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October 28, 2004
Bush | "[KSTP] video may be linked to missing explosives in Iraq"

From Minneapolis/St. Paul TV station KSTP:

A 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS crew in Iraq shortly after the fall of Saddam Hussein was in the area where tons of explosives disappeared, and may have videotaped some of those weapons…

Using GPS technology and talking with members of the 101st Airborne Division, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has determined the crew embedded with the troops may have been on the southern edge of the Al Qaqaa installation, where the ammunition disappeared. The news crew was based just south of Al Qaqaa, and drove two or three miles north of there with soldiers on April 18, 2003.

During that trip, members of the 101st Airborne Division showed the 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS news crew bunker after bunker of material labelled “explosives.” Usually it took just the snap of a bolt cutter to get into the bunkers and see the material identified by the 101st as detonation cords…

There were what appeared to be fuses for bombs. They also found bags of material men from the 101st couldn’t identify, but box after box was clearly marked “explosive.”

In one bunker, there were boxes marked with the name “Al Qaqaa”, the munitions plant where tons of explosives allegedly went missing.

Once the doors to the bunkers were opened, they weren’t secured. They were left open when the 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS crew and the military went back to their base.

“We weren’t quite sure what were looking at, but we saw so much of it and it didn’t appear that this was being secured in any way,” said photojournalist Joe Caffrey. “It was several miles away from where military people were staying in their tents”.

Officers with the 101st Airborne told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that the bunkers were within the U.S. military perimeter and protected. But Caffrey and former 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS Reporter Dean Staley, who spent three months together in Iraq, said Iraqis were coming and going freely.

“At one point there was a group of Iraqis driving around in a pick-up truck,” Staley said. “Three or four guys we kept an eye on, worried they might come near us…”



Posted by Lonewacko at October 28, 2004 01:00 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Well, let’s see the footage.

Posted by: No Party [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 28, 2004 03:02 PM

The pictures are there at the site. http://kstp.com/article/stories/S3723.html?cat=1

Posted by: James [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 28, 2004 03:40 PM

The correct military designator is Charlie Foxtrot.

Posted by: Don [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 28, 2004 08:03 PM

Not trying to break either way on this issue, but… how do the seals the UN claimed to put on the stuff fit in to this?

And yes, people keep flashing “RDX” and “HDX” so much, I’m willing to believe there are other explosives in that joint which, for whatever reason, the UN deemed less important. Won’t take long for them to become important if I’m right, and these aren’t they, though.

Posted by: TBox [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 28, 2004 11:40 PM

Well…..and filmed it, too? Let’s see where the buck stops on this one; I suspect it won’t be at the top (considering the administration has already tried to blame the Russians for stealing it, who left Iraq in 1991!) with the CiC, but somewhere lower down the chain of command….

Posted by: Jatsby [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 29, 2004 12:14 AM

the Russians for stealing it, who left Iraq in 1991

Hummm.. so those weren’t Russians that went into Iraq to meet with Saddam on the eve of the invasion? And those weren’t Russians that were in that convoy to Syria in the early days of the invasion? And those weren’t Russians out there in Western Iraq helping the Saddam RG with the radar jammers while we were bombing Baghdad?

Posted by: RL [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 31, 2004 07:02 PM

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