Tons of Explosives Missing in Iraq

But Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said coalition forces were present in the vicinity of the site both during and after major combat operations, which ended May 1, 2003 ?- and searched the facility but found none of the explosives material in question. That raised the possibility that the explosives had disappeared before U.S. soldiers could secure the site in the immediate invasion aftermath.

From the end of the 1991 Gulf War until the March 2003 U.S. invasion, the explosives had been under seal by the International Atomic Energy Agency because they could have been used to trigger nuclear weapons under Saddam's dormant bomb program.

The material might have fallen into the hands of insurgents, who've killed hundreds of coalition soldiers and civilians with roadside mines and car bombs since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

0 Minutes Correspondent Ed Bradley reports the U.N. says it warned the U.S. government the munitions site might be looted shortly after the invasion.

However, Al Atheer lacked the capability to synthesize or fabricate high-explosive components. The components were produced at the enormous Al Qa Qaa ammunition plant, which was located nearby. Inspectors had many clues pointing to Al Qa Qaa's involvement in the weapon program early on, but the Iraqis successfully stonewalled attempts to link it to the nuclear program. Only after Kamel defected did Iraq admit its high-explosive work at Al Qa Qaa.
http://www.bullatomsci.org/issues/1995/nd95/nd95.albright.html

Iraqi officials said the inspectors also revisited a large nuclear complex Sunday. The site, al-Qa'qaa, drew inspectors Saturday and last week, and had been under U.N. scrutiny in the 1990s. Al-Qa'qaa, just south of Baghdad, was involved in working on the final design for a nuclear bomb.
http://www.turkishdailynews.com/old_editions/12_16_02/for2.htm#f21

At Tuwaitha, a team continued to take a physical inventory of nuclear materials from Iraq''s past nuclear programme. This work should be completed by the end of Thursday.
A team investigated an outlying site of the Al Qa Qaa explosives plant. (The main Al Qa Qaa complex was inspected on Monday.) The outlying site, called Sumood-4, is near the city of Mussayib and was associated with a past program. Sumood-4 is co-located with the Sadda Cement Factory. The cement plant was also inspected for dual-use capabilities. The same team inspected the Al Furat State Company for Chemical Industries in Mussayib. The Al Furat plant is a large chemical production site that produces large quantities of industrial chemicals, as well as some food items.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0212/S00077.htm

In addition, an UNMOVIC chemical team inspected two facilities within the Al Qa Qaa complex: a high concentrated (oleum) sulpheric acid plant and the main storage area. ""Equipment and chemicals present at both sites were verified,"" Mr. Ueki said, reporting that ""the inspection went smoothly.""
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0212/S00088.htm

http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/thisweek/2003_1_24_womd.html
http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/thisweek/2003_1_23_womd.html

•• a nuclear team went to Hoptain Company, and Al Qa'qaa Company -- a large complex housing several sites about 40 kilometers south of Baghdad;
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/01/15/sproject.irq.inspections/

Chemical weapons inspectors also were believed to be headed to Qa Qaa.
Previously, Iraq's nuclear program used the site for the production of high-explosive lenses, detonators and propellants for nuclear weapons.
Teams have gone to the complex at al Qa Qaa more than a dozen times, including several consecutive days since last week. Tuesday's visit was from a chemical inspection team.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/01/22/sprj.irq.inspectors/

http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/newswires/2003_3_19.html#3

•• A missile team visited Al Qaa'qa site south of Baghdad in Yousefiya that had been used by Iraq's nuclear program for the production of high explosive lenses, detonators and propellants for nuclear weapons, according to a dossier of weapons of mass destruction facilities released by the British government last year.
The site belongs to the Iraqi Military Industrialization Commission.
The British dossier, released in September, alleged that parts of a phosgene production plant at al Qaa'qa had been rebuilt after being dismantled under U.N. supervision in the 1990s. Phosgene, the dossier said, has industrial uses, but "can also be used by itself as a chemical agent or as a precursor for nerve agent."
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/09/sprj.irq.missiles1130/

Fine Dooks, you got me there. But I couldn't find it. You'd think it would be page one stuff, not buried in the politics pages.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. ?- The first U.S. military unit to reach the Al-Qaqaa military installation after the invasion of Iraq did not have orders to search for the nearly 400 tons of explosives that Iraqi officials say were stolen from the site sometime following the fall of Baghdad, the unit spokesman said Tuesday.

When the troops from the 101st Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade arrived at the Al-Qaqaa base a day or so after Baghdad's fall on April 9, 2003, there were already looters throughout the facility, Lt. Col. Fred Wellman, deputy public affairs officer for the unit, told The Associated Press.

The soldiers "secured the area they were in and looked in a limited amount of bunkers to ensure chemical weapons were not present in their area," Wellman wrote in an e-mail message. "Bombs were found but not chemical weapons in that immediate area.

"Orders were not given from higher to search or to secure the facility or to search for HE type munitions, as they (high-explosive weapons) were everywhere in Iraq," he wrote.

His remarks appeared to confirm the observations of an NBC reporter embedded with the army unit who said Tuesday that she saw no signs that the Americans searched for the powerful explosives during their 24 hours at the facility en route to Baghdad, 30 miles to the north.

The disappearance, which the International Atomic Energy Agency reported Monday to the U.N. Security Council, has raised questions about why the United States didn't do more to secure the facility and failed to allow full international inspections to resume after the March 2003 invasion.

On Tuesday, Russia, citing the disappearance, called on the U.N. Security Council to discuss the return of U.N. weapons inspectors to Iraq. But the United States said American inspectors were investigating the loss and that there is no need for U.N. experts to return.

some US media reports have queried if the theft happened before US troops arrived at the base at al-Qaqaa.

NBC television reported that one of its correspondents was embedded with the 101st Airborne Division which temporarily took control of the base on 10 April 2003 but did not find any of the explosives.

However, other US outlets, including NBC's own news website, quoted Pentagon officials who said a search of the site after the US-led invasion had revealed the explosives to be intact.

The explosives had been housed in storage bunkers at the facility. U.N. nuclear inspectors placed a fresh seal over the bunkers in January 2003. The inspectors visited Al-Qaqaa for the last time in March 2003 and reported that the seals were not broken - therefore, the weapons were still there at the time. The team then pulled out of the country in advance of the invasion later that month.

Lt. Gen. William Boykin, the Pentagon's deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence, said that on May 27, 2003, a U.S. military team specifically looking for weapons went to the site but did not find anything with IAEA stickers on it.

The Pentagon would not say whether it had informed the IAEA that the conventional explosives were not where they were supposed to be. Boykin said that the Pentagon was investigating whether the information was handed on to anyone else at the time.