A Pentagon spokesman said Monday it was unclear whether 380 tons of high explosives reported missing from a weapons facility in Iraq disappeared before or after it fell under control of US forces. Say what?
The Iraqi government this month reported the disappearance of 380 tons of HMX and RDX explosives to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which had monitored the explosives before the war because they could be used as a trigger for nuclear devices.
“This is a first report. We do not know when — if those weapons did exist at that facility — they were last seen, and under whose control they were last in,” Pentagon spokesman Larry DiRita said. DiRita said US forces visited the Al-Qaqaa site several times after the US invasion of Iraq as part of a US-led search for Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and related material. But he said it is unclear whether the missing explosives were at the site during those visits.
The Bush Administration’s failure to locate and secure this incredibly powerful explosive material belies its argument that Iraqi WMD were a true threat to the United States. The Army protected the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, but ignored this weapons depot.
In the 1980s, Libyan terrorists used one pound of this same explosive material to blow up Pan Am Flight #103 over Scotland. Now, 380 tons of this same material are circulating around Iraq like the flu in America.
Nice, George. It’s time for you to go. You can’t protect our soldiers, and you can’t protect America.
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