IAEA: Tons of Iraq explosives missing

[kramadas]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/25/iraq.explosives/index.html

VIENNA, Austria (CNN) -- Some 380 tons of explosives, powerful enough to be used to detonate nuclear warheads, are missing from a former Iraqi military facility that was supposed to be under American control, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog says.

Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told CNN the Iraqi interim government reported several days ago that the explosives were missing from the Al Qaqaa complex, south of Baghdad.

The explosives -- considered powerful enough to demolish buildings or detonate nuclear warheads -- were under IAEA control until the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. IAEA workers left the country before the fighting began.

"Our immediate concern is that if the explosives did fall into the wrong hands they could be used to commit terrorist acts and some of the bombings that we've seen," Fleming said.

She described Al Qaqaa as "massive," and said it is one of the most well-known storage sites. Besides the 380 tons, there were large caches of artillery there.

Fleming said the IAEA does not know whether some of the explosives may already have been used.

A senior administration official told CNN that National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was notified about the missing stash about a month ago. Iraq Survey Group inspectors are investigating, the official said.

The discovery was not made public sooner because standard intelligence practice is not to let the enemy know such information, the official said.

There are hundreds of tons of other weapons and munitions missing around the country, and it is impossible for the United States to track down all of them, the official said.

Even so, he conceded, Monday's story is not a good one for the White House, just over a week from election day.

A European diplomat told The New York Times that Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the IAEA, is "extremely concerned" about the potentially "devastating consequences" of the vanished stockpile.

"The immediate danger" of the lost stockpiles is its potential use by insurgents to make small, but powerful, explosive devices, an expert told the Times. The expert said the explosives could be transported easily across the Middle East.

According to the Times, the stockpiles missing from Al Qaqaa are the strongest and fastest in common use by militaries around the globe.

The Iraqi letter to IAEA identified the vanished explosives as containing 194.7 metric tons of HMX, or "high melting point explosive," 141.2 metric tons of RDX, or "rapid detonation explosive," among other designations, and 5.8 metric tons of PETN, or "pentaerythritol tetranitrate."

Fleming said the IAEA, whose mission is to keep track of everything with potential nuclear weapons applications, had been monitoring about 100 sites in Iraq, but there were only a few of special concern, including Al Qaqaa.

"The concern is that other sites that have items that are potentially dangerous have gone missing," Fleming added.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's campaign decried the missing explosives.

In a statement, Kerry senior adviser Joe Lockhart said, "the Bush administration must answer for what may be the most grave and catastrophic mistake in a tragic series of blunders in Iraq.

"How did they fail to secure nearly 380 tons of known, deadly explosives despite clear warnings from the International Atomic Energy Agency to do so? And why was this information unearthed by reporters -- and was it covered up by our national security officials?"

"These explosives can be used to blow up airplanes, level buildings, attack our troops and detonate nuclear weapons. The Bush administration knew where this stockpile was, but took no action to secure the site."

Lockhart criticized Bush for his "stunning incompetence."

[g420]

were you dancing in the streets when you heard this?

[kramadas]

were you dancing in the streets when you heard this?

I was dancing on the streets when I heard that yo mamma got gang banged up the ass by Arafat and his cronies! haha

As always you have nothing useful to say about the issue at hand. What a waste of the air you breathe!

[bigpoppanils]

I was dancing on the streets when I heard that yo mamma got gang banged up the ass by Arafat and his cronies! haha

As always you have nothing useful to say about the issue at hand. What a waste of the air you breathe!

[g420]

I was dancing on the streets when I heard that yo mamma got gang banged up the ass by Arafat and his cronies! haha

As always you have nothing useful to say about the issue at hand. What a waste of the air you breathe!

wow that was a pretty clever comeback, did u write that up yourself or did u get help from your 2 gay dads?

[tres-b]

When you have nothing to say, just attack whoever doesnt agree...

Seriously Raver, your credibility just went way down.

[kramadas]

When you have nothing to say, just attack whoever doesnt agree...

Seriously Raver, your credibility just went way down.

What the fuck are you talking about?? Please, you really should probably do some research before you stick your nose into things you don't know the background to. Do a search on g420's previous posts and show me one post that does not promote hate. You probably should know you are defending the guy who titles a post regarding tens of thousands of Iranians dying in an earthquake "There truly is a God".

I don't need to prove myself to you - I've had numerous civil discussions with the true regulars and old-timers on here, even if we don't agree on issues. As long as they are smart and can intelligently discuss the issues.

I do tend to get irriated with people who have no knowledge of world events and form opinions based on snippets from Fox news or christianzionist.com. So, if you were on the receiving end at any time, thats probably why.

Again, I see you also have not said anything intelligent about the topic at hand.

