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Huge Cache of Explosives Vanished From Site in Iraq

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by Roxfan73, Oct 24, 2004.

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  1. Roxfan73

    Roxfan73 Rookie

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    TRACKING THE WEAPONS
    Huge Cache of Explosives Vanished From Site in Iraq
    By JAMES GLANZ, WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGER

    his article was reported and written by James Glanz, William J. Broad and David E. Sanger.

    BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 24 - The Iraqi interim government has warned the United States and international nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives - used to demolish buildings, produce missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons - are missing from one of Iraq's most sensitive former military installations.

    The huge facility, called Al Qaqaa, was supposed to be under American military control but is now a no-man's land, still picked over by looters as recently as Sunday. United Nations weapons inspectors had monitored the explosives for many years, but White House and Pentagon officials acknowledge that the explosives vanished after the American invasion last year.

    The White House said President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, was informed within the past month that the explosives were missing. It is unclear whether President Bush was informed. American officials have never publicly announced the disappearance, but beginning last week they answered questions about it posed by The New York Times and the CBS News program "60 Minutes."

    Administration officials said yesterday that the Iraq Survey Group, the C.I.A. task force that searched for unconventional weapons, has been ordered to investigate the disappearance of the explosives.

    American weapons experts say their immediate concern is that the explosives could be used in major bombing attacks against American or Iraqi forces: the explosives, mainly HMX and RDX, could be used to produce bombs strong enough to shatter airplanes or tear apart buildings. The bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 used less than a pound of the material of the type stolen from Al Qaqaa, and somewhat larger amounts were apparently used in the bombing of a housing complex in November 2003 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and the blasts in a Moscow apartment complex in September 1999 that killed nearly 300 people.

    The explosives could also be used to trigger a nuclear weapon, which was why international nuclear inspectors had kept a watch on the material, and even sealed and locked some of it. But the other components of an atom bomb - the design and the radioactive fuel - are more difficult to obtain. "This is a high explosives risk, but not necessarily a proliferation risk," one senior Bush administration official said.

    The International Atomic Energy Agency publicly warned about the danger of these explosives before the war, and after the invasion it specifically told United States officials about the need to keep the explosives secured, European diplomats said in interviews last week. Administration officials say they cannot explain why the explosives were not safeguarded, beyond the fact that the occupation force was overwhelmed by the amount of munitions they found throughout the country.

    The Qaqaa facility, about 30 miles south of Baghdad, was well known to American intelligence officials: Saddam Hussein made conventional warheads at the site, and the I.A.E.A. dismantled parts of his nuclear program there in the early 1990's after the Persian Gulf war in 1991. In the prelude to the 2003 invasion, Mr. Bush cited a number of other "dual use" items - including tubes that the administration contended could be converted to use for the nuclear program - as a justification for invading Iraq.

    After the invasion, when widespread looting began in Iraq, the international weapons experts grew concerned that the Qaqaa stockpile could fall into unfriendly hands. In May, an internal I.A.E.A. memorandum warned that terrorists might be helping "themselves to the greatest explosives bonanza in history."

    In an interview with The Times and CBS in Baghdad, the minister of science and technology, Rashad M. Omar, confirmed the facts described in the letter. "Yes, they are missing," Dr. Omar said. "We don't know what happened." The I.A.E.A. says it also does not know, and has reported that machines tools that can be used for either nuclear or non-nuclear purposes have also been looted.

    Dr. Omar said that after the American-led invasion, the sites containing the explosives were under the control of the Coalition Provisional Authority, an American-led entity that was the highest civilian authority in Iraq until it handed sovereignty of the country over to the interim government on June 28.

    "After the collapse of the regime, our liberation, everything was under the coalition forces, under their control," Dr. Omar said. "So probably they can answer this question, what happened to the materials."

    Officials in Washington said they had no answers to that question. One senior official noted that the Qaqaa complex where the explosives HMX and RDX were stored was listed as a "medium priority" site on the Central Intelligence Agency's list of more than 500 sites that needed to be searched and secured during the invasion. In the chaos that followed the invasion, many of those sites, even some considered a higher priority, were never secured.

    "Should we have gone there? Definitely," said one senior administration official. "But there are a lot of things we should have done, and didn't."

