October 29, 2004

Oh, *THESE* 380 tons of explosives! Dubya says that for all we know, the explosives went missing before the US secured the area. But according to this 5-minute video from KSTP (Minneapolis/St. Paul ABC), they got a tour of what might have been the Al Qaqaa weapons bunker, 9 days after the fall of Baghdad, and the place was loaded with explosives.
posted by neek 20 years ago
  • Oh, sorry, for those using IE, you might want to use this link instead. This link refuses to work from Firefox
  • The tragedy is that these missing explosives are likely being used by guerilla fighters to kill US soldiers. If this footage is true, Bush is lying to the public and should be impeached and charged with treason, without hesitation. Even if the footage is not connected to missing explosives, as troubling is that the munitions shown were not safeguarded in any meaningful way. Apparently there was free access to the munitions bunker in this report. I'd also be curious as to where the munitions came from, i.e. if some of the labeling on the cases referred back to US vendors.
  • I'm an "independent". A social liberal and a fiscal conservative (the latter being something neither party could understand). A war in Iraq? Been there, done that. Too many problems with rolling into Baghad. Oh wait, you mean we are going to start nation building? Let's make sure we have an overwhelming force that can win the war and secure the caches of weapons that we are threatened by. So these huge caches of conventional weapons have now been dropped into the hands of terrorists. Here is a heart felt FUCK YOU to the Bush administration.
  • Goddamn fucking president 377 TONS JESUS how do you *lose* that much anything?
  • Josh Marshall has excellent coverage on the missing explosives. HMX apparently is useful for nuclear bomb manufacturing; its a dual-use substance traced by the IAEA. With Iran on the cusp of making atomic weapons, this is really very bad news for the Middle East and for our troops. Bush is either lying about not knowing about this loss, or he has been very badly misinformed by his staff. Either way this is an incredible display of managerial incompetence. Politics aside, Bush should resign over this.
  • 377 tons of these explosives = 10 car bombs a day for 80 years That said, there are conflicting reports that maybe part or all of these were moved prior. As always, I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Some may have been looted before, but it's clear at least to me, that something was there after the US got there and wasn't secured.
  • Of course the truth lies somewhere in the middle. It's just that the middle has moved pretty far to the left by now.
  • But think how peaceful and quiet it will be in 2085.
  • Try 47787. Munitions issue dwarfs larger issue There could be over 250,000 tons.
  • As usual, the Daily Show had a pretty good riff on this last night. But since I can't find links or transcripts, my telling you about it is pretty useless. Trust me though, it was sweet.
  • A key difference between the 2 candidates is how they view the war on terror. Bush thinks that terrorists need support from nations to succeed, and attacking the nations that support terrorists would render them impotent. Kerry thinks that terrorists can operate without the support of nations. The idea is that terrorists can acquire weapons without help from states. (Like, you know, if someone leaves a bunch of high-grade explosives and other weapons lying around for the terrorists to take for free.)
  • /explosives *sigh*
  • See, if you criticize the administration, you're not supporting our troops. But if you blame the troops, you're, um, patriotic.
  • A. Supporting troops == Supporting war. B. Supporting war == supporting President. C. Supporting President == not blaming President for lost explosives. D. Not blaming President == blaming troops ... E. Blaming troops == supporting troops. *punches madly on old-fashioned adding machine, pulls lever, examines tape* IT JUST DON'T ADD UP!
  • This isn't normal math TP you need to use imaginary numbers
  • *YAWN*
  • How insightful, blogRot, as usual.
  • less than a week less than a week *rocks back and forth*
  • I believe this is the Daily Show link you speak of TenaciousPrattle. Very funny indeed, and a valid point they speak of. If those folks done stole the weapons before the US invaded, why didn't we know about it before? Why did it take over a year to figure this out. Oh ya, and link is a page with embedded .wmv
  • Let's all make half-assed assumptions based on a couple of initial reports! The Pentagon's still trying to account for all of them, though 250 tons might have been destroyed by US troops.
  • TenaciousPrattle Wait...did you just call me a bastard? ;)
  • From your link, f8x: "But those 250 tons were not located under the seal of the International Atomic Energy Agency
  • Let's all make half-assed assumptions based on a couple of initial reports! The Pentagon's still trying to account for all of them, though 250 tons might have been destroyed by US troops.
    A Major has now stated that in early April they destroyed 250 tons of munitions. Yet on April 18th a news crew videotaped explosives at the facility. Who are you going to believe? Me or your lyin' eyes. Here's the thing that really pisses me off. This is the tip of the proverbial iceberg. There were *hundreds* of weapons facilities. How many of these were secured in the post-war period? We have eye witnesses that said they saw al Qaqaa being looted. Iraqis were renting their vehicles to the looters. I don't care if you are pro-war/anti-war, pro-Bush/anti-Bush, but this is inexcusable. The only people I've heard saying we had enough troops is the White House and I'm getting really tired of the administration apologists. Looting was rampant and it turns out museums weren't the big problem. The hundreds of thousands of tons of conventional weapons that are now serving terrorists and insurgents were and are. Do you feel safer yet?
  • It is troublesome, to be sure, but honestly, a little moderation is in order. How long did it take for the over-linked, over-hyped museum looting story to keel over dead as a dunket? Had it not been for reactive news reports, it might have been a non-story. So, shall we wait and see what happens with this? That's all I'm asking.
  • II>"So, shall we wait and see what happens with this? That's all I'm asking." Because looting at a museum and looting at a huge munitions dump are like exactly the same and stuff.
  • Sorry for the broken tag and the snark, but really... "troublesome"? it's just a little bit of an understatement, don't you think ?
  • "nuisance" would be more apt.
  • I would not call enough high-explosives to make approximately 250,000 carbombs and IEDs a "nuisance".
  • I've got some time off coming up, and I'm thinking of taking a vacation (uh, "holiday") somewhere in Iraq this winter. Any suggestions?
  • All of this just reminds me of Thomas Harris' first novel, Black Sunday, published in 1975. For those of you unfamiliar with it, we see Islamic fundamentalists shipping a large quantity of explosives to the U.S. (and smuggling them in a la drug runners) and aiding a disgruntled U.S. citizen in using them to attack the super bowl. Smuggling contraband into a country is absurdly easy: teenagers regularly do it, and all the pros do to succeed with regularity is spend some money. With the amount of explosives the Bush regime let slip away, count on seeing some in the U.K., U.S. and Australia at the very least, and probably not so far in the future. Well done, president idiot. And bravo to his apologists.
  • Because looting at a museum and looting at a huge munitions dump are like exactly the same and stuff. Did I ever once imply or say they are the same thing? *cheep cheep cheep*