Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

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

Posted on 10/26/2004 12:31:01 PM PDT by 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]


TOPICS: Breaking News; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: alqaqaa; dirtytricks; iaea; iaeagate; iraq; kerrylies; mediabias; napalminthemorning; nytrogate; qaqaagate; rats; un; wot
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120 ... 161-171 next last
To: Cold Heat

ping


81 posted on 10/26/2004 1:45:56 PM PDT by rennatdm
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: lugsoul

The site was secured means: The military didn't leave anything behind that could have been used by the enemies. You think for a minute that any officer would have given the orders to leave this compound unattended, knowing that there would be 380 TONS of stockpiled explosives? They didn't find any of that stuff - period end of story. The NBC reporter said that or her lack of reporting that means they didn't find anything.


82 posted on 10/26/2004 1:47:43 PM PDT by concan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]

To: lugsoul

The site was secured means: The military didn't leave anything behind that could have been used by the enemies. You think for a minute that any officer would have given the orders to leave this compound unattended, knowing that there would be 380 TONS of stockpiled explosives? They didn't find any of that stuff - period end of story. The NBC reporter said that or her lack of reporting that means they didn't find anything.


83 posted on 10/26/2004 1:47:51 PM PDT by concan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]

To: xkaydet65
The white powder story is from FOX 18 months ago and nothing ever came of it.I'd think if the white powder was WMD we might have heard about it before this.

I agree that the context indicates that "nothing" in this story refers to WMD, not what they had sealed and tagged. However, the "white powder" was determined to be run of the mill explosives and was not the 380 tons of HMX and RDX that is the centerpiece of this attack on President Bush. When our troops arrived, the 380 tons was missing.

84 posted on 10/26/2004 1:48:02 PM PDT by cyncooper (And an angel still rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: Prince Charles; All
From last night's NBC story, the place wasn't "empty" when our troops arrived. They found *conventional* weapons but not the 380 tons of highgrade explosives that this latest hit on President Bush is based on.

NBC BLOWS A HOLE IN NY TIMES' EXPLOSIVES STORY (KERRY SPOT)

NBC News: Miklaszewski: “April 10, 2003, only three weeks into the war, NBC News was embedded with troops from the Army's 101st Airborne as they temporarily take over the Al Qakaa weapons installation south of Baghdad. But these troops never found the nearly 380 tons of some of the most powerful conventional explosives, called HMX and RDX, which is now missing. The U.S. troops did find large stockpiles of more conventional weapons, but no HMX or RDX, so powerful less than a pound brought down Pan Am 103 in 1988, and can be used to trigger a nuclear weapon. In a letter this month, the Iraqi interim government told the International Atomic Energy Agency the high explosives were lost to theft and looting due to lack of security. Critics claim there were simply not enough U.S. troops to guard hundreds of weapons stockpiles, weapons now being used by insurgents and terrorists to wage a guerrilla war in Iraq.” (NBC’s “Nightly News,” 10/25/04)

85 posted on 10/26/2004 1:51:07 PM PDT by cyncooper (And an angel still rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: The KG9 Kid

"Is it any wonder why the old traditionalist & mainstream news media sued FreeRepublic to keep us from archiving their stories here?

They want to be able to lie and not get caught doing it."

Excellent point -


86 posted on 10/26/2004 1:52:25 PM PDT by M. Peach (eschew obfuscation)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: Rutles4Ever

"Then it was stolen by a carvan of Bedouin"

It was brought to the Syrian border as a wedding present. Very large wedding party, you understand. Lots of guests, too.


87 posted on 10/26/2004 1:53:36 PM PDT by VRWCer (All things work together for good to them that love God. - Romans 8:28)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: milwguy
The white powder is the high explosive that the NYT is so up in arms about.

The "white powder" was not the 380 tons of HMX and RDX.

88 posted on 10/26/2004 1:53:49 PM PDT by cyncooper (And an angel still rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: Prince Charles

Bump for later read. Thanks!


89 posted on 10/26/2004 1:56:29 PM PDT by Lady In Blue (On Election Day,President Bush: "WIN ONE FOR THE GIPPER!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Phocion
"Nothing" refers to WMD,

I agree

not RDX or HMX. The "white powder that appeared to be used for explosives" mentioned in this release could actually be the explosives the Times was talking about.

