Missing explosives?
Posted by Peter W. Schramm
Washington Post editorial raises some good questions (some raised by Cliff May and others yesterday) about the weapons cache story. Bill Gertz thinks the Russians might have been involved. Could this be true?
9:33 AM / October 28, 2004
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Uh, while we fall all over ourselves making cover arguments, let’s just start by acknowledging the record:
This was how it was being reported back when it was actually happening. Bear in mind that both HMX and RDX are white, crystalline powders:
"Closer to Baghdad, troops at Iraq’s largest military industrial complex found nerve agent antidotes, documents describing chemical warfare and a white powder that appeared to be used for explosives.
Col. John Peabody, engineer brigade commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, said troops found thousands of 2-by-5-inch boxes, each containing three vials of white powder....
Initial reports suggest the powder is an explosive, but tests are still being done, a senior U.S. official said"
FoxNews (04.04.03)
"In the first of yesterday’s discoveries, the 3rd Infantry Division entered the vast Qa Qaa chemical and explosives production plant and came across thousands of vials of white powder, packed three to a box."
Gulf News (04.06.03)
"Closer to Baghdad, troops at Iraq’s largest military industrial complex found nerve agent antidotes, documents describing chemical warfare and a white powder that appeared to be used for explosives.
Col. John Peabody, engineer brigade commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, said troops found thousands of five-centimetre by 12-centimetre boxes, each containing three vials of white powder, together with documents written in Arabic that dealt with how to engage in chemical warfare.
A senior U.S. official familiar with initial testing said the powder was believed to be explosives. The finding would be consistent with the plant’s stated production capabilities in the field of basic raw materials for explosives and propellants."
GlobalSecurity.org (04.05.03)