WASHINGTON — A U.S. Army officer came forward Friday to say a team from his 3rd Infantry Division took about 250 tons of munitions and other material from the Al-Qaqaa (search) arms-storage facility soon after Saddam Hussein's regime fell in April 2003.
Explosives were part of the load taken by the team, but Major Austin Pearson was unable to say what percentage they accounted for.
The Pentagon believes the disclosure helps explain what happened to 377 tons of high explosives that the International Atomic Energy Agency (search) said disappeared after the U.S.-led invasion.
Pentagon spokesman Larry DiRita acknowledged the Defense Department did not have all the answers and could not yet account for all of the missing explosives, but stressed that the major's disclosure was a significant development in unraveling the mystery.
"We've described what we know, and as we know more we'll describe that," said DiRita.
Pearson, accompanied by DiRita, appeared at a Pentagon news conference and said his team's mission in April 2003 was to clear material from the Al-Qaqaa facility in order to secure it for U.S. forces. He admitted he was not an explosives expert.
The IAEA reported the disappearance of the explosives to the United Nations on Monday, suggesting they had fallen into the hands of looters after American troops had swept through the area.
Oooops.. No wonder Kerry has taken down every Reference to missing explosives on his website....
I'm going to play conspiracy theorist for a moment.
It makes one wonder if the Bushies knew that these soldiers had taken the 250 tons out, but kept that little fact secret. So, in the final days on the 2004 election, they let the original information that 377 tons were missing out. Kerry concentrates his remaining fire-power on that issue, and then with 3-4 days to go, the Bushies spring the trap, saying that 250 tons were pulled out. Kerry gets screwed by this revelation and looks like an idiot.
Now, I'm not saying this is true, but given the shit Karl Rove's pulled in the past, I wouldn't be too shocked.
ABC News wrote:But the confidential IAEA documents obtained by ABC News show that on Jan. 14, 2003, the agency's inspectors recorded that just over three tons of RDX were stored at the facility — a considerable discrepancy from what the Iraqis reported
The IAEA documents could mean that 138 tons of explosives were removed from the facility long before the United States launched "Operation Iraqi Freedom" in March 2003.
Didn't get any comments the last time I posted this...
"preemptive killing of cops might not be such a bad idea from a personal saftey[sic] standpoint..." --Keevan Colton
"There's a word for bias you can't see: Yours." -- William Saletan
