UN INspectors Found Nothing At Al-Qaqaa ON March 8, 2003

[Prince Charles]

Copyright 2003 Valley Daily Bulletin
  Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario, CA)
April 4, 2003 Friday
LENGTH: 813 words

[SNIP]

Troops encounter unknown chemical items

As the military advances closer to Baghdad, signs of Iraqichemical preparedness are multiplying, although there is still no conclusive evidence Saddam Hussein's regime possesses weapons of mass destruction.

On Friday, troops at a training facility in the westernIraqi desert came across a bottle labeled "tabun" a nerve gas and chemical weapon Iraq is banned from possessing.

Closer to Baghdad, troops at Iraq's largest militaryindustrial complex found nerve agent antidotes, documents describing chemical warfare and a white powder that appeared to be used for explosives.

U.N. weapons inspectors went repeatedly to the vast al QaQaa complex most recently on March 8 but found nothing during spot visits to some of the 1,100 buildings at the site 25 miles south of Baghdad.

Col. John Peabody, engineer brigade commander of the 3rdInfantry Division, said troops found thousands of 2-by-5-inch boxes, each containing three vials of white powder, together with documents written in Arabic that dealt with how to engage in chemical warfare.

[SNIP]

[cyncooper]

How about proof of a positive instead of a negative? Is there any evidence that we DID take care of the items we did find?

The proof is that when our troops find caches of weapons and/or explosives, they secure them and/or destroy them. There is nothing to indicate that was not done in this case.

Inquiry Launched Over Missing Explosives in Iraq

excerpt:

However, coalition forces found no evidence of the weapons in question when they first arrived at the sprawling Al-Quaqaa facility, 30 miles south of Baghdad, about April 10, 2003, according to a defense official.

The troops searched 32 bunkers and 87 other buildings, finding some weapons and explosive material, but nothing close to the quantity reported missing by the Iraqi government, and none with IAEA seals, he said.

~snip~

Since Operation Iraqi Freedom began in March 2003, coalition forces have discovered that Saddam Hussein's regime stored weapons in countless locations, including schools, mosques and hospitals, the official said. In addition, he said, the former regime forced many Iraqi citizens to hide weapons in their homes and neighborhoods

~snip~

The report, released earlier this month, notes that since mid-September alone, coalition forces have reviewed and cleared more than 10,000 weapons caches and destroyed more than 240,000 tons of weapons and munitions. Another 162,000 tons of munitions await destruction.

~snip~

[lugsoul]

1st, you are assuming that such security existed in the days and weeks after April 2. 2nd, for them to take it out between March 8 and April 2 would have required the same type of convoy, and at the time we were actively monitoring this site with aircraft and satellite surveillance, as it was a suspected WMD site. Doubt they would've been running 18 wheelers out of their without us knowing about it.

[lugsoul]

I don't. And you don't. A reporter may, or may not.

But it is at least as credible as what you consider to be believable or not.

[lugsoul]

That's creative. First, the article is flat-out wrong about when US forces 1st arrived at the site. I'd say the interviews with US forces at the site a week earlier establish that. 2nd, the official report about "32 bunkers and 87 buildings" says that this search was conducted by May 27, rather than on or about April 10. Creative editing by the reporter here. On that, and on the entire argument presented by many here (though, to your credit, not you) that this article proves the material was missing before March 8, I fall back on an old maxim - If you have to stretch the truth that far to make your point, your point probably isn't valid.

[tbrosz]

For what it's worth, RDX is a white powder. See the photo on the right on this site.

[concan]

Do you seriously believe that this high profile site would have been left totally unattended with explosives lying around and the equipment to make more explosives etc all still intact?

We know now that HMX and RDX was not found when the troops got there first. So it was removed before, maybe years ago. From this point on everything else is speculation and partisan media fabrication.

For all we know those boxes of white powder could have been compounds that are used to make explosives. By itself it could have been totally safe.

[cyncooper]

The boxes with vials of white powder (3 to a box, I believe) were a low-grade explosive and did not have the UN seals. They were not the missing RDX. Or HMX for that matter. And nowhere close to 380 tons.

[GOPologist]

I was going to send it to NBC, but I forgot how to spell Ding-a-Ling's name.

[lugsoul]

Wow. Every available report on the status of these sites on March 8 says the bunker seals were still intact. Yet you somehow claim that it may have been removed "years before."

This is what we KNOW. The material was removed between March 8 and May 27. Either while we had the site under serious surveillance, or after the 3rd ID made initial contact with the site. While the latter is worse, neither of those scenarios makes a particularly favorable statement about our capabilities and our actions.

