Missing Explosives in Iraq Explained

[ontheEdgeof17]

LOS ANGELES - Explosives were looted from the Al-Qaqaa ammunitions site in Iraq while outnumbered U.S. soldiers assigned to guard the materials watched helplessly, soldiers told the Los Angeles Times.

About a dozen U.S. troops were guarding the sprawling facility in the weeks after the April 2003 fall of Baghdad when Iraqi looters raided the site, the newspaper quoted a group of unidentified soldiers as saying. U.S. Army reservists and National Guardsmen witnessed the looting and some soldiers sent messages to commanders in Baghdad requesting help, but received no reply, they said.


"It was complete chaos. It was looting like L.A. during the Rodney King riots," one officer said.


The eyewitness accounts reported by the Times are the first provided by U.S. soldiers and bolster claims that the U.S. military had failed to safeguard the powerful explosives, the newspaper said.


Iraqi officials told the United Nations (news - web sites) International Atomic Energy Agency last month that about 380 tons of high-grade explosives, a type powerful enough to detonate a nuclear weapon, had been taken from the Al-Qaqaa facility.


Soldiers who belong to two different units described how Iraqis snatched explosives from unsecured bunkers and drove off with them in pickup trucks.


The soldiers who spoke to the Times asked to remain unidentified, saying they feared retaliation from the Pentagon (news - web sites).


The soldiers said they could not confirm that looters took the particularly powerful explosives known as HMX and RDX. One soldier, however, said U.S. forces saw looters load trucks with bags marked "hexamine," which is a key ingredient for HMX.


One senior noncommissioned officer said troops "were running from one side of the compound to the other side, trying to kick people out" and that at least 100 vehicles were at the site waiting for the military to leave so that they could loot the munitions.


The Pentagon has offered accounts that suggest the explosives were removed before the U.S.-led invasion to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and not during the chaos following the fall of Baghdad.


A Pentagon statement last week said the removal of the explosives would have required dozens of heavy trucks moving along the same roads as U.S. combat divisions.


The missing explosives became a campaign issue with Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) claiming it was further evidence of the Bush administration's poor handling of the war.


Four soldiers who are members of the Germany-based 317th Support Center and the 258th Rear Area Operations Center, an Arizona-based Army National Guard unit, said the looting happened over several weeks in late April and early May 2003.


Asked about the soldiers' accounts, Pentagon spokeswoman Rose-Ann Lynch told the newspaper: "We take the report of missing munitions very seriously. And we are looking into the facts and circumstances of this incident."

[gldstwmn]

I am speechless.

[Hawkeye]

I'm too lazy to read all that, can someone explain what this means.

[ontheEdgeof17]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye

I'm too lazy to read all that, can someone explain what this means.

We were "understaffed" at this facility. We just watched them take the explosives and drive off pretty much.

[The Tower]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye

I'm too lazy to read all that, can someone explain what this means.

This explains a lot!

[Hawkeye]

Originally Posted by The Tower

This explains a lot!

.
.
So thanks Curtis for the answer without the smart ass coments of The Tower So basically they waited until AFTER the election to reveal how badly we screwed up.

[estranged4life]

by anything in Vietnam Part Deux, Oops uh Iraq nowadays...

"Coming soon...From the National Government that brought you the disaster known as Vietnam comes the sequel NOONE would thought they would ever see...

Iraq the Bloodbath-aka Vietnam Part Deux...Bigger, Longer & Deadlier

Be the first in your neighborhood to sign up for our draft special in which you'll be shipped to a country to only be used as target practice for enemy combatants as "Super W." and his side kick "DICK Head" try to find the long lost like Easter Eggs WMD's and try to justify the war even though the troops are underfunded, Understaffed & worn from over extended stays while Hella-Burton rakes in a large profit even as those same brave US troops are dying on a daily basis...

And coming soon, World War III...How the West/U.S. was Lost"

Brian j.

[dissention]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye

I'm too lazy to read all that, can someone explain what this means.

How embarassing.

[Hawkeye]

Originally Posted by dissention

How embarassing.

How is that embarassing. I don;t feel like reading through a long thing I won't understand much from in the end. So why not ask some kind person to give me the condensed version.

[dissention]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye

How is that embarassing. I don;t feel like reading through a long thing I won't understand much from in the end. So why not ask some kind person to give me the condensed version.

I just hope you don't vote.

[amber]

Originally Posted by estranged4life

by anything in Vietnam Part Deux, Oops uh Iraq nowadays...

"Coming soon...From the National Government that brought you the disaster known as Vietnam comes the sequel NOONE would thought they would ever see...

Iraq the Bloodbath-aka Vietnam Part Deux...Bigger, Longer & Deadlier

Be the first in your neighborhood to sign up for our draft special in which you'll be shipped to a country to only be used as target practice for enemy combatants as "Super W." and his side kick "DICK Head" try to find the long lost like Easter Eggs WMD's and try to justify the war even though the troops are underfunded, Understaffed & worn from over extended stays while Hella-Burton rakes in a large profit even as those same brave US troops are dying on a daily basis...

And coming soon, World War III...How the West/U.S. was Lost"

Brian j.

Exactly..

[GateandGarden]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye

How is that embarassing. I don;t feel like reading through a long thing I won't understand much from in the end. So why not ask some kind person to give me the condensed version.

Well, when I'm too lazy to read something someone posted, I just don't admit it. Oh wait. ****.

Hillary

[ontheEdgeof17]

Originally Posted by GateandGarden

Well, when I'm too lazy to read something someone posted, I just don't admit it. Oh wait. ****. :laugh;

Hillary

I'm so ashamed. At least read mine, yo.

[GateandGarden]

Originally Posted by ontheEdgeof17

I'm so ashamed. At least read mine, yo.

I read it. And, well, Brian expressed my sentiments with much more wit than I ever could.

Hillary