Sunday, October 24

350 Tons of Dual use High Explosives!!????

The enormity of our post war phase incompetance grows daily, but on the heals of news that an entire building and it's high tech contents were carried off to who knows where, Josh Marshall alerts us to news that during the "looting party" of last summer somewhere around 350 tons of high explosives not only went missing, but that there have been efforts to cover it up. 700,000 pounds of explosives that can be and probably are being used in ied's and carbombs, but can also be used as the trigger for a nuclear device. You think you have seen it all with this crew and yet another shoe drops, amazing. The following is from Chris Nelson's report.
Despite pressure from DOD to keep it quiet, the IAEA and the Iraqi Interim Government this month officially reported that 350-tons of dual-use, very high explosives were looted from a previously secure site in the early days of the US occupation in 2003. Administration officials privately admit this material is likely a primary source of the lethal car bomb attacks which cause so many US and Iraqi casualties.
......
As part of the UN sanctions regime still in place when the US invaded, the IAEA had “under seal” 350 tons of RDX and HDX explosives, since singly, and in combination, these materials can be used in the triggering process for a nuclear weapon. However, the explosives were allowed to remain in Iraq due to their conventional use in construction, oil pipe lines, and the like. Since the explosives went missing last year, sources say DOD and other elements in the Administration sought to block the IAEA from officially reporting the problem, and also tried to stop the new Iraqi Interim Government from cooperating with the IAEA. But finally, on Oct. 10, the Iraqi’s formally notified the IAEA, and on Oct. 15, the IAEA formally notified the Bush Administration.
How many times can you say "what were you thinking?" with regard to the obvious and criminal lack of planning for the post war, aka Phase four, "slide to be provided". We finish with a breath of clarity from a 'highly informed official'
“this is the stuff the bad guys have been using to kill our troops, so you can’t ignore the political implications of this, and you would be correct to suspect that politics, or the fear of politics, played a major role in delaying the release of this information.”
You think?