    An Arsenal Turned No-Man's Land

    To see the bunkers that makeup the vast Qaqaa complex today, it is hard to recall that just two years ago it was part of Saddam Hussein's secret military complex. The bunkers are so large that they are reminiscent of pyramids, though with rounded edges and the tops chopped off. Several are blackened and eviscerated as a result of American bombing. Smokestacks rise in the distance.

    Today, Al Qaqaa has become a no-man's land that is generally avoided even by the Marines in charge of north Babil Province. Headless bodies are found there. An ammunition dump has been looted, and on Sunday an Iraqi employee of The New York Times who made a furtive visit to the site saw looters tearing out metal fixtures. Bare pipes within the darkened interior of one of the buildings were a tangled mess, zigzagging along charred walls. Someone fired a shot, probably to frighten the visitors off.

    "It's like Mars on Earth," said Maj. Dan Whisnant, an intelligence officer for the Second Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment. "It would take probably 10 battalions 10 years to clear that out."

    Saddam Hussein's engineers acquired HMX and RDX when they embarked on a crash effort to build an atomic bomb in the late 1980's. It did not go smoothly. In 1989, a huge blast ripped through Al Qaqaa, the boom reportedly heard hundreds of miles away. The explosion, it was later determined, occurred when a stockpile of the high explosives ignited.

    After the 1991 Persian Gulf war, the United Nations discovered Iraq's clandestine effort and put the I.A.E.A., the United Nations arms agency, in charge of Al Qaqaa's huge stockpile. Weapon inspectors determined that Iraq had bought the explosives from France, China and Yugoslavia, a European diplomat said.

    None of the explosives were destroyed, arms experts familiar with the decision recalled, because Iraq argued that it should be allowed to keep them for eventual use in mining and civilian construction. But Al Qaqaa was still under the authority of the Military Industrial Council, which was led for a time by Hussein Kamel, Saddam Hussein's son-in-law. He defected to the West, then returned to Iraq and was immediately killed.

    In 1996, the United Nations hauled away some of the HMX and used it to blow up Al Hakam, a vast Iraqi factory for making germ weapons.

    The Qaqaa stockpile went unmonitored from late 1998, when United Nations inspectors left Iraq, to late 2002, when they came back. Upon their return, the inspectors discovered that about 35 tons of HMX were missing. The Iraqis said they had used the explosive in civilian programs.

    The remaining stockpile was no secret. Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the I.A.E.A., frequently talked about it publicly as he investigated, in late 2002 and early 2003, the Bush administration's claims that Iraq was secretly renewing its pursuit of nuclear arms. He ordered his weapons inspectors to conduct an inventory, and publicly reported their findings to the Security Council on Jan. 9, 2003.

    During the following weeks, the I.A.E.A. repeatedly drew public attention to the explosives. In New York on Feb. 14, nine days after Secretary of State Colin L. Powell presented his arms case to the Security Council, Dr. ElBaradei reported that the I.A.E.A. had found no sign of new atom endeavors but "has continued to investigate the relocation and consumption of the high explosive HMX."

    An Inspector's Warning

    A European diplomat reported that Jacques Baute, head of the I.A.E.A.'s Iraq nuclear inspection team, warned officials at the United States mission in Vienna about the danger of the nuclear sites and materials once under I.A.E.A. supervision, including Al Qaqaa.

    But apparently, little was done. A senior Bush administration official said that during the initial race to Baghdad, American forces "went through the bunkers, but saw no materials bearing the I.A.E.A. seal." It is unclear whether they ever returned.

    By late 2003, diplomats said, I.A.E.A. experts had obtained commercial satellite photos of Al Qaqaa showing that two of roughly 10 bunkers that contained HMX appeared to have been leveled by titanic blasts, apparently during the war. They presumed some of the HMX had exploded, but that is unclear.

    Other HMX bunkers were untouched. Some were damaged but not devastated. I.A.E.A. experts say they assume that just before the invasion the Iraqis followed their standard practice of moving crucial explosives out of buildings, so they would not be tempting targets. If so, the experts say, the Iraqi must have broken I.A.E.A. seals on bunker doors and moved most of the HMX to nearby fields, where it would have been lightly camouflaged - and ripe for looting.

