Nearly 380 TONS of RDX,HMX AND PETN missing
from unsecured depot just 30 miles from
Baghdad.
American public found out another
horrifying story from Iraq today. This
wasn't the discovery of bodies or mass
graves--those stories are sadly commonplace.
This story is a very terrifying threat to
the entire free world.
380
tons of high explosives are missing from an
unsecured depot just 30 miles away from
"American Control" center--Baghdad.
The
bitter part of the story? The White House
has said that Condoleezza Rice, Bush's
national security adviser, was informed
within the past month that the explosives
were missing. Anyone see that on Fox? Anyone
hear an announcement that the threat level
has been moved up?
Let's
talk about how serious this really is. Most
civilians are not familiar with Rdx, HMX or
probably never heard of PETN. I don't want
to go into an ordinance brief here so just
look that one up on Google. Believe me--its
bad boogie.
Its the
RDX and the HMX I am concerned about. These
explosives are the prime target of
international terrorists.
Why?
Because they are easily transportable.While
violently energetic when detonated, they are
insensitive to shock and physical abuse
during handling and transport because of
their chemical stability. A hammer blow does
nothing. It takes a detonator, like a
blasting cap, to release the stored energy.
The Iraqi letter dated Oct 10 identified the
vanished stockpile as containing 194.7
metric tons of HMX, which stands for "high
melting point explosive," 141.2 metric tons
of RDX, which stands for "rapid detonation
explosive," among other designations, and
5.8 metric tons of PETN, which stands for "pentaerythritol
tetranitrate." ( that is in the nitro
family) The total is roughly 340 metric tons
or nearly 380 American tons.
Let's
put this in a little closer perspective. The
Pan Am flight 103? The one that was blown up
over Lockerbie, Scotland? That was 1988 and
it was ONLY ONE POUND OF HMX!
It is
not difficult to understand why the Bush
administration didn't list this ammo dump
(Qaqaa facility) as a "find" of WMD. By the
time they understood what it was-the bad
guys were shipping it off in some of those
seaborne freight containers that are not
inspected. Scary? You bet. Especially when
you consider that we could have nipped this
one at the source. In order to destroy this
stockpile, we would have to know about
it--right? Glenn Earhart who is the manager
of an Army engineers program responsible for
finding and destroying Iraqi munitions said
he knew nothing of the Al Qaqaa facility.
Knew
nothing of the facility? It
was not obvious that this was being looted?
Experts say that an average eighteen wheeler
can carry about ten tons of the stuff. That
would mean that it would take 40 truckloads
to move the material from this facility.
Hello?? From this information we discover
that our National Security adviser
Condoleezza Rice AND the guy that is in
charge of controlling this material either
didn't know of it or took no action when
they did. Anyone with the title of "Adviser"
should do exactly that--let the chief know
that the gomers have stolen explosives and
we don't know where it went to?
Is someone asleep at the switch
here? GWB is constantly using the phrase
"not on my watch" in his presentations on
homeland security. Mr. President, this was
on your watch. Not only on your watch but in
this one, you were warned and its more
documented than a film by Michael Moore.
Re:
NYT
|
"The
International Atomic Energy Agency
publicly warned about the danger of
these explosives before the war, and
after the invasion it specifically
told United States officials about
the need to keep the explosives
secured, European diplomats said in
interviews last week. Administration
officials say they cannot explain
why the explosives were not
safeguarded, beyond the fact that
the occupation force was overwhelmed
by the amount of munitions they
found throughout the country." |
As early as 2003
we had satellite surveillance of this depot
and activity. In May2004 Iraqi officials say
they warned Paul Bremer that Al Qaaqa had
been looted On October 10, the Iraqi
Ministry of science informed the I.A.E.A.
that this stockpile had been lost and there
was no account of where or when it had been
looted.
And you wondered where those car bombs that
have been killing American troops
are made? How do they get materials for
them?
Bill
Gast
Today from the Editor's desk
