350 TONS RDX, HMX, PETN in the wind!

[Bert]

Well, I for one am "shocked and awed". That's about 30-40 truck loads...
Huge cache of explosives vanished from site in Iraq (http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=18413&mode=nested&order=0)

[Hang-Man]

I wouldn't trust that site. Looks just a bit anti-bush biased. Show me the CNN article and I might shit my pants though.

[K9]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/25/iraq.explosives/index.html

Although Al Qaqaa does sound.... odd?

[meselfs]

I don't trust that site, but I just heard it on the radio...

...and I trust the radio :-<

Still is seems pretty hard to believe.

[Child-of-Bodom]

In the meanwhile it has appeared on every news around here.
(The Netherlands)

A quote from the CNN site...A senior administration official played down the importance of the missing explosives, describing them as dangerous material but "stuff you can buy anywhere."

Maybe in Iraq, but I quess in that quantity's. Why buy them if they are OTD (over the desert...)

[cyclonite4]

"stuff you can buy anywhere."

-It seems they are just trying to change subject/justify screwing up bad enough to let 380 tonnes slip away like that. BTW i would like to know which supermarket i can buy RDX from :D .

[Bert]

The first link I posted was used because you have to register to read it where it was originaly posted- The New York Times. First place I found it re-posted...

The Pentagon has admitted it knew the stuff was there and had checked it out when they initialy conquered Iraq."This stuff was well-known. Everyone knew it was there, and it should have been among the first sites to be secured," said a European diplomat familiar with the disappearance of the explosives, which was first reported Monday by The New York Times.

At the Pentagon, an official who monitors developments in Iraq said US-led coalition troops had searched Al-Qaqaa in the immediate aftermath of the March 2003 invasion and confirmed that the explosives, which had been under IAEA seal since 1991, were intact. Thereafter the site was not secured by U.S. forces, the official said, also speaking on condition of anonymity.


Article from The Jerusalem Post (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1098677410357) Gee, think any of that material is headed their way?

[ProdigyChild]

Hey, what's up with you? Scared of a bit explosives in the hands of 'the wrong people'??

I've heard in the news, that these explosives 'can be used to set off nuclear weapons'. Hahaha! Agitation as always! News are entertainment or manipulation or both, but almost NEVER information :mad:
If you happened to be in TV or news, then you really know, that AT MOST half of what they 'report' is pure fiction.
If someone is able to gather the material for a nuclear bomb, I really doubt, he/they fail to ignite because of lack of suitable HEs ;)

Why the fuck does US army 'forget' to secure a mountain of explosives?
USA vetos in UN have a long tradition and I consider it unimaginable injustice. Maybe the US left the explosives there for justice - to make Palestinian vs. Israel war aa bit more balanced...?
Haha, bit sarcastic you say?

Okay, then a more realistic approach: Of course they haven't forgotten 'mount HMX' - the explosives were legally bought by someone!
Don't call it bribary! That's simply market in the new world order...
...which needs continuous war.
Aaahhhh I'm sarcastic again.

Now I got it! They left the explosives there for a definitely good purpose: The explosives will be used for plane hijacking and bombing by organized terrorism all around the world.
BUT: all exlosives are tagged and can easily be detected by airport sensors. So no more planes exloding!
AND: US army does want to save the lives of terrorist amateur chemists who may die while preparing explosives. They are human, too! (yes, both, Army and amateurs)
What a delight to my heart, now that I see the positive in it :D

[bobo]

From CNN:

<snip>
The Iraqi letter said the material disappeared "due to lack of security" of government installations during the looting that followed the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003.

So.. these HE's were part of the same stuff that was looted in 2003, when everyone could see it on TV and wondered why the fuck the US military didn't jump at it. These explosives have been seized by terrorists from the depots alongside the OTHER stuff they took, missiles, RPGs, assault rifles and whatever else was there.

So, this is old news really. I mean, who is really surprised that there was hundreds of tonnes of RDX in Iraq's depots? I wonder why it is being made a big deal of now, perhaps it is election fever? Truth can be bent towards a politically favorable message.

As for where it is now, a lot of this stuff may just be under the bed of iraqis. The looting at that time did not seem organised the way the resistance is organized now. Had I been there, part of the looting locals, I'd surely have taken some guns, ammo and explosives with me, just in case I'd want to set them off later. And many of those ppl want iraq to be stable and safe, unlike the terrorist goatheads who want chaos.