    But the Bush administration would not allow the agency back into the country to verify the status of the stockpile. In May 2004, Iraqi officials say in interviews, they warned L. Paul Bremer III, the American head of the occupation authority, that Al Qaqaa had probably been looted. It is unclear if that warning was passed anywhere. Efforts to reach Mr. Bremer by telephone were unsuccessful. But by that time, the Americans were preoccupied with the transfer of authority to Iraq, and the insurgency was gaining strength. "It's not an excuse," said one senior administration official. "But a lot of things went by the boards."

    Early this month, Dr. ElBaradei put public pressure on the interim Iraqi government to start the process of accounting for nuclear-related materials still ostensibly under I.A.E.A. supervision, including the Al Qaqaa stockpile.

    "Iraq is obliged," he wrote to the president of the Security Council on Oct. 1, "to declare semiannually changes that have occurred or are foreseen."

    The agency, Dr. ElBaradei added pointedly, "has received no such notifications or declarations from any state since the agency's inspectors were withdrawn from Iraq in March 2003."

    Two weeks ago, on Oct. 10, Dr. Mohammed J. Abbas of the Iraqi Ministry of Science and Technology wrote a letter to the I.A.E.A. to say that the Qaqaa stockpile had been lost . He added that his ministry judged that an "urgent updating of the registered materials is required."

    A chart in his letter listed 341.7 metric tons, about 377 American tons, of HMX, RDX and PETN as missing.

    Five days later, on Oct. 15, European diplomats said, the I.A.E.A. wrote the United States mission in Vienna to forward the Iraqi letter and ask that American authorities inform the international coalition in Iraq of the missing explosives.

    Dr. ElBaradei, a European diplomat said, is "extremely concerned" about the potentially "devastating consequences" of the vanished stockpile.

    Its fate remains unknown. Glenn Earhart, manager of an Army Corps of Engineers program in Huntsville, Ala., that is in charge of rounding up and destroying lost Iraqi munitions, said he and his colleagues knew nothing of the whereabouts of the Qaqaa stockpile.

    Administration officials say Iraq was awash in munitions, including other stockpiles of exotic explosives.

    "The only reason this stockpile was under seal," said one senior administration official, "is because it was located at Al Qaqaa," where nuclear work had gone on years ago.


    James Glanz reported from Baghdad and Yusifiya, Iraq, for this article, William J. Broad from New York and Vienna, and David E. Sanger from Washington and Crawford, Tex. Khalid al-Ansary contributed reporting from Baghdad.
     
    #1 Roxfan73, Oct 24, 2004
  2. Fegwu

    Fegwu Contributing Member

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    Huh?
     
    #2 Fegwu, Oct 24, 2004
  3. Roxfan73

    Roxfan73 Rookie

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    Stark contrast to the views expressed by this administration prior to the war.
     
    #3 Roxfan73, Oct 24, 2004
  4. SamFisher

    SamFisher Contributing Member

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    ammo dump.

    tee hee.
     
    #4 SamFisher, Oct 24, 2004
  5. BMoney

    BMoney Contributing Member

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    350 *tons* of one of the most deadly explosives (one pound of this stuff blew up the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988) was left unguarded by the US for a year and a half. This stuff was under watch by the United Nations weapons inspectors, yet the Bush administration did not have a plan to guard this?! To move 350 tons of anything would require a large scale operation- why weren't the Americans in Iraq dealing with this?

    I'll give you the political dimensions of this report right now: Americans are being killed left and right in Iraq because of this right now. Bush dropped the ball and he is going to pay. This is gross negligence and incompetence. They did not have a plan to win the peace in Iraq and people are dying there and any good that might have been done is being undermined.

    I'll tell you the other political dimension of this: the Bush administration has been trying to kill this story for months. The cover-up has been going on for months even while Al Qaqaa has remained unguarded and materials are still being stolen. Heads should roll over this.
     
    #5 BMoney, Oct 25, 2004
  6. glynch

    glynch Contributing Member

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    The US troops were too busy guarding the oil ministry and pipelines to secure apparently one of the biggest ammo dumps.

    I've been wondering how the resistance seems to have a near infinite amount of explsosives for their bombs 1 1/2 years after we had "mission accomplished".

    Let's see. 380,000 tons equals 760 million (76,000,000) pounds of the stuff. With this high powered stuff that is a lot of car bombs.
     
