indicate the amount of missing explosives may be substantially less than the Iraqis reported.

The information on which the Iraqi Science Ministry based an Oct. 10 memo in which it reported that 377 tons of RDX explosives were missing — presumably stolen due to a lack of security — was based on "declaration" from July 15, 2002. At that time, the Iraqis said there were 141 tons of RDX explosives at the facility.

But the confidential IAEA documents obtained by ABC News show that on Jan. 14, 2003, the agency's inspectors recorded that just over three tons of RDX were stored at the facility — a considerable discrepancy from what the Iraqis reported.

The IAEA documents could mean that 138 tons of explosives were removed from the facility long before the United States launched "Operation Iraqi Freedom" in March 2003.

The missing explosives have become an issue in the presidential campaign. Sen. John Kerry has pointed to the disappearance as evidence of the Bush administration's poor handling of the war. The Bush camp has responded that more than a thousand times that amount of explosives or munitions have been recovered or destroyed in Iraq.

Another Concern

The IAEA documents from January 2003 found no discrepancy in the amount of the more dangerous HMX explosives thought to be stored at Al-Qaqaa, but they do raise another disturbing possibility.

The documents show IAEA inspectors looked at nine bunkers containing more than 194 tons of HMX at the facility. Although these bunkers were still under IAEA seal, the inspectors said the seals may be potentially ineffective because they had ventilation slats on the sides. These slats could be easily removed to remove the materials inside the bunkers without breaking the seals, the inspectors noted.


Let's see...how many times have we been told that the IAEA had "SECURED" these explosives...maybe not so secure, after all. Wonder if Glowdog or PI will post to this thread.

God, this story just gets better and better.

Catz

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I'll get nicer when you get smarter.

I heard this last night.

The IAEA.....el Baradai had a reason for doing what they did. He just found out a month ago that he is NOT being supported by the U.S. to keep his job. I wouldn't doubt that this all wasn't coordinated with el Baradai, other members of the UN and the Kerry campaign.

Good for ABC!! We'll see how quickly the other liberal media picks this up. And we'll see how quickly John Kerry STOPS his lies and apologizes to the president.

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"What exactly is this foreign policy experience?" Obama said mockingly of the New York senator. "Was she negotiating treaties? Was she handling crises? The answer is no."

is just an attempt by liberals to hijack this election (once again). It won't work. John Kerry is a wimp and will forever be a wimp. He will do nothing to help our nation against the war on terror.

Perhaps they're all out canvassing neighborhoods for Kerry and standing in the unemployment line.

Catz

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I'll get nicer when you get smarter.

Updated: 10/28/2004 11:50:09 AM - VIDEO

http://www.kstptv5.com/article/stori...23.html?cat=64



A 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS crew in Iraq shortly after the fall of Saddam Hussein was in the area where tons of explosives disappeared, and may have videotaped some of those weapons.

The missing explosives are now an issue in the presidential debate. Democratic candidate John Kerry is accusing President Bush of not securing the site they allegedly disappeared from. President Bush says no one knows if the ammunition was taken before or after the fall of Baghdad on April 9, 2003 when coalition troops moved in to the area.

Using GPS technology and talking with members of the 101st Airborne Division, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has determined the crew embedded with the troops may have been on the southern edge of the Al Qaqaa installation, where the ammunition disappeared. The news crew was based just south of Al Qaqaa, and drove two or three miles north of there with soldiers on April 18, 2003.

During that trip, members of the 101st Airborne Division showed the 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS news crew bunker after bunker of material labelled "explosives." Usually it took just the snap of a bolt cutter to get into the bunkers and see the material identified by the 101st as detonation cords.

"We can stick it in those and make some good bombs." a soldier told our crew.


Soldiers who took a 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS crew into bunkers on April 18 said some of the boxes uncovered contained proximity fuses.

There were what appeared to be fuses for bombs. They also found bags of material men from the 101st couldn't identify, but box after box was clearly marked "explosive."

In one bunker, there were boxes marked with the name "Al Qaqaa", the munitions plant where tons of explosives allegedly went missing.

Once the doors to the bunkers were opened, they weren't secured. They were left open when the 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS crew and the military went back to their base.

"We weren't quite sure what were looking at, but we saw so much of it and it didn't appear that this was being secured in any way," said photojournalist Joe Caffrey. "It was several miles away from where military people were staying in their tents".

Officers with the 101st Airborne told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that the bunkers were within the U.S. military perimeter and protected. But Caffrey and former 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS Reporter Dean Staley, who spent three months together in Iraq, said Iraqis were coming and going freely.

"At one point there was a group of Iraqis driving around in a pick-up truck,"Staley said. "Three or four guys we kept an eye on, worried they might come near us."


On Wednesday, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS e-mailed still images of the footage taken at the site to experts in Washington to see if the items captured on tape are the same kind of high explosives that went missing in Al Qaqaa. Those experts could not make that determination.

The footage is now in the hands of security experts to see if it is indeed the explosives in question.

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Truth is by nature self-evident, as soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear. Gandhi

This is being covered here: http://www.politicalforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=6562

The explosives in question weren't just explosives. They were a specific sort of explosives that the IAEA's own records from January, 2003, state were apparently missing at that time from the original Iraqi quantities.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=204304&page=1

Hope that's helpful to you...

[/quote]

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I'll get nicer when you get smarter.

Actually, no - we're just sitting back watching you Republicans tie the noose you'll use to hang yourself.

Check the Breaking news thread - there are video images and photos of the explosives dated April 18, 2003

But just in case, here's the link

http://www.kstptv5.com/article/stori...23.html?cat=64

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Truth is by nature self-evident, as soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear. Gandhi

Problem is the video and photos are of SOME explosives. No way of knowing if they are THE explosives.

So the fact that these soldiers were not instructed to secure these explosives or the Al qa qaa site - knowing that it was an explosives facility is irrelevant to you?

Hmmmmmm, that's grabbing at straws, isn't it?

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Truth is by nature self-evident, as soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear. Gandhi