As far as what I believe - lots of caches have been left unattended. We know, for example, that the primary nuke material site (Al Tuwaitha sp?)was looted AFTER we 1st got there. Why would this one get better treatment than that one?

[ex 98C MI Dude]

It is simply not possible that the explosives were moved after the Army had been there. To move 380 tons of anything requires large trucks, and we were stopping anything with wheels for months after the fall of Saddam. If it was on the road, we stopped and searched it.

So it isn't possible that the explosives were there when the war began. They had to have been moved prior to the official start of hostilities, but after the UN had been to the site.

[SF Republican]

Ain't Hans Blix a sweet-heart.

[lugsoul]

So you are calling the Iraqi interim government LIARS? Do you work for the Kerry campaign? ;-)

[concan]

I just don't take the UN's account as fact anymore. You apparently do. The UN gave wrong intel back to us and lied in order to protect Saddam. Try and prove me wrong when 'oil for food' has been reported as fact and France vetoed at the Sec. Council after being bribed by Saddam.

Whose side are you on lugsoul?

[cyncooper]

Brett Baier on Fox just said it would take 38 truck loads (semi trucks) and citing your point---the roads heavily guarded.

Fox highlighting Kerry's attacks on the matter. He is clearly unfit.

[ex 98C MI Dude]

LOL!

The interim government didn't exist when the outbreak of hostilities occured, so they would have no freakin' clue as to what was or wasn't at Al Qa Qaa when all was said and done. They only know what was supposed to be there, not what actually was there.

But the LSM can't seem to wrap their brains around that concept.

[TexKat]

So it isn't possible that the explosives were there when the war began. They had to have been moved prior to the official start of hostilities, but after the UN had been to the site.

How about the explosives remaining somewhere in the town (YOUSEFIYA) where Al Qaqaa is located. See my post #117.

As of May of this year, the people of the town are reported to be hostile toward our troops. 400 to 500 lb bomb found there.

[EBH]

Here's the UN Report! The whole story is a fabrication and exaggeration! Somebody's covering up! The original amount was only 228 tons, but 380 tons are missing? If you go by the report only 196 tons were sealed? It's not adding up when you look at the UN's own documents. HMX and RDX were under the control of the UN. There is no mention of the RDX in their reports, only the HMX. So, when did the RDX go missing?

2. HMX
53. The relocation and consumption of HMX (a high explosive of potential use in nuclear weapons), as described in Iraq's backlog of semi-annual declarations, has been investigated by the IAEA. In those declarations, Iraq stated that, between 1998 and 2002, it had transferred 32 of the 228 tonnes of HMX which had been under IAEA seal as of December 1998 to other locations. In addition, Iraq stated that a very small quantity (46 kg) of HMX had been used at munitions factories for research and development. At the request of the IAEA, Iraq has provided further clarification on the movement and use of the HMX. In that clarification, Iraq indicated that the 32 tonnes of HMX had been blended with sulphur to produce industrial explosives and provided mainly to cement plants for quarrying, and that the research and development using the small quantity of HMX had been in the areas of personnel mines, explosives in civilian use, missile warhead filling and research on tanks.
54. IAEA inspectors have been able to verify and re-seal the remaining balance of approximately 196 tonnes of HMX, most of which has remained at the original storage location. The movement of the blended HMX and the other small quantity of HMX has also been documented by Iraq. However, it has not been possible to verify the use of those materials, as all of it is said to have been consumed through explosions and there are no immediately available technical means for verifying such uses. The IAEA will continue to investigate means of verifying the Iraqi statements about the use of the HMX and blended HMX."

http://www.iraqwatch.org/un/iaea/iaea-updatereport-012703.html

[Twinkie]

Saddam may well have "moved it out" while we were
giving the U.N. weapons inspectors plenty of time to
play games with him. In the case of having plenty of
time, guess it *could* have been moved out a small
vehicle load at a time under the cover of darkness.

[concan]

That's the point.

It just doesn't add up!

Nothing adds up about this.

What adds up is this:
Democrats + Kerry + UN + CBS/NYT = the biggest conspiracy to overthrow an incumbent president ever!

[concan]

you mean it would have been difficult for Saddam's troops to move this around on Saddam's completely controlled infrastructure in Saddam-Iraq? A truck is a truck. If it took 38 to 40 trucks to move the stuff, our surveillance wouldn't necessarily pick that up. The trucks could have been painted white with a big red cross or blue with a peace bird or rainbow coloured. To suggest that our surveillance would have picked up every darn moving truck in Iraq prior to the invasion is ludicrous.