    #6 glynch, Oct 25, 2004
  7. glynch

    glynch Contributing Member

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    Forget about the car bombs in Iraq. With their stupidity and by their own admission the Bush Admin has found a way to unite AL Qaeda and this enormous stash of exlosives.

    Watch Cheney and perhaps Bush spin this today as to why we will die if Kerry is elected and we don't have top gun Bush to protect us!!!!!
     
    #7 glynch, Oct 25, 2004
  8. glynch

    glynch Contributing Member

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    Back to the 86% who want us to leave, some of whom were guarding the depot. Sure is hard to get good help for the cause of occupation.
     
    #8 glynch, Oct 25, 2004
  9. glynch

    glynch Contributing Member

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    From Juan Cole.com today.

    .....
    A lot of the roadside bombs that have killed hundreds of US troops and maimed thousands have been made of HMX and RDX, as suggested by how infrequently the guerrillas have blown themselves up in planting them. HMX and RDX are favored by terrorists because they are stable and will only explode via a blasting cap.

    Incredibly, the International Atomic Energy Commission and European Union officials warned Bush before the war that these explosives needed to be safeguarded.

    Josh Marshall is suspicious that this major screw-up has been known to the Bush administration for some time, and that it may have pressured the Iraqi government not to mention it.

    If Bush cannot even protect our troops from explosives at a sensitive facility in a country he had conquered, how is he going to protect the American public from terrorists who have not even yet been identified?

    The disappearance of these explosives is yet one more disaster caused by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's mania to send a small military force into Iraq. Rumsfeld over-ruled the officers in the Pentagon, who wanted hundreds of thousands of troops and knew that many would be needed to secure the country after the war. Why hasn't Rumsfeld been fired? He ran Iraq for most of the last 18 months and it is beginning to be as cratered as the dark side of the moon.

    Only two weeks ago, The International Atomic Energy Commission reported that not only had dual-use equipment been stripped from an old Iraq nuclear weapons facility, but even the buildings had been stripped and dismantled. Muhammad al-Baradei said that some of the nuclear material stolen from facilities in Iraq has already begun showing up in other countries. But the dual-use equipment, which has applications in nuclear weapons construction, has disappeared. (Hmm. I wonder which neighbor of Iraq might be desperately at work on a nuclear bomb and might be willing to pay top dollar for such equipment?) How bad a job Bush is doing is clear when we consider that we might well be relieved to know that this equipment went to Iran, since that means Bin Laden doesn't have it.

    So let me ask this again. Bush is making us safer? The American public trusts him to fight terror more effectively than Kerry? On what record? Bush appears to have all but just called up Usamah and Khamenei and told them where Saddam's old stuff was in case they needed it for their programs. And he politely made sure that no pesky US troops would be around to impede their access......
     
    #9 glynch, Oct 25, 2004
  10. thumbs

    thumbs Contributing Member

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    What I can't fathom is why explosives of this nature were being "guarded" rather than immediately destroyed.
     
    #10 thumbs, Oct 25, 2004
    Last edited: Oct 25, 2004
  11. KingCheetah

    KingCheetah Contributing Member

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    It's frightening to know Al Qaeda has hundreds of tons of high-grade military explosives at their disposal.

    By invading Iraq we have provided Al Qaeda with a new area to base their operations, a giant pool of new recruits, as well as easy access to military hardware to use on our military personal in the same region.
     
    #11 KingCheetah, Oct 25, 2004
  12. FranchiseBlade

    FranchiseBlade Contributing Member
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    You are correct. The incompetence of the way this war has been run, has enabled al-Qaeda to acquire tons of high grade military explosives. What a horrible way to run the war on terror.
     
    #12 FranchiseBlade, Oct 25, 2004
  13. Woofer

    Woofer Contributing Member

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    Wow, the Bushies armed the terrorists. Who would have thought their incompetence would reach such heights?
     
    #13 Woofer, Oct 25, 2004
  14. Chump

    Chump Member

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    I dunno what is more troubling

    - that Bush didn't listen to his military advisors and under-manned post war Iraq to point that 380 tons of explosives could disappear

    or

    - that Bush administration is trying to blow this off as no big deal, that they couldn't protect this armory

    ""In the grand scheme -- and on a grand scale -- there are hundreds of tons of weapons, munitions, artillery, explosives that are unaccounted for in Iraq," the official said. "And like the Pentagon has said, there is really no way the U.S. military could safeguard all of these weapons depots or find all of these missing materials."

