400 tons explosives missing in Iraq

[MillRatUSMC]

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=197018

Now who's going to held accountable.
Those 400 tons are coming back as car bombs or Improvise Explosive Device (IED) or what we used to call booby traps.
We're not talking a few hundred pounds here,
That 400 tons of high rate explosives.
Someone will have to answer, where it went and why it wasn't got rid of...
This explains to me where the terrorists were getting their unlimited source of explosives.
this is unbelievable...

[thedrifter]

This is another hugh foulup where we have had too many...

Ellie

[greensideout]

I can only keep shaking my head on this one. Unbelieveable!!! <br />
<br />
How can &quot;someone answer for this&quot; when it seems that NO ONE appears to be in charge of or responseable for ANYTHING going on there?!!!...

[snipowsky]

Doesn't surprise me at all! If the Marine Corps was running this war things like this wouldn't happen.

But I'm sure it's some Army foul up, as usual! Anything the Army has its hands in usually ends up FUBAR and SNAFU!

[DaveDalPezzo]

Folks, they need to let the Military fight the battles and remove the politicians from the command structure. Move the pentagon from Washington DC to "bum-phucked-Utah", let the professionals run things, and leave us alone.

Too many damned idiots in Washington worried more about votes than about doing what's right.

I've said my 2¢, I'm done.

[MillRatUSMC]

This report came out of the U.N
There was a story in the New York Times.
The Christain Monitor says that during Iraqi Freedom, only conventional weapons were found.
Those 380 to 400 tons must have been moved pior to us going in.
Yet it would have taken over 40 semi's to move that stuff.
It they did move it, where did it go?
It's now coming back from somewhere...
Now all we got to do is find out where...
Some are questioning the timing of this release of information.
It's too close to our election.
Will it fair one canidate more than other?
That a question that seeks an answer.
I place this here in all fairness to both canidates.
We all have to vote our choice regardless of these reports at this late date...

Semper Fidelis/Semper Fi
Ricardo

[mrbsox]

Originally posted by MillRatUSMC
This report came out of the U.N


Oh... came from the u.n. That explains it !! Must have lost something in the 10 to 12 years it took to translate it.

The ORIGINAL u.n. inspectors report said 400 tIns (as in tin cans) of explosives, not tOns. That's ALL the inspecters had found. :banana:

What a crock of sh!t to have to start dealing with now. I'd be willing to lay money on the kerry camp holding this news, and 'leaking' it now.

Of course, had we not'Blitzekrieg'ed the opening of this 'war', and bypassed everything in the 'Race to Bagdad', we'd know where the ASHES were !!

[greensideout]

Hummm, is this news about the war or about the election? Do we have to filter that question too? My filter is getting full---LOL.

[thedrifter]

From a chaplain in the Marines who reads the Kerry Spot:

There are stockpiles, some buried, some not, some in ammo dumps, some not, all throughout that country. Over the 7 months we were there (01 Mar - 07 Oct), we found tons of them. More to the point, we found and either captured or killed hundreds of those who would use them against us. This story is of a piece with other liberal policies on weapons, focusing on the weapons themselves rather than on the people behind them. Weapons do not and never have won wars. People win wars. Better people with inferior weapons will always win. Most German infantry weapons and tanks were better than those fielded by the Americans between 1941 and 1945. Their aircraft were often better, too. Their ship designs were magnificent. We killed their infantrymen, destroyed their tanks, shot down their aircraft and sunk their ships - because we fielded better men.

We have at present better equipment than our enemy, and that's nice. It's very helpful. But we also have better men. That is why we are winning and will win.


Ellie

[yellowwing]

Now that's a good Chaplain! :)

[al20852]

Appears that the administration's explanation is that these explosives disappeared sometime before Saddam fell. Not sure I'm buying that one, but it sure is a hard one to disprove.

[al20852]

60 MINS PLANNED BUSH MISSING EXPLOSIVES STORY FOR ELECTION EVE

News of missing explosives in Iraq -- first reported in April 2003 -- was being resurrected for a 60 MINUTES election eve broadcast designed to knock the Bush administration into a crises mode.

Jeff Fager, executive producer of the Sunday edition of 60 MINUTES, said in a statement that "our plan was to run the story on October 31, but it became clear that it wouldn't hold..."

Elizabeth Jensen at the LOS ANGELES TIMES details on Tuesday how CBS NEWS and 60 MINUTES lost the story [which repackaged previously reported information on a large cache of explosives missing in Iraq, first published and broadcast in 2003].

The story instead debuted in the NYT. The paper slugged the story about missing explosives from April 2003 as "exclusive."

An NBCNEWS crew embedded with troops moved in to secure the Al-Qaqaa weapons facility on April 10, 2003, one day after the liberation of Iraq.

According to NBCNEWS, the explosives were already missing when the American troops arrived.

It is not clear who exactly shopped an election eve repackaging of the missing explosives story.

The LA TIMES claims: The source on the story first went to 60 MINUTES but also expressed interest in working with the NY TIMES... "The tip was received last Wednesday."
From today's Drudge Report:


CBSNEWS' plan to unleash the story just 24 hours before election day had one senior Bush official outraged.

"Darn, I wanted to see the forged documents to show how this was somehow covered up," the Bush source, who asked not to be named, mocked, recalling last months CBS airing of fraudulent Bush national guard letters.

[CAR]

Thanks Capt for posting that.
Now, doubt if you will, but I find it more believable that these "weapons" were lost before we got there as well. The only alternative is that our military is so incompetant that it let TRUCK LOADS, CONVOYS, of trucks sneek in, load up and get away, all without anyone noticing. I choose to believe the first scenario. This has nothing to do with BUSH. It has everything to do with blaming our troops for a "p1sspoor job". I know for sure our Marines are better than that and I have to believe that our Army guys aren't that dumb either.

