DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE: Officials Say Chances of Enemy Ordnance Move Nearly Nil

American Forces Press Service / Department of Defense ^ | Oct. 27, 2004 | Jim Garamone

[West Coast Conservative]

The chances that enemy forces moved 377 tons of heavy ordnance out of the Al Qaqaa arms facility after U.S. forces arrived in the area are nearly impossible, said Army Col. David Perkins, who commanded the American troops who took the area during major combat operations in Iraq in 2003.

Perkins commanded 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division. A unit under his command, the 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry, entered the depot on April 3, 2003, and defeated the enemy forces there in a two-day battle.

The U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency had tagged the explosives at the site and departed before hostilities started. On May 27, 2003, experts with the 75th Exploitation Task Force confirmed the IAEA-sealed explosives were missing.

Perkins, now assigned to the Joint Staff, said it is "highly improbable" that the enemy was able to take the explosives out any time after U.S. forces arrived in the area. It would require "that the enemy sneaks a convoy of 10-ton trucks in and loads them up in the dark of night and infiltrates them in your convoy and moves out," he said. "That's kind of a stretch too far."

When his battalion arrived at Al Qaqaa April 3, it engaged several hundred enemy soldiers and the paramilitary Fedayeen Saddam in the area. The unit killed or captured all who were there, with the battle lasting through April 5.

"This site was open," Perkins said. "(Enemy) forces were moving in and out. We didn't know what was there."

At the same time, Perkins said, the soldiers of the unit did an initial assessment of the depot. "The concern was what's the capability of the munitions, rather than how much was there," he said

His soldiers concentrated on looking for weapons of mass destruction, especially chemical weapons. They found suspicious white powder and reported that through the chain of command. A chemical unit arrived, tested the powder and determined it was safe. The soldiers did not find the IAEA- sealed explosives.

Iraq was one of the most heavily armed countries on Earth. Perkins said it is important to remember that in its push to Baghdad, the brigade passed many depots containing thousands upon thousands of tons of arms and armaments. The brigade had no indication that the Al Qaqaa depot was anything special. "It was just another cache of weapons like the dozens we had passed," Perkins said.

The unit left the area April 5. "The mission was to quickly defeat the enemy and cause the collapse of the regime," Perkins said. "So what we did then was continue to push down the east side of the Euphrates because there was a whole brigade of the Medina division facing them."

After the 3rd Infantry Division left the area, the 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, took up residence through April 11.

The 75th Exploitation Task Force visited the facility May 7, May 11 and May 27. They found no IAEA material during any of these visits.

The depot is located at the intersection of two major roads. Both are major convoy routes for American supplies going into Iraq, and they were jammed with U.S. vehicles at all times. There is no evidence, Pentagon officials said, that there was any large-scale movement of explosives – or anything else for that matter – from the facility.

[Twinkie]

Ah, Kerry - - I can hear him now:

"Colonel Perkins lies in a manner reminiscent of
Jenjis Clinton!"

[cyncooper]

Hugh Hewitt had a Colonel on his show on Tuesday (wish I had a name to give you) who was on the ground and at this facility (where they saw no IAEA seals) and he said the country was so filled with this stuff that Iraqis will be finding caches of it for *one hundred years*.

[demlosers]

Perkins, now assigned to the Joint Staff, said it is "highly improbable" that the enemy was able to take the explosives out any time after U.S. forces arrived in the area. It would require "that the enemy sneaks a convoy of 10-ton trucks in and loads them up in the dark of night and infiltrates them in your convoy and moves out," he said. "That's kind of a stretch too far."

Make that a 38 truck convoy.

380 short tons / 10-ton rated tractors = 38 trailer loads.
Not to mention the crew and equipment to load them.

It would be hard to hide this activity with 2 US army divisions in the area.

[nathanbedford]

Du bist ein Arschloch

[jveritas]

Ok you are using a foreign language.

Rouh Intek.

[WOSG]

Nathan,

I am following the story here:

http://freedomstruth.blogspot.com

You can take the story text (or a link) and forward to everyone on your email tree. It makes a difference.

[Tempest]

We'll see this all over the news tonight for sure!

LOL!!! I'm just kidding of course! The MSM already has the fix in.

[HouTom]

If anyone has the unfortunate situation of having to listen to "on the hour" news updates by See B.S. radio, you heard them spin this story a totally different way. I read the story before I went to lunch. While in the car, they referenced these comments, but put them in the context that there was no way the material was moved before the war. I thought to myself, "Wait a minute, didn't the quote say it was unlikely to have happened after our troops arrived there?"

Even the radio division of See B.S. seems to have gotten in on the Bush Bashing, not that they were ever a paragon of truth and virtue.

They must be offering bonuses or incentive plans for whoever can make the biggest distortion of the "news" that hurts Bush the most. JEEZ, their federal license to broadcast needs to be reevaluated.