    - senior Bush administration official

    too bad the IAEA informed the US of the need to protect this facility months ago
     
    #14 Chump, Oct 25, 2004
  15. Fegwu

    Fegwu Contributing Member

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    When Kerry mentioned this twice during the debates I thought he was just yarpping the normal political thought. How did this happen? Did we forget to "protect the troops" by guarding the dump?

    Israel should be very worried about this since they are in closer proximity than USA.

    And now the administration is not a proliferation risk? Are you kidding me? I hope they retract that statement.
     
    #15 Fegwu, Oct 25, 2004
  16. Chump

    Chump Member

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    the plot thickens

    it seems that this stuff has been "missing" for well over a year and that the US has known about it since at least May

    The US took active steps to cover this up and failed to report this to the IAEA and after the handover of power, they were pressuring Iraq not to tell them either as telling the IAEA would mean that the news would become public

    what is the White House response?

    they didn't want to tell the enemy that the stuff was missing

    huh? dont tell the people that stole it that you know it was stolen?

    oh yeah they threw some partisan attacks in their response as well

    "John Kerry has no vision for fighting and winning the War on Terror, so he is basing his attacks on the headlines he wakes up to each day."

    brillant leadership
     
    #16 Chump, Oct 25, 2004
  17. Chump

    Chump Member

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    no kidding

    IAEA tells Bush that this facility houses 380 tons of dangerous military grade explosives. IAEA has the stuff under seal.

    Bush invades, sends troops to protect oil ministry

    380 TONS of explosives left unguarded or underguarded, stuff disappears

    each month more and more AMERICAN troops are killed by car-bombs, road-side bombs etc etc, most likely coming from stolen stash that Bush failed to protect
     
    #17 Chump, Oct 25, 2004
  18. SamFisher

    SamFisher Contributing Member

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    Bush already passed the buck for not having enough men to invade Iraq and secure everything by blaming his generals (most of whom reportedly wanted way more troops) at the second debate.

    STupid of Kerry for not jumping on him for this in the debate. According to all reports, the generals did want more but Rumsfield, Wolfowitz & all repeatedly vetoed any such plan, they being of the "welcome us with flowers" school of delusion. Of course, since W. never holds their incompetence accountable for anything, for fear of his poll numbers, these guys remain despite the disastrous consequences.

    The buck stops there!
     
    #18 SamFisher, Oct 25, 2004
  19. mc mark

    mc mark Contributing Member

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    Today's Daily press briefing...


    Q The Kerry campaign is hitting you on this story in the New York Times today that a large cache of explosives have gone missing. Is there anything you could have done about that?

    MR. McCLELLAN: Maybe the best way to do this is kind of walk you through how we came to be informed about this. The Iraqi Interim Government informed -- told the IAEA -- the International Atomic Energy Agency on October 10th that there were approximately 350 tons of high explosives missing from Al Qaqaa in Iraq. And they informed the IAEA because these munitions were subject to IAEA monitoring, because they were considered dual-use materials. And the International Atomic Energy Agency informed the United States mission in Vienna on October 15th about these -- this cache of explosives that was missing because of some looting that went on in Iraq toward the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom, or during and toward the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

    Q When did the President find out?

    MR. McCLELLAN: That's why I said, we were informed on October 15th. Condi Rice was informed days after that. This is all in the last, what, 10 days now.

    Q She was informed days after October 15th?

    MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, and she informed the President. And the first priority, from our standpoint, was to make sure that this wasn't a nuclear proliferation risk, which it is not. These are conventional high explosives that we are talking about. And the President wants to make sure that we get to the bottom of this. Now, the Pentagon, upon learning of this, directed the multinational forces and the Iraqi survey group to look into this matter, and that's what they are currently doing.

    Now, if you go back and look at the Duelfer report that recently has come out, according to the Duelfer report, as of mid-September, more than 243,000 tons of munitions have been destroyed since Operation Iraqi Freedom. Coalition forces have cleared and reviewed a total of 10,033 caches of munitions; another nearly 163,000 tons of munitions have been secured and are on line to be destroyed. That puts this all -- that puts this all in context.

