Whether or not, there was activity prior to the Americans taking control, we know the American troops did not secure the site and we know that now there was still sealed barrels known to contain munitions still there when the Americans arrived.
So this seems to not be a MSM conspiracy as videotapes show what was discovered in April 2003 and the relevance of what is shown on these tapes has been confirmed by David Kay.
*WASHINGTON - Videotape shot by a Minnesota television crew traveling with U.S. troops in Iraq (news - web sites) when they first opened the bunkers at the Al-Qaqaa munitions base nine days after the fall of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) shows what appeared to be high explosives still in barrels and bearing the markings of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The video taken by KSTP of St. Paul on April 18, 2003, could reinforce suggestions that tons of explosives missing from a munitions installation in Iraq were looted after the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. The video was broadcast nationally Thursday on ABC.
"The photographs are consistent with what I know of Al-Qaqaa," David A. Kay, a former American official who directed the hunt in Iraq for unconventional weapons and visited the site, told The New York Times. "The damning thing is the seals. The Iraqis didn't use seals on anything. So I'm absolutely sure that's an IAEA seal." *
So let me see if I've got the facts straight: 400,000 tons of weapons and explosives destroyed already, 380 tons (maybe) of explosives appear to have gone missing. That would be, what? 99.9% proper disposal rate? Not bad for government work. I would be interested in seeing equivalent statistics for other dangerous materials disposal projects undertaken by the government.
And what's with this IAEA (Internation Atomic Energy Agency) seals-on-the-bunkers stuff? Everybody knows there were no WMD or related material in Iraq. What was the IAEA's interest in this stuff?
The IAEA sealed a number of materials, some of which dated from decades before. These were not conventional explosives or remnants of past WMD programs, but they were known and contained by the Blix team. Why they were not destroyed is an important but separate issue, one that the United States could have pursued without invading.
As far as this being such a small percentage of what the United States did destroy, that, to me, is an unproven assertion. (It, to me, does not logically follow that because a well known weapons facility was not secured, that somehow means that all other facilities were destroyed.)
380 is less than one-tenth of one percent of 400,000, that is a well proven assertion. You can test that assertion yourself at home with a pocket calculator, or even pencil and paper and modest math skills.
Comments
Whether or not, there was activity prior to the Americans taking control, we know the American troops did not secure the site and we know that now there was still sealed barrels known to contain munitions still there when the Americans arrived.
So this seems to not be a MSM conspiracy as videotapes show what was discovered in April 2003 and the relevance of what is shown on these tapes has been confirmed by David Kay.
*WASHINGTON - Videotape shot by a Minnesota television crew traveling with U.S. troops in Iraq (news - web sites) when they first opened the bunkers at the Al-Qaqaa munitions base nine days after the fall of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) shows what appeared to be high explosives still in barrels and bearing the markings of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The video taken by KSTP of St. Paul on April 18, 2003, could reinforce suggestions that tons of explosives missing from a munitions installation in Iraq were looted after the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. The video was broadcast nationally Thursday on ABC.
"The photographs are consistent with what I know of Al-Qaqaa," David A. Kay, a former American official who directed the hunt in Iraq for unconventional weapons and visited the site, told The New York Times. "The damning thing is the seals. The Iraqis didn't use seals on anything. So I'm absolutely sure that's an IAEA seal." *
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=3&u=/ap/20041029/ap_on_re_mi_ea/us_iraq_weapons
Posted by: PE | October 29, 2004 08:39 AM
So let me see if I've got the facts straight: 400,000 tons of weapons and explosives destroyed already, 380 tons (maybe) of explosives appear to have gone missing. That would be, what? 99.9% proper disposal rate? Not bad for government work. I would be interested in seeing equivalent statistics for other dangerous materials disposal projects undertaken by the government.
And what's with this IAEA (Internation Atomic Energy Agency) seals-on-the-bunkers stuff? Everybody knows there were no WMD or related material in Iraq. What was the IAEA's interest in this stuff?
Posted by: withoutfeathers | October 29, 2004 09:30 AM
The IAEA sealed a number of materials, some of which dated from decades before. These were not conventional explosives or remnants of past WMD programs, but they were known and contained by the Blix team. Why they were not destroyed is an important but separate issue, one that the United States could have pursued without invading.
As far as this being such a small percentage of what the United States did destroy, that, to me, is an unproven assertion. (It, to me, does not logically follow that because a well known weapons facility was not secured, that somehow means that all other facilities were destroyed.)
Posted by: PE | October 29, 2004 11:40 AM
380 is less than one-tenth of one percent of 400,000, that is a well proven assertion. You can test that assertion yourself at home with a pocket calculator, or even pencil and paper and modest math skills.
Posted by: withoutfeathers | October 29, 2004 11:53 AM