[g420]

You probably should know you are defending the guy who titles a post regarding tens of thousands of Iranians dying in an earthquake "There truly is a God".

.

Wrong answer kidtoucher, the title was "Good things do happen around the holidays" if you're gonna dickride my posts at least quote them correctly.

[tres-b]

What the fuck are you talking about?? Please, you really should probably do some research before you stick your nose into things you don't know the background to. Do a search on g420's previous posts and show me one post that does not promote hate. You probably should know you are defending the guy who titles a post regarding tens of thousands of Iranians dying in an earthquake "There truly is a God".

I don't need to prove myself to you - I've had numerous civil discussions with the true regulars and old-timers on here, even if we don't agree on issues. As long as they are smart and can intelligently discuss the issues.

I do tend to get irriated with people who have no knowledge of world events and form opinions based on snippets from Fox news or christianzionist.com. So, if you were on the receiving end at any time, thats probably why.

Again, I see you also have not said anything intelligent about the topic at hand.

Im not defending anyone. I am simply saying that personal attacks and comments about peoples moms are lame.

You want my opinion on this, well here it is....

I think that the US has a long way to go before Iraq is under control. Until we reach the point where Muslim Terrorists arent beheading people, setting off car bombs, and executing 50 unarmed men who wanted to serve a new democratic Iraq things like this are going to happen. Do I think it is a huge deal...No. When you think about the amount of explosives in the hands of Muslim Terrorists worldwide and compare this to that, it is a small amount in the overall scheme of things. Do I think we need to look at why it happened and try to prevent it from happening again...Absolutely.

No war is perfect. This one is no different and the normal problems are compounded by savages who believe that a Muslim Theocracy is the only way to govern b/c it allows them to exploit the fears of the uninformed public and stir up hate againts the US, Israel, Christians, Jews, Buddhists and everything else that is good in the world.

[kramadas]

Im not defending anyone. I am simply saying that personal attacks and comments about peoples moms are lame.

You want my opinion on this, well here it is....

I think that the US has a long way to go before Iraq is under control. Until we reach the point where Muslim Terrorists arent beheading people, setting off car bombs, and executing 50 unarmed men who wanted to serve a new democratic Iraq things like this are going to happen. Do I think it is a huge deal...No. When you think about the amount of explosives in the hands of Muslim Terrorists worldwide and compare this to that, it is a small amount in the overall scheme of things. Do I think we need to look at why it happened and try to prevent it from happening again...Absolutely.

No war is perfect. This one is no different and the normal problems are compounded by savages who believe that a Muslim Theocracy is the only way to govern b/c it allows them to exploit the fears of the uninformed public and stir up hate againts the US, Israel, Christians, Jews, Buddhists and everything else that is good in the world.

Israel - good for the world?? haha - and how do you think oppressing and subjagating a whole people is "good". Israel is far from good for the world. At least half of the world's problems are caused by that cancerous pit in the middle east, that INCLUDES Israel.

Let me ask you this - how was Muslim "theocracy" doing in Iraq while Saddam was in power?

Its about time the neo-cons stopped blindly supporting Bush and realize the post-war planning for what it is - grossly (maybe criminally) fucked up! Its funny you don't comment on the fact that the administration thought it was more important to guard the oil lines and wells rather than one of the biggest military installations in the country, containing hundreds of tons of highly efficient explosives that can be used to make C-4, Samptex, or trigger nuclear fission reactions. This was after they were explicitly warned by the IAEA that such a site existed and needed to be guarded.

And how much explosives do all the terrorists in the world have? What numbers are you comparing the 350 tons to? Or is it a statement based on pure speculation and not on facts?

Few terrorists ruining things for Iraqis. While the people who conduct beheadings, and car bombings are terrorists, there is also a huge group of people who are truly resistance fighters, fighting US soldiers. For you not being able to distinguish between them, shows a level of naivity to the situation over there. Maybe if you cared to read more of the articles posted on that subject (eg, the article on Bremer's shock and awe economic policy), you would get a deeper understanding of whats going on. The only "world muslim terrorism" right now is Al queda.

There was an article in the Post last week about how if there were an election in Iraq right now, the islamic religious leadership would win by a landslide. I wonder what you would have to say if the IRaqi people actually WANT a theocracy!

Also, if you want to talk about "theocracy" you might want to throw the US govt under that label as well, as it seems your Bush seems to think he's being guided by God.

And once again I ask you to not stick your head into something you don't have any knowledge about. If you want to do that, look back at all of g420's posts and then tell me who brought up whos mother first.

[philippio]

Well I never expected that a thread about missing explosives would mutate into a personal attack on someone's mom.

[digitalphoenix]

DRAMA RAWKS!!