    Q Prior to the 10th, and the notification by the interim government, whose responsibility was it to keep track of these munitions, the IAEA or the multinational force in Iraq?

    MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think you need to look at the time. I think the Department of Defense can probably answer a lot of these questions for you. But that's why I pointed out what we did to -- literally, there were munitions caches spread throughout Iraq at the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom. That's why I pointed out the large volume of munitions that have already been destroyed and the large volume that are on-line to be destroyed. The sites now are the responsibility of the Iraqi government to secure.

    Q But after Iraqi Freedom, there were those caches all around, wasn't the multinational force -- who was responsible for keeping track --

    MR. McCLELLAN: At the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom there were a number of priorities. It was a priority to make sure that the oil fields were secure, so that there wasn't massive destruction of the oil fields, which we thought would occur. It was a priority to get the reconstruction office up and running. It was a priority to secure the various ministries, so that we could get those ministries working on their priorities, whether it was --

    Q So it was the multinational force's responsibility --

    MR. McCLELLAN: There were a number of -- well, the coalition forces, there were a number of priorities at the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom. And munitions, as I said, were literally spread throughout the country. And we have gone in and destroyed, as I pointed out, more than 243,000 tons --

    Q Was it the coalition's responsibility to take care of that --

    Q This morning, in Senator Kerry's remarks, he calls this one of the greatest blunders in the Iraq mission and this presidency. How do you respond to that?

    MR. McCLELLAN: Well, Senator Kerry has a strategy of protest and retreat for Iraq. It is essential that we succeed in Iraq, because Iraq is critical to winning the war on terrorism. The President will talk in his remarks today about how the terrorists understand how high the stakes are in Iraq. They are doing everything they can to try to disrupt the progress we are making toward free elections in Iraq. And this is a critical difference in how the two candidates view the war on terrorism. Senator Kerry has a strategy for retreat and defeat in Iraq. The President has a strategy for success in Iraq. We are making important progress. And as I pointed out, the first priority, when it came to these munitions, was to make sure that there was not a nuclear proliferation risk. There is not a nuclear proliferation risk. We're talking about conventional explosives, when we talk about these -- and that's why I pointed out the more than 243,000 munitions that have already been destroyed, and nearly 163,000 munitions that are in the process or are awaiting to be destroyed now. So this, as I said, this was pointed out by the Iraqi Interim Government to the IAEA, and then we were informed about it just in recent days.

    Q Scott, did we just have enough troops in Iraq to guard and protect these kind of caches?

    MR. McCLELLAN: See, that's -- now you just hit on what I just said a second ago, that the sites now are really -- my understanding, they're the responsibility of the Iraqi forces. And I disagree with the way you stated your question, because one of the lessons we've learned of history is that it's important to listen to the commanders on the ground and our military leaders when it comes to troop levels. And that's what this President has always done. And they've said that we have the troop levels we need to complete the mission and succeed in Iraq.

    Q But you're saying this is the responsibility of the Iraqi forces. But this was our responsibility until just recently, isn't that right? Weren't these -- there is some U.S. culpability, as far as --

    MR. McCLELLAN: You're trying -- I think you're taking this out of context of what was going on. This was reported missing after -- when the interim government informed that these munitions went missing some time after April 9th of 2003, remember, that was when we were still involved in major military action at that point. And there were a number of important priorities at that point. There were munitions, munition caches spread throughout Iraq. There were -- there was a concern that there would be massive refugees fleeing the country. There is concern about the devastation that could occur to the oil fields. There was concern about starvation that could happen for the Iraqi people.

    So -- and obviously there is an effort to go and secure these sites. The Department of Defense can talk to you about -- because they did go in and look at this site and look to see whether or not there were weapons of mass destruction there. So you need to talk to Department of Defense, because I think that would clarify that for you and set that record straight.

    Q You said Condi Rice told the President days after October 15th. Do you know when exactly he found out about --

    MR. McCLELLAN: No. It was in one of his briefings, morning briefings.

    Q After --

    MR. McCLELLAN: This is really in the last 10 days, Deb.

