Traced: hundreds of tons of looted munitions in Iraq that were a source of dispute in 2004 election

[ProSense]

GAO Faults U.S. Military Over Munitions in Iraq

Report Says Insurgents Took Unsecured Explosives

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 23, 2007; Page A07

The U.S. military's faulty war plans and insufficient troops in Iraq left thousands and possibly millions of tons of conventional munitions unsecured or in the hands of insurgent groups after the 2003 invasion -- allowing widespread looting of weapons and explosives used to make roadside bombs that cause the bulk of U.S. casualties, according to a government report released yesterday.

Some weapons sites remained vulnerable as recently as October 2006, according to the Government Accountability Office report, which said the unguarded sites "will likely continue to support terrorist attacks throughout the region." For example, it said hundreds of tons of explosives at the Al Qa Qaa facility in Iraq that had been documented by the International Atomic Energy Agency were lost to theft and looting after April 9, 2003.

The powerful explosives missing from the Al Qa Qaa complex became a controversy on the eve of the 2004 presidential election, and the Pentagon said then that a U.S. Army demolition unit had destroyed up to 250 tons of explosives at the site.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday that securing the unexploded munitions in Iraq is "a huge, huge problem." "The entire country was one big ammo dump," he said at a Pentagon news conference. "We're doing our best to try and find them but, given the expanse of the country and all the other tasks that the military is trying to carry out there, it's a huge task," he said. Gates has said that roadside bombs cause about 70 percent of U.S. troop casualties.

more...

Cheney was wrong, make that lying:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY, (D-MA) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, Mr. President, I agree with you.

George Bush jumped to conclusions about weapons of mass destruction and he rush to war without a plan to win the peace. The bottom line about these weapons that have disappeared, here‘s the bottom line, they‘re not where they‘re supposed to be. You were warned to guard them. You didn‘t guard them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OLBERMANN: The administration, today, defended itself from 2 different tacks from 2 different spokesmen. The vice president was in Schofield, Wisconsin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He is just plain wrong on the facts. And he has never let himself be burdened by the facts in terms the charges that he‘s made. But I think it is a kind of, well frankly, I think it‘s a cheap shot. And I personally believe that it says something about the character of the man who would make it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OLBERMANN: And a most unexpected argument from former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on NBC “Today‘s Show.” Maybe the weapons did fall off the back of the truck on the administration‘s watch, but the buck, he says, does not stop at the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, FRM. NEW YORK MAYOR: No matter how you try to blame it on the president, the actual responsibility for it really would be for the troops that were there. Did they search carefully enough? Didn‘t they search carefully enough?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OLBERMANN: Later in that interview, Mr. Giuliani insisted he was not blaming the troops.

link

Stunning recap of how Bush's approach to Iraq failed, and the idiocy of escalation.

The lies that launched the Iraq war...

[Roland99]

1. "millions of tons"???

seems a bit on the high side, eh? Esp. considering al-Qaqaa was only about 380 tons.

[ProSense]

2. Edited: millions of tons left unsecured vs. the 380 tons looted from al Qaqaa. n/t

[Kagemusha]

3. Wasn't that 380 tons of relatively good stuff?

The figure I heard was more like hundreds of thousands rather than millions (edit: in total) but hey, it's a lot, no matter how you slice it.

[Igel]

12. Hundreds of depots were left unsecured,

US intelligence didn't even know they existed.

In the depots were packs of explosives, both the high-yield stuff like a lot of what was at al-Qaaqaa, and lots of lower-yield stuff. And there was lots of ammo, and thousands of mortar shells, and many, many artillery shells.

Don't know about millions of tons. But hundreds of thousands, no doubt.

[ClayZ]

4. Blackwater needed the business!

[dwahzon]

5. I remember

when JK made that point and being furious when Cheney accused him of lying.

Still makes me mad.

[karynnj]

15. I remember when an embedded local reporter,

I think from Minnesota, showed dated footage showing Al Qu'qaa with the the seals secure - backing Kerry's comments that the threfts occured well after it was possible to secure it.

I remember how furious Kerry was with Cheney's characterizations, but he was far more furious when he said that this ammo was being used for IEDs that were killing and maiming "our kids". There is more than enough proof now to see the Cheney's lack of caharacter.

[Straight Shooter]

6. The U.S. military's faulty war plans?

Doesn't WaPo mean Rumsfeld's faulty war plans?

We DU'ers were yelling with our hair on fire about those unguarded munitions, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize the IED's were being manufactured from the stolen munitions.

bush never invaded Iraq for WMD, to get Saddam, to "liberate" the Iraqis or to instill democracy; he invaded to inject chaos in the region because it's so much easier to loot and plunder when things are out of control.

[butterfly77]

7. What does gates mean that they are trying to find them...

they are being used on the troops daily...

[jazzjunkysue]

8. I can't wait to hear George try to pronounce el ca ca.

;rofl:

[jazzjunkysue]

9. "The entire country was one big ammo dump,"

It's hurd werk.

[blm]

10. Another instance where corpmedia protected Bush and downplayed Kerry's attack

as if it was a trivial matter.

[ebayfool]

11. kicking n/t

[Disturbed]

13. The US Troops and Mercs were too busy defending

The oil fields to bother with Govt. buildings, except the Ministry of Oil. Hospital and museums were looted. Rumsfailed brushed all of that off saying something like freedom is sometimes messy.

[ProSense]

14. Unguarded munitions sites still being looted

Thu Mar 22, 7:08 PM ET

Masked Iraqi soldiers stand next to confiscated munitions near a
weapons cache found near Tikrit, 01 March 2007. As of October
2006 US forces had still not secured all of the unguarded munition
sites in Iraq, allowing thieves to keep stealing war material and
stoke the country's violence, a US government report said
Thursday.(AFP/File/Dia Hamid)

[ProSense]

16. Kick n/t

[Sydnie]

17. Makes me mad

They weren't interested in those weapons at all. They were there to guard the OIL! There were soldiers complaining that they were leaving the depots behind to go guard the oil fields. Had they sent enough troops, they could have effectively done both. But, that was never their intent. The use the civil war as a reason to justify the 14 bases we have built there ... but, it's really still just the oil. blivet** said we have to stay to protect "American interests" which, at least for this administration, translates to OIL!