MISSING EXPLOSIVES
Although White House officials, including Dick Cheney, continue to assert that the 380 tons of missing explosives at Al Qaqaa were not found by the U.S. troops passing through the facility, a new report out on Wednesday will contradict those assertions. The troops did not search the facility for explosives because they were not ordered to do so. Their sole mission was to get to Baghdad, not secure these explosives.
This new revelation adds to the already long list of questions that the White House is not answering. This memo spotlights several issues that have arisen about the Administration's failure to secure these explosives, adding to the mounting pressure on George Bush to personally address them:
DUELFER SAYS IRAQ IS AWASH IN EXPLOSIVES: The 380 tons of missing explosives are the tip of the iceberg. Duelfer reportedly said that Iraq is awash in hundreds of thousands of tons of explosives. Duelfer's picture of an Iraq flooded with explosives that are easily attainable by terrorists stands in stark contrast to the rosy scenarios presented by the Bush Campaign. Is this Dick Cheney's "remarkable success story?"
WAITING FOR THE WHITE HOUSE TO CALL: Although the White House says it told the Iraq Survey Group to look into what happened to the 380 tons of missing explosives, the head of the unit, Charles Duelfer, says he has not received any orders to do so. Keep in mind that McClellan said FOUR times during his October 25 gaggle that the Administration had already directed Duelfer to look into what happened to the explosives. What's the deal?
SITUATION REPORTS: On Tuesday, Dick Cheney claimed it was unclear whether there were explosives at the Al Qaqaa site when the military stopped there on its way to Baghdad. One way to clear up whether the site was thoroughly searched is to release the "situation reports," the logs that track what a military unit does when it is in combat. If the White House releases these reports, which are unclassified, we might be able to get a better sense of what was searched at the Al Qaqaa site.
SATELLITE SURVEILLANCE: Some in the Administration have asserted that the explosives were gone before U.S. Forces got to Al Qaqaa. Given the fact that the I.A.E.A. explicitly warned the White House about this site, was the U.S. using satellites to monitor Al Qaqaa? Wouldn't there be a record to confirm whether 380 tons of explosives were removed? If they were removed, why did the White House fail to ensure that they were tracked? If they weren't removed, why was no effort made to secure them? Why weren't more troops assigned to that effort? Why doesn't the White House have a solid answer on this question?
EXPLOSIVE CHARGES: David Kay says that traces of the same kinds of explosives that are missing were found after a bombing outside a mosque in Najaf. Are these explosives being used against U.S. troops? The 9/30/04 Chicago Tribune reported that insurgents are likely using weapons looted from the Al Qaqaa complex. The Tribune quoted an officer from the unit that initially patrolled the area as saying that the site was left unguarded and that there was no shortage of weapons at the site.
AI