In any case, every now and then the US airforce bombs some house or prayershed into oblivion where they stash explosives.

What I really wonder about though, does al quada need a few tonnes of RDX? Of course it helps in blowing carbombs inside iraq, but to move such amounts of explosives anywhere will certainly be infinetly more problematic and only slightly more effective than obtaining a shitload of ANFO near the target, Oklahoma style.

[Centimeter]

If I had come across this warehouse, I would have blow it up. That would be such an increadible explosion. In the articles, they talked about previous explosions there and how they could be heard from over one hundred miles away. I just don't think I could resist the urge. O course I would probably take some stuff for my self too.

[Cyclonite]

When I was in Iraq there were many unsecured ammunition storage points, full up guided missiles sitting on the side of the road and tons of soviet bombs and fuzzes. Most of what was looted was chain link fence around the ASP :confused: people do some strange shit. I wish I was in a position to go out there alone with some caps and 20lbs of m112 charges, but all the enemy ammunition has to be disposed of in somewhat of an organized fashion. It was still fun though..... :D

[TreverSlyFox]

Hehehehheeh. Now for the "rest" of the story. It's NOT 350 tons, it's 380 Metric Tons which is 836,000 Lbs. At a load of 86,000 Lbs that's 9.7 Tractor-Trailer loads. Which if one man was carring 100 lbs making 4 trips per minute it would take 38.4 hours to load it all on those 10 Semis.

CBS (you remember those phoney documents) was going to release this on "60 Minutes" the night before the election. But the New York Times jumped the gun letting it "out of the bag" several days ago. Yesterday NBC "corrected" the story when they released the reports from their embedded reporters who were there with the 101st Airborne. When the 101st Airborne arrived the "Missing" explosives were ALREADY GONE!

Yup, that's right folks, the explosives were already gone when U.S. Troops arrived on the scene. U.S. Troops never had control of them and U.S. Troops didn't "LOOSE" them. The whole story was made up by CBS to attack Bush's re-election bid.

[bobo]

Whatever, it still is a bit of a dumb way to 'fight terror'. After all, Saddam was supposedly giving support to terrorism. If it were known those explosives were there, they might have bombed it to prevent the terrorists from using the cover of chaos to steal it. If it was stolen before the plunder frenzy, in fact it is more likely to be in the hands of professional terrorists.

[ProdigyChild]

@TreverSlyFox: since when is it reprehensible to miss the truth a bit when reporting about the existance of weapons ?

It's a common method to justify wars. Tony Blair and .....
.... can't remember the name of the other guy ;)

[Bert]

"Haven't you heard, It's a battle of words-" (Pink Floyd, Us & Them)

Well, the embedded reporters from my home town news team were there in
the second week of April, visited the bunkers with a couple of grunts with nothing better to do and took pictures and video of the bunkers, the UN seals and boxes and drums of powdered HE (which they opened and handled!). Godamn.

Once again, this link is to that (somewhat anti-Bush?!) site, as you would have to register with the NY Times to read the original- Or if you were in Minnesota, you could have seen it on the evening news... Video shows G.I.'s at Al Qaqaa weapon cache (http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=18474&mode=nested&order=0)
They visited a half dozen bunkers, he said. The gloomy interiors revealed long rows of boxes, crates and barrels, what independent experts said were three kinds of HMX containers shipped to Iraq from France, China and Yugoslavia. The team opened storage containers, some of which contained white powder that independent experts said was consistent with HMX. "The soldiers were pretty much in awe of what they were seeing," Mr. Caffrey recalled. "They were saying their E.O.D. - Explosive Ordinance Division, people who blow this kind of stuff up - would have a field day."

[TreverSlyFox]

Well, it now seems that some EOD guy is going to meet the press and he says "that his team removed 200 tons of the explosives and destroyed them."

Hehehehehe, this gets better each day. If it wasn't an election year, would it even be a "news story". I sorta doubt it.

[tmp]

Another political maneuver as I see it. What a shame ! Just think if all
those powdered explosives had been distributed equally among the members
of this board ! Fess up ! We'd gladly find a "use" for it, wouldn't we ? :D :D :D

Please send my share by Expedited Mail ! Thank You !

[irish]

I'd say I would run out of stumps before explosives with that lot :p . funny how with explosives and weapons all over the place in Iraq the media latch on to one story and play it for all it's worth as if this is the doom of the western world :rolleyes: .

[countvoncount]

Who'd had thunk it? Hiding weapons in a weapons bunker