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[davman]

I would assume that, if they searched the site, they may have noticed 380 tons of explosives!


U.S. Searches 'Suspicious' Iraqi Site

NEAR BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 4, 2003



(Photo: CBS)



"It is clearly a suspicious site."
Col. John Peabody, engineer brigade commander of the 3rd Infantry Division


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(CBS) U.S. troops found thousands of boxes of white powder, nerve agent antidote and Arabic documents on how to engage in chemical warfare at an industrial site south of Baghdad. But a senior U.S. official familiar with initial testing said the materials were believed to be explosives.

Col. John Peabody, engineer brigade commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, said the materials were found Friday at the Latifiyah industrial complex just south of Baghdad.

"It is clearly a suspicious site," Peabody said.

CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports that the hunt for weapons of mass destruction continues at sites where the U.S. thought chemicals weapons might be hidden.

"And although there are no reports of actual weapons being found, there are constant finds of suspicious material," Martin said. "It obviously will take laboratory testing to find out exactly what that powder is."

The senior U.S. official, based in Washington and speaking on condition of anonymity, said the material was under further study. The site is enormous and U.S. troops are still investigating it for potential weapons of mass destruction, the official said.

"Initial reports are that the material is probably just explosives, but we're still going through the place," the official said.

Peabody said troops found thousands of boxes, each of which contained three vials of white powder, together with documents written in Arabic that dealt with how to engage in chemical warfare.

He also said they discovered atropine, used to counter the effects of nerve agents.

The facility had been identified by the International Atomic Energy Agency as a suspected chemical, biological and nuclear weapons site. U.N. inspectors visited the plant at least nine times, including as recently as Feb. 18.

The facility is part of a larger complex known as the Latifiyah Explosives and Ammunition Plant al Qa Qaa.

During the 1991 Gulf War, U.S. jets bombed the plant.

Troops also discovered what they believe is a training center for nuclear, chemical and biological warfare in Iraq's western desert, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said Friday.

One bottle found at the site was labeled "tabun" — a nerve agent that the U.S. government says may have been used during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. The soldiers found only a small amount of the chemical, indicating the site was meant for training, not storing or deploying chemical weapons, Brooks said.

"In that particular site, we believe that was the only sample," Brooks said. "That's why we believe it was a training site. Our conclusion is that this was not a (weapons of mass destruction) site ... it proved to be far less than that."

Photos of the site showed shelves of brown bottles with yellow labels. Brooks said troops did not understand some of the labels and were collecting the bottles for examination by experts.

On April 1, Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, in a statement on Iraqi television, repeated Baghdad's position that it had no weapons of mass destruction. Referring to reports that gas masks and other chemical gear had been found elsewhere in the country, he said the coalition might plant weapons of mass destruction to implicate Iraq.

"Let me say one more time that Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction," he said.

"The aggressors may themselves intend to bring those materials to plant them here and say those are weapons of mass destruction," he said.





©MMIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[Rdtf]

Good find and proof they sat on it - but not sure about the dates - the war started the last week of March and this says they saw it in April-

[davman]

True enough. The war started in March, but the first unit to reach the area arrived on April 3rd, and after fighting with Iraqi forces, performed a cursory search of the facility. The facility was reportedly swarmed with looters already. The report does state that they found thousands of boxes of white powder that they thought were explosives. HMX does come in a white powder form. Although, 380 tons would occupy quite a bit of space.

[Anker-Klanker]

Uh duh, help an old man here... Where did the central quantity and number of this story come from? Insofar as I know "380 tons" is the sole assertion/allegation of the UN rep who wrote that letter. Has anyone checked this number, or authenticated it? Is it possible that it's every bit as fraudulent as the rest of the story? Can anyone prove that there's any explosives missing from that site? Or is this just the assertion of one man, who we know has an agenda?

Be kinda hard to find this stuff if it never existed, wouldn't it?

[one more captins mast]

They were over the area, full time, if any trucks , were hauling , or

what ever they spooks with long lens know when and where,

and so does Bush , Cheny etal who have the clearence.


Must be they think they can win with this crap out there.

for sure more is known than is being released to date, most likley

it will come when they go to Iran, where the trucks most likley went

$$$$ changed hands and the gates were left open while we

got rid of so/I'm/insane, his Gen's were getting rich and getting out of

dodge.
_________________
the strange mr aj

[drjohn]

The truth is no one really knows for sure.

The last visit by the IAEA was on 25 Jan 2003 when they presumably baselined the materials present.

No one checked on the explosives inventory after that.

It is my opinion that Al Baradei is to blame for this - the disappearance of the materials happened likely on HIS watch- before the US troops arrived.

[drjohn]

Remember what I said last night- that these "missing" explosives were considered "dual use" and it is the IAEA that allowed Saddam to keep them.

Case closed.

[Anker-Klanker]

What missing explosives? I'm serious, is it the word of only one man, and that one with a grudge, who is asserting that explosives are missing?

I've searched and searched and cannot find any alternative source for this information. It may be true that some explosives are missing, but the fundamental fact of this whole story is going unchecked as far as I can determine.

[rparrott21]

Why is Rather still working..

[drjohn]

[Me#1You#10]

Moving to Geedunk shortly.

Thanks

[Anker-Klanker]

Yes, I'm very aware of what El-Baradei's letter asserts/alleges. What I was questioning is whether there has been any independent verification of the facts he asserts, particularly about the quantity of explosives.

But if the information in the following new thread:

http://www2.swiftvets.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=14787

is correct, then it seems that the whole premise behind the story is moot, and that all of this story is a complete fabrication.