Huge cache of explosives missing from Iraq
The New York Times reports that the American military lost 380 tons of high explosives in Iraq. These ultra-high yield materials can be used to demolish buildings, bring down commercial airliners, and explode car bombs. [Permalink] As Matt Yglesias points out, these explosives can also be used to detonate nuclear weapons.
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 24 - The Iraqi interim government has warned the United States and international nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives - used to demolish buildings, make missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons - are missing from one of Iraq's most sensitive former military installations.
The huge facility, called Al Qaqaa, was supposed to be under American military control but is now a no man's land, still picked over by looters as recently as Sunday. United Nations weapons inspectors had monitored the explosives for many years, but White House and Pentagon officials acknowledge that the explosives vanished sometime after the American-led invasion last year. [...] [Emphasis added.]
As Josh Marshall notes, the dump may have been picked over "as recently as last weekend," but the material has been missing for 18 months. The Iraqis only recently told the International Atomic Energy Agency. We know that the Americans have known about the situation for at least 6 months but pressured the Iraqis not to inform the IAEA.
Read Joe Lockheart's statement on the Al Qaqaa explosives crisis. [Via Atrios]
Here is what we did with that one.
Posted by: Doug Robinson | October 27, 2004 at 10:50 AM