    Q Go through the tick-tock one more time. Allawi tells the IAEA about it October 10th and then --

    MR. McCLELLAN: Well, the Iraqi government told the International Atomic Energy Agency on October 10th that these munitions or these high explosives were missing, because of looting that occurred sometime after April 9th, 2003. And these were subject to -- some of these were subject to agency monitoring, and that's why they informed the IAEA.

    Q But, Scott --

    Q Who told the White House? I mean, did somebody tell the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and they told the White House?

    MR. McCLELLAN: No, no, no. The IAEA informed the U.S. mission in Vienna first. And then -- and then, as I said, Condi was informed days after that and she informed the President.

    Q Are U.S. troops under any kind of higher alert because there's enough munitions for like 50 car bombs? Is there, like, any kind of alert going on for them? Are they on any kind of higher standard?

    MR. McCLELLAN: I think you need to look at what we have done in terms of destroying munitions. As I point out, we've destroyed more than 243,000 munitions, we've secured another nearly 163,000 that will be destroyed.

    Q I'm sorry -- these are going to be used against them --

    MR. McCLELLAN: And then, so if you look at all those explosives there -- and now the DOD -- now that we've been informed about this, the Pentagon directed multinational forces and the Iraq Survey Group to look into this matter and do a comprehensive assessment of what happened to these munitions. So that's what's happening right now.

    Q On the tick-tock, do you know if the missing munitions, if they were looted before or after the handover June 30th? Was this -- happened when the coalition was in control or when the Allawi government --

    MR. McCLELLAN: No, no. First of all, I said that they reported that it went missing sometime after April 9th, 2003. Remember, early on -- during and at the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom, there was some looting. Some of it was organized that was going on in the country. There were munitions caches spread throughout the country. And so -- but these are all issues that are being looked into by the multinational forces and the Iraq Survey Group.

    Q But you don't know yet exactly what --

    MR. McCLELLAN: You might want to direct that question to the Pentagon. My understanding is that it went missing sometime after April 9th, 2003. So it's looking more back to that period, that period of time.

    Q Can you also talk about Romano Prodi, Romano Prodi's comments about Kerry's plan for Iraq and he's been endorsing the Kerry plan.

    MR. McCLELLAN: I haven't seen his comments. I'll be glad to look at them. But I haven't seen the comments yet.

    Q Scott, one last one on the tick-tock --

    MR. McCLELLAN: The President will talk about the differences when it comes to our plans for Iraq today in his remarks.

    Q One last one on the tick-tock. These notices from Iraq to IAEA to U.S. to Condi to President happened over days as opposed to hours. Was there just no sense of urgency that what they had discovered here was really an important --

    MR. McCLELLAN: No, just -- no, I think that this has all happened in a -- just the last few days. We're talking about the last 10 days.

    Q As opposed to hours. Right. But does that mean folks believed that this was not an urgent, serious matter?

    MR. McCLELLAN: No, because the Pentagon became informed -- you can check with the Pentagon when they were informed about it and the coalition forces. Absolutely not.

    Q This was an urgent matter, as far as U.S. government was concerned?

    MR. McCLELLAN: It's something that's being looked into now. So I don't know how you can characterize it as not. I mean, it's something that the Pentagon, upon being informed about it, immediately directed the multinational forces and Iraq Survey Group to look into this matter, and that's what they're doing.

    Q Is there any greater risk to U.S. troops because of these munitions?

    MR. McCLELLAN: When there are munitions missing, it's -- and we learn about it, it's always a priority. And as I pointed out, that's why we've already destroyed more than 243,000 munitions and have another nearly 363,000 on line to be destroyed.

    But, I mean, we don't know -- I mean, you're assuming things right now. We don't know what happened to these high explosives. That's what's being looked into. So you -- I would urge you not to speculate. We're looking into it to find out exactly what happened to them. And you're --

    Q It could be their -- this is what they're using for -- they've been using for these bombs for a year now.

    MR. McCLELLAN: Again, that's all that's -- that's what's being looked into. You might want to direct questions like these to the coalition forces and to the Pentagon, who is looking into it. I would not speculate about those matters.
     
    #19 mc mark, Oct 25, 2004
  20. Chump

    Chump Member

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    remember, there are only 8 days til the election...mmmm..who has motivation to lie here?
     
    #20 Chump, Oct 25, 2004
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