U.S. Team Took 200 Tons of Iraqi Explosives
A U.S. Army officer came forward Friday and said a team from the 3rd Infantry Division took about 200 tons of explosives from the Al-Qaqaa munitions base soon after Saddam Hussein’s regime fell last year.Major Austin Pearson appeared at a Pentagon news conference to say it was his mission to go the facility and clear explosives from the base. He said he did not discover that the International Atomic Energy Agency had reported 377 tons of explosives were missing until Tuesday night and he said he promptly contacted military officials.
The announcement, made at a Pentagon news conference, is the latest twist in the mystery over what happened to the explosives. The IAEA reported the disappearance to the United Nations on Monday and suggested they had fallen into the hands of looters while U.S. military officials suspected the dangerous material was taken before Saddam was ousted from power on April 9, 2003.
The officer’s story comes as new videotape has surfaced that supports the contention that tons of the explosives were still at the base following Saddam’s fall on April 9, 2003. U.S. officials had said they suspected the explosives were taken before U.S.-led forces took Baghdad.
Videotape shot by a Minnesota television crew traveling with U.S. troops in Iraq when they first opened the bunkers at the Al-Qaqaa munitions base nine days after the fall of Saddam Hussein shows what appeared to be high explosives still in barrels and bearing the markings of the International Atomic Energy Agency
I caught part of the press conference, but missed part due to a phone call. It sounds like the soldier stated that they used some of the explosives in question to destroy other weapons.
And the story takes yet another turn.
October 29th, 2004 at 12:00 pm
This story smells on both ends to me because on one hand you have this released days before the election in a attempt to sway the undecided but then again you have the Bush adminstration changing their story from day to day with Rumsfeld saying that the explosives were more then likely taken out before the invasion and now with this guy saying he destroyed some but he can’t say if its the explosives in question. So if it hurts anyone i would have to come to the conclusion that it hurts bush because you didn’t seem him comment on it at his election rally this morning.
October 29th, 2004 at 12:03 pm
A wee bit of the Kerry campaign’s big pile of crap crumbles
It ‘pears that the mystery of the missin’ Iraqi munitions has been solved with any blame bein’ resolved. As the story blows another of the baseless claims of the Kerry camp out the door, this story broke on FOX. Thankfully…
October 29th, 2004 at 2:02 pm
More Facts Contradict Kerry’s Charges about Al Qaqaa
CNN is showing a Pentagon briefing with an Army officer who is describing how the explosives at Al Qaqaa were destroyed in June 2003 after having captured it in April 2003. I’ll have more as the story breaks. – Captain…