Still, while these may be adequate to permit entry and exit of humans, they’re unlikely to be the sort of openings one can drive a forklift through. With 300+tons, somebody’s bound to be driving the lift.
One could suppose the same way that other sensitive sites with nuclear weapons related materials were looted literally to their concrete foundations (walls and everything gone).
Possibly the road wasn’t covered by US air and ground troops enough to prevent this from happening.
Thanks Squink (and SimonX). Those are fascinating. It only takes a minute to locate which bunker the trucks are in front of, in relation to where the explosives are in that same area (right behind). What a load of crock Pentagon!! Fox has no shame. Next we’ll be seeing crudely-drawn stick figures carrying perspective boxes disappearing down a hole in the ground. Hey, it worked for Colin.
If this weren’t so deadly serious, it’d be highly amusing.
Though, midgets, slime of neocons…haha! Good ones el and jayjay
You know, the 380 tons of HMX or whatever is a little beside the point. This was, according to many of the cites contained in this thread, one of the most significant weapons production and storage site in the entire country of Iraq. Besides the HMX, it clearly contained other deadly weapons, probably RPGs, ammunition, artilary shells, all of the stuff you normally find at significant weapons production and storage areas. It was well known to contain TONS of HIGH EXPLOSIVES. TONS!!! It was not, ever, secured. NOT SECURED. Looting was happening at the site within the LAST MONTH. I don’t care if the looters were taking firecrackers and wrist rockets – the fact that there was any looting at all is a humiliating disgrace. There should have been a specific group detailed to be in charge of that facility. They should have been told what was there. They should have been trained in advance for that particular job. And NO ONE should have been allowed to GET WITHIN A MILE of the place.
I have the same sick feeling in my stomach that I got when the Abu Garahib story came to light. My god, what the hell is going on over there? Who is running this show?!
Yep, you’re right. Good CYA Pentagon! And Fox ran with it snort.
If it gets the public to look up from their dinners… I agree with everything you say, but personally, I think the 100,000+ innocent Iraqi dead is much more of a humiliating disgrace.
It remains to be shown that the road to Al Qaqaa was truly “covered by US air and ground troops.” To quote from the embedded news reporters who were there on 4/18/2003,
Interesting angle. Maybe not a coordinated effort involving big honking 18-wheelers. Maybe just a bunch of guys with pickup trucks. First time they find it, they fill up thier trucks and run sell it to somebody. They come back and are no doubt amazed to find it still not guarded, but hey, go for it! They call up thier cousins and thier brother in law, anybody whos got a truck, come and get it! Free money! Entrepreneurship!
Beauty part is: don’t even need to fight over it. Plenty for everybody!
But I can’t help thinking of a Kelly’s Heroes take on this: white guys in trucks that either are US trucks or look like US trucks, who’s gonna stop them and ask them questions? I mean, if they weren’t concerned enough to guard the place, they aren’t going to be pulling people over to find out if they got what they don’t know is missing.
Or maybe not even US Army trucks, disguised or otherwise. What kind of trucks do the logistical contractors drive? Commerical trucks, yes? With nothing more than corporate logos painted on the side to attest to their bona fides. Trucks with corporate markings that identify them as contractors wouldn’t be stopped or even noticed.
"All we’re saying is this is two big trucks in front of a bunker."
Of course, that’s utter bullshit. If Rumsfeld were doing anything other than attempting to confuse the issue of when the material dissapeared, he’d have taken the time to have his image analysts vet the image vs maps and known facts in the same way that Global Security did. If I were in one of the government’s image analysis groups, I’d be highly pissed that the secretary of defence did such a sloppy job of checking his ‘intelligence information’ that the story only held up to a few hours of scrutiny.
Interesting. I note it is ex-generals, not serving generals but even so. I do want to be the first to thank them for the outstanding job they did honing Iraq’s army into the killing machine it proved to be. They couldn’t have done better if they were saboteurs.
None of this contradicts the evidence posted that the explosives were there after the USA won.
Look, don’t rush to conclusions. I’ve carefully re-read this thread and note that no-one has proven that teleporter armed aliens, allied to Bin Laden, the Chinese and survivors from the lost city of Atlantis weren’t responsible.
Ab-so-friggin’-lutely. This is the bottom line. There is simply no excuse whatsoever for not having seized and kept hold of this strategic facility from the very off.
I blame totally Bush for his complacent swallowing of the Iranian agent Chalabi’s liberation bullshit, Rumsfeld for the totally inadequate planning and troop numbers and Cheney for being the real man in charge.
No, you’re totally right. It must have been the other bunkers filled with tons of those other explosives under those other IAEA seals within a klick or two of the al Qaqaa area. And that David Kay, the guy who confirmed that this was the HMX in question in an interview on ABC (“With this one, I think it is game, set, and match. There was HMX, RDX in there.”), must be some other guy, who’s also called David Kay, right? Because he couldn’t be this guy:
It’s a QED. The three things you asked us to prove have been proven beyond any reasonable doubt. Take it like a man.
Abu Ghraib? Wazzat? (rifles through memory file…ahhh, That Abu Ghraib … that’s all taken care of … buncha yahoo cowboy enlisted types - charged, whatever. No worries)
Seriously? Is it possible that this “little oops” might stay in the collective memory of the American voter for…oh…say…4-5 days? :dubious:
This is absolutely unbelieveable. The KSTP video is the smoking gun with fingerprints and DNA all over it. How will Bush and his apolgists explain this one away? The jugular is exposed for Kerry, all he need do is sink his teeth in for all its worth.
You don’t need to be an officer to know that this is ineptitude of the highest degree. You don’t seize ammo dumps (and we have video proof that they were known to be full) and then leave them unguarded among the unfriendly locals. As Harry Truman said, the Buck Stops Here on the president’s desk. Bush would like you to believe that the buck starts there and that he has never made a mistake, but now we all know better. Our troops are in danger from explosives that George Bush failed to secure. There simply is no excuse.
This actually makes pretty good sense. Haliburton had the motive (profit), means (lotsa’ trucks and other equipment) and opportunity to swipe the explosives. It’s a better explanation than a disorganized bunch of looters spiriting 386 tons away in the middle of the night.
Oh, I have no problem with that, what chaps my ass are those who give approval to one person evading service, but condemning another for evading service, based soley on that person’s political persuasion.
Let me name the Great Bogeyman that you’re hinting at here. Clinton. There is a substantive difference between what Clinton did and what Bush did. Clinton went through all legal channels to avoid the draft, because he was opposed to the war overall. Bush got Poppy to get him into a rich-sons unit because he didn’t want to go to war himself, and then pretty much avoided actually serving even in that privileged unit, while cheerleading the war at the same time.
In other words, one didn’t want anyone to die in Vietnam. And one was fine with people dying in Vietnam as long as it wasn’t him.