Friday, October 29, 2004

US Failed to Stop the Russians from Removing Iraq’s Banned Weapons

The Washington Time has a very interesting story today that points the finger at the Russians for removing the infamous "missing" explosives from al Qaqaa. It also accuses the Russians of being involved in the removal of the Iraqi WMD. This was clearly a case of CYA on the part of the Russians as they were the largest arms suppliers to the Iraqi military. So much for Russian friendship. With friends like these…

Add to this what we have already learned about the Oil for Food program, and the French abuse of that program, and it seems as if the UN is nothing but an organized crime syndicate. But just remember, everything is OK as long as the US is not doing it, anything we do is a crime against humanity.

UPDATE: Fox News had this information about the Russian connection:

Rumsfeld, in one radio interview, also cast doubt on the suggestion by one of his subordinates that Russian soldiers assisted Iraqis in removing the munitions.

The Washington Times on Thursday quoted John A. Shaw (search), the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, who said he believed Russian special-forces personnel, working with Iraqi intelligence, "almost certainly" removed the high-explosive material from the Al-Qaqaa facility.

Shaw said he believed the munitions were moved to Syria in the weeks before the March 2003 invasion.

Senior Defense officials urged caution over the Washington Times article because they could not verify its allegations as true.

"I have no information on that at all, and cannot validate that even slightly," Rumsfeld said.

The article prompted an angry denial from Moscow.


This throws a wrinkle in the story. In addition the Fox story covers the ABC News video that allegedly shows the missing explosives in the al Qaqaa dump on April 18, 2003. This seems to support the New York Times story that the explosives were removed after the US first entered the facility. Seems as if we know less about this story today than we did yesterday. Read the entire story and judge for your self.

ANOTHER UPDATE: This is another quote from an Foxs News article about the missing explosives:

A U.S. Army officer came forward Friday and said a team from the 3rd Infantry Division took about 250 tons of munititions and military material from the Al-Qaqaa (search) munitions base soon after Saddam Hussein's regime fell last year.

Explosives were included in the load taken by the team but Major Austin Pearson said he was unable to say what percentage it accounted for. The Pentagon believes the disclosure helps to explain what happened to 377 tons of explosives that the International Atomic Energy Agency (
search) said disappeared after Saddam Hussein's regime fell.

A Pentagon spokesman acknowledged they don't have all the answers and can't yet account for all of the missing material but he said it was a signficant development in unraveling the mystery.
"We've described what we know and as we know more we'll decribe that," said spokesman Larry Dirita.

Pearson, accompanied by Dirita, appeared at a Pentagon news conference to say it was his mission to go the facility and clear material from the base but he could not say what percentage of the material were explosives. He said he was not an explosives expert but instead said his main mission is to clear possibly dangerous material from bases to make them safe for U.S. forces.


This is the same story quoted above. The plot thickens...


7 comments:

Robert said...

Hey, It took more than 4 years to get Hitler and we knew were he was. We still invaded Italy,Sicily,Algeria,Tunisa,France,Belgium before Germany. Wars take time and sometimes you are unable to attack your enemy directly. The terrorists understand this why don't you?

OBL is probably in Pakistan, but Pakistan is an ally so we can just go after him. Right now the ball in in Pakistans court and we will see if they can root him out. OBL is not getting away. It takes time to find a single person on the other side of the world in a country that we do not have freedom of action in. How long did it take to find the UNIBOMBER and he was in the US.

Complaints about how long we have spent looking for OBL are out of line. Why no complaints that he has been attacking the US for 10 years and the previous administration didn't even try to stop him?

Thanks for your comments. We need to debate important issues in order to fully understand them.

Robert said...

Oh yeah, we never did get Hitler...

The Mad Tech said...

The point is that we know exactly where OBL is. Yes, you read that right. According to multiple news sources, foreign and domestic, we know that OBL is in a mountainous region of northeast Pakistan.

The problem is that we can not send troops in after him without plunging Pakistan into a civil war. At this time Pakistan is worth more as an ally in the war on terror then capturing or killing OBL.

I commend the President for looking at the "big picture" and moving will caution. He has again proven his critics wrong with his foresight.

The Mad Tech

carla said...

Osama Bin Laden brought war to us. Going in and getting him is priority #1. There is nothing to be commended about Pakistan civil war or lack thereof. We go in..we get him...and we leave. End of story.

In terms of the Russians having anything to do with the Al Qaqaa missing explosives?

Not likely.

First of all, there's video from a news crew embedded with the 101st showing thousands of containers of HMX and RMX, with the IAEA seals intact.

Second, Putin just called the American Ambassador to Russia to come to Moscow...to call us on the carpet for accusing the Russians of doing this, which they categorically deny.

Time for a new excuse or new person to blame. Who will it be next?

Robert said...

Carla,

Thanks for your comments. I must disagree with some of the thing that you have said.

I agree that getting OBL is very important and should be a main goal in our anti-terror operations but he is still just one man, there are thousands of other people who are activily working towards the same goals and we need to deal with these people as well.

As for your lack on concern over causing a civil war in Pakistan you r are extremely naive to think that this would have no impact on the us or on the war on terror. Destablising a nation with nuclear weapons and then possiblely leaving it in the hands of people who are not our friends would be stupid beyond words. THe stability of Pakistan is of vital importance to the world not just the US and we should not destablize them for our own interests.

As for the video you will notice that I mentioned that in my post. The problem is that the video is not more or less reliable than other information that has been released. The news team that reported the story is "sure" of the date but are they "sure" what was in the containers? Are you? Can anyone look at that visdeo and state without a doubt that those containers actually have explosive in them and that they are the one that are "missing?" I can't and neither can you.

The Russian response to this story is completely understable reguardless of their involvement or not. Of cource they will protest a story like this, they should. We would. Do you expect them to come out after all that has gone on and say "oh gosh you caught us."

The fact is there is no one person who knows what happened there and it is total waste of time, at this point, to worry about it. There is no great cover-up going on.

Anonymous said...

You bloody american bastards (just like your beloved George W Bush). Always blaming other people for your shortcomings and inadequacies. Trying to put your dirty little fingers everywhere in the world where they dont belong..if you yankee wankers care so much about freedom and liberation why dont you attack Israel and free the palestinians? and why do you close two eyes to the only state where torture is legal? fucking double standards...you just dont know how much your people are hated around the globe..oh yes, you are so siloed in your thinking considering the fact that your 60% of your lawmakers dont own a passport...think about it you bloody amrican twat.

I sincerely hope Kerry wins to change the policies of George the "chimp" Bush policies..but then again, all the american wankers are the same...

Robert said...

In America we call a person who looses a stream insults anonymously a coward. We generally don't listen to cowards. Next time leave a name and maybe tells us were you are from, this might give your statements some weight. Thanks for your comments...coward.