Politics???? Harming our troops????

[mrbsox]

Ditto CAR...

Another legacy brought to us from the 'Clinton-istas'.

[greensideout]

Did we ever get caught up in a knee jerk reaction or what? Well I did. Guess I need to work on that.

It looks as though the story as told was a hoax.

It was gone before our troops ever got there or the war ever began.

Under whose watch? Well, here we go---The watch was the U.N. You know, the Chief and fellows that were on the take with the "food for oil" scam.

Hummm, with a vested interest they may have just turned their head. Really?

The bottom line as I see it---Bush has maintained his watch and the troops have done their job.

CBS=LIES=CBS=LIES=CBS=LIES=CBS=LIES=CBS=LIES=CBS

[JohnEaceHunt]

I would go to http://www.nationalreview.com/kerry/kerry/200410252109.asp for the real truth. It is a shame the foney hero had them bring this out this late in the game. It is a game. Hope most of you see through kerry and go for Bush. It will mean wether we WIN or go down. Hope we don't go down. ACE.

[Sparrowhawk]

How deceitful Kerry is and how the media is up to its neck in attempting to overthrow our form of government through lies, and decit.

I hope and pray Bush wins by a landslide and this will throw the lying media into tehir own self destructive spin, and will reveal to them that the general public was not deceived by their lies and will hold them accountable.

If Kerry wins, our country has lost, because there will be truly no, no accountability for the media.

It will all become a fanatay land where the truth will only be found on of all things on "The Internet."

[hrscowboy]

gentlemen how many times have i said that this was a race to see who could get to baghdad first.. No generals thought about to close all border roads into iraq and to allow no one in or no one to leave.. it very well could have been those explosives where gone before we went in but then again who was watching,again i say we dont need reservists fighting a war like this and we dont need rules of engagement when it comes to war, what we need to do is make a prime example of this country that where not going to put up with much more of this crap and turn the devil dogs loose.. screw the press the bleeding hearts and the United Nations.

[Sgt. Smitty]

That just goes to show that Bush is an arrogant, egotistical and totally incompetent a$$hole that couldn't lead a troop of cub scouts on a picnic. There is no way in hell i would follow that dumb ass into battle!!!!!!!!!!

[al20852]

I really think we're beyond the point of fixing blame for whose watch this stuff disappeared under. I'm a lot more concerned with the fact that a ****load of MDX and RDX is out there representing a hell of a threat to our people. That stuff is so powerful that it wouldn't surpirse me if Saddam's people hid it before our well publicized assualt. Won't do a bit of good to get bogged down fixing blame, but what can you expect a week before an election.

[mrbsox]

Another question to answer is...

Where are all of the satalite photos and intel on Iraq for the past 10 years, or even 3 to 4 ??

I have a hard time believing we weren't watching this place with the 'Eagle Eye' for the past few years. I also wouldn't be suprised if we wern't told (in the last administration) by the u.n."don't worry about it, we locked the door when we left".

We know (in our hearts) what kind of shape our intel network got into during the 'clinton-istas' reign. I wonder what our satalites were trained on for the 8 years before 'George the 2nd'.... 'hot tubs' ??

Terry

[vfm]

mrbsox:
Doyou remember when Colin Powell made his presentation to the UN about wmd's and he showed satellite photos of vehicles moving all over the desert?
We thought that they were moving wmd's around so that the UN inspectors couldn't find them.
This possibly could have been the 400 tons of explosives moving around.
Semper Fi!!!
vfm

[mrbsox]

Good point, and observation.

I missed that.... probably because I never trusted Gen. Powell to be deep enough in the loop to be 100% crediable.

If indeed this stuff is buried, stratigically, all over the desert, I think it's time to play a game of 'Battle Ship'.
CARPET BOMB QUADRANT G4, I6, A13

Dooooooghhhhhhhh !!!!!!!!!!!!
You sunk my weapons cache :thumbup:

[yellowwing]

My grand conspiracy theory is that since Saddam and Khofi Annan's relative's were siphoning off the UN Food for Oil program, he could not resist flipping the HMX, RDX, and PETN to the Iranians.

Those HE compunds are the only ones stable enough to be used in a deliverable nuke.

As far as Powell not being 100% in the loop...it's a sad Administration when your SecState and Joint Chiefs Chairman are breaking ranks with your official party line.

But hey, don't pay attention to that documented reality, Bin Laden endorses Kerry. Kerry voted against the first Gulf War and didn't deserve 3 Purple Hearts and Silver Star. What's that got to do with it? Nothing. But if the GOP and Rush Limbaugh keeps saying you won't think about reality!

[MillRatUSMC]

In all fairness;

A quote from a report on the missing explosives found by the 101st Airborne and what might have became of those missing explosives;

Still, 377 tons of explosives amount to a tiny fraction of the weaponry in Iraq. U.S. forces have already destroyed, or have slated to destroyed, more than 400,000 tons of all manner of Iraqi weapons and ammunition. But at least another 250,000 tons from Saddam's regime remain unaccounted for, and some has undoubtedly fallen into the hands of insurgents.

So compared to those numbers 377 tons might not be that much.
The commanding officer of the unit that found those explosives has come forward after viewing the video shot by a TV crew from Minnesota.
There also a report saying that they took away 200 tons.
That left us with a few questions'
A. Where was it taken?
B. Who sign for those explosives?
C. Where they destoryed?
D. If no is the answer, Why not?

Still it comes down to responsibility...who will step forward and tells us or show the documents of what happened to those missing explosives after the 101st Airborne took them away...

Semper Fidelis/Semper Fi
Ricardo