I don't agree. The "white powder" was tested and found to be an explosive, but it was not the tagged by the UN material, nor was it identified as HMC or RDX. As Jim Mik reported, our troops with the embedded reporters reported finding large caches of conventional weapons (the white powder falls into that category) but not the 380 tons of HMX or RDX.

90 posted on 10/26/2004 1:57:45 PM PDT by cyncooper (And an angel still rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: Clint N. Suhks

The substance in the "tiny boxes" was not identified as the HMX or RDX at issue.


91 posted on 10/26/2004 1:59:38 PM PDT by cyncooper (And an angel still rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

This is excellent. NYT reporters don't even come close to doing their professional jobs, when the Freepers can find this stuff on Lexis.


92 posted on 10/26/2004 2:00:23 PM PDT by July 4th (You need to click "Abstimmen")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: cyncooper; Prince Charles

The March 2003 inspectors visit is being reported today at least on MSNBC that the RDX or HMX seals were still there, seals not broken.


93 posted on 10/26/2004 2:01:39 PM PDT by TexKat (Just because you did not see it or read it, that does not mean it did or did not happen.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 90 | View Replies]

To: cyncooper

And even the conventional explosives would not have been left behind w/o either destroying them or taking them in. It's totally unbelievable that the "white powder" would have been tested and identified and then just neglected. just a bunch of balloni.

The real question here is, what happened with 380 Tons of highly explosive material when even the UN couldn't find it shortly before the army got there????


94 posted on 10/26/2004 2:01:49 PM PDT by concan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 90 | View Replies]

To: Fred Fighter

I'd respond but looks like you got yourself BANNED


95 posted on 10/26/2004 2:03:19 PM PDT by Mo1 (This Sept 10th attitude is no way to protect our country)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 77 | View Replies]

To: Prince Charles
I just heard VP Cheney blast Kerry over this story. That the weapons were NOT there when Our troops arrived and he talked about the 400,000 tons that they did find and are destroying. And the best part of this was, I am listening to CBS Radio...
96 posted on 10/26/2004 2:05:05 PM PDT by tubebender (If I had know I would live this long I would have taken better care of myself...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: concan
Jeez, have you even read the reporting on this? The NBC reporter, who was with the 101st - NOT the 1st US troops to arrive at the site and leave shortly thereafter - noted a "vast amount" of explosive material "lying around." They left to go to Baghdad the next day. And did not conduct an extensive search of the area.

So, they did find stuff. You got any evidence that they didn't leave it unattended?

97 posted on 10/26/2004 2:05:10 PM PDT by lugsoul (Until at last I threw down my enemy and smote his ruin on the mountainside.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 82 | View Replies]

To: Prince Charles
Site Meter

They just haven't learned WHEN TO SAY WHEN. Mega Bump: http://kmclive.com.

98 posted on 10/26/2004 2:07:13 PM PDT by KMC1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TexKat

That doesn't make sense to me.

The UN claims to have found "nothing" on March 25th 2003 during a spot visit to the site. "Nothing" referring to WMD as in ABC weapons (we can assume that, or not?).

But remembers that the seals on HMX and RDX were still intact and didn't mention the stockpile of 380 Tons of that material any further?

This whole story stinks!

The UN was bribed by Saddam with 'oil for food' and the UN wasn't supposed to find anything.

Of course there were WMD in Iraq before April 2003. All major intelligence agencies from Moscow, Berlin, Paris to Washington knew this! Of course we couldn't find anything once we invaded the country because Saddam had ample time to get this stuff out of the country, sell it to Al Kaida or whoever was knocking at his doors during those last final hours. Saddam knew his time had come and he was a desperate guy. Saddam himself or parts of his regime were in the cahoots with Al Kaida.


99 posted on 10/26/2004 2:09:52 PM PDT by concan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 93 | View Replies]

To: lugsoul

Where does it say that the NBC reporter identified the stuff as explosives?


100 posted on 10/26/2004 2:12:40 PM PDT by concan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 97 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120 ... 161-171 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson