the missing 754,000 pounds of high explosives...

So it appears that despite their protest claims to the contrary , the bush administration failed to take control of a huge supply dump of Iraqi explosives at Al Qaqaa nuclear site .

Despite having been warned in advance of the site's contents by UN weapons inspectors who chronicled and sealed the munitions while in Iraq before the American invasion ,the neo-cons and Pentagon apparently had other things on their minds .

Now that the news is out that the munitions are missing , including the fact that about three hundred seventy tons out of the three hundred seventy seven tons of explosives are powerful enough that they are the type often used to detonate the fissile material in nuclear warheads , of course Bush desperately tries to spin away the blame.

This is simply one more accusation of further Bush administration incompetence in a long train of ineptitudes since these fools presently in the Whitehouse have taken office.



At first Bush responded to the reports by saying to audiences while on the campaign stump circuit that Kerry's people didn't know what they were talking about , and that the weapons could have been moved by Saddam BEFORE the American invasion . Rumsfeld then loyally chimed in that that's probably what happened , Saddam moved the explosives , as we would have done here at home in time of war and imminent invasion .


When the Kerry camp continued it's attack on this latest public evidence of Bush administration failures then the pentagon released satellite photos that they claimed to be of Saddam's trucks parked near the facility in hopes that we would believe that the evil Saddam stashed the huge amount of bomb material before the "Goodguys" arrived , thus absolving themselves of blame .

It seem to be working , casting doubt among the American population wearied and alarmed at more of the negligence and bad judgement this administration has shown from the start , at home and in Iraq.

Now it seems that at least one part of the news media in the US , ABC's Minnesota affiliate , is finally earning its paycheck by digging up comments made by US soldiers to embedded journalists and photos of American soldiers inspecting the captured facility at Al Qaqaa early during the war.

Reuters ran a story supporting the ABC coverage...Looks like Bush screwed up again in not guarding the explosives and now they are gone , but assuredly not forgotten as the insurgency in Iraq grows larger , bolder more coordinated and with a rapidly increased sophistication ...i'm sure , that the US servicemen and women in Iraq will one way or another , see these exposives again . For this extra misfortune, they have the George W. Bush administration to thank .

EXCLUSIVE:
5 EYEWITNESS NEWS video may be linked to missing explosives in Iraq
Updated: 10/28/2004 08:24:30 PM


A 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS crew in Iraq shortly after the fall of Saddam Hussein was in the area where tons of explosives disappeared, and may have videotaped some of those weapons.

The missing explosives are now an issue in the presidential debate. Democratic candidate John Kerry is accusing President Bush of not securing the site they allegedly disappeared from. President Bush says no one knows if the ammunition was taken before or after the fall of Baghdad on April 9, 2003 when coalition troops moved in to the area.

Using GPS technology and talking with members of the 101st Airborne Division, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has determined the crew embedded with the troops may have been on the southern edge of the Al Qaqaa installation, where the ammunition disappeared. The news crew was based just south of Al Qaqaa, and drove two or three miles north of there with soldiers on April 18, 2003.

During that trip, members of the 101st Airborne Division showed the 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS news crew bunker after bunker of material labelled "explosives." Usually it took just the snap of a bolt cutter to get into the bunkers and see the material identified by the 101st as detonation cords.

"We can stick it in those and make some good bombs." a soldier told our crew.

There were what appeared to be fuses for bombs. They also found bags of material men from the 101st couldn't identify, but box after box was clearly marked "explosive."

In one bunker, there were boxes marked with the name "Al Qaqaa", the munitions plant where tons of explosives allegedly went missing.

Once the doors to the bunkers were opened, they weren't secured. They were left open when the 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS crew and the military went back to their base.

"We weren't quite sure what were looking at, but we saw so much of it and it didn't appear that this was being secured in any way," said photojournalist Joe Caffrey. "It was several miles away from where military people were staying in their tents".

Officers with the 101st Airborne told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that the bunkers were within the U.S. military perimeter and protected. But Caffrey and former 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS Reporter Dean Staley, who spent three months together in Iraq, said Iraqis were coming and going freely.

"At one point there was a group of Iraqis driving around in a pick-up truck,"Staley said. "Three or four guys we kept an eye on, worried they might come near us."


On Wednesday, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS e-mailed still images of the footage taken at the site to experts in Washington to see if the items captured on tape are the same kind of high explosives that went missing in Al Qaqaa. Those experts could not make that determination.

The footage is now in the hands of security experts to see if it is indeed the explosives in question.



EXCLUSIVE: 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS RAISES NEW QUESTIONS ABOUT UNGUARDED EXPLOSIVES


5 EYEWITNESS NEWS exclusive footage brings to light new questions about unguarded explosives in Iraq.
VIDEO | FULL STORY

EXCLUSIVE: MORE BREAKING NEWS ABOUT EXPLOSIVES FOUND IN IRAQ

A 5 Eyewitness News crew in Iraq may have been just a door away from material that could be used to detonate nuclear weapons. The evidence is in videotape shot by Reporter Dean Staley and Photographer Joe Caffrey at or near the Al Qaqaa munitions facility.
FULL STORY

i guess i should have known that the Bushites would simply refuse to take blame for losing the 754,000 pounds of high explosives in Iraq by failing to secure them from insurgents and thieves ...but blaming the Russian Special forces for secretly spiriting the munitions into Syria ? ? ? C'mon Now ! Why not say leprechauns , bin Laden or, one-legged boogey man Abu Musad al Zarqawi hopped off with them... ?

October 28, 2004

The Dreyfus Report

Here’s what the Defense Department is now saying about the vanished super-explosives from the Al Qaqaa munitions dump, according to the Washington Times . Of course, it’s nonsense:

Russian special forces troops moved many of Saddam Hussein's weapons and related goods out of Iraq and into Syria in the weeks before the March 2003 U.S. military operation, The Washington Times has learned.

John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, said in an interview that he believes the Russian troops, working with Iraqi intelligence, "almost certainly" removed the high-explosive material that went missing from the Al-Qaqaa facility, south of Baghdad.

The Russians?