The NY Times is breaking a story that reveals that the U.S. let looters get their hands on 380(!) tons of extremely powerful explosives. These are some of the same explosives that have been killing our troops and innocent Iraqis all these months. These explosives were under lock and key before the war by the International community, and the IAEA knew where they were, what they were, and even warned the U.S. government about the need to protect them. We did nothing to protect this stockpile from the looters. It is just one more example of the gross incompetence of this administration, and it is costing us even more lives.
Here is an excerpt from the piece just to get you started:
"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, produce 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 after the American invasion last year.
"The White House said President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, was informed within the past month that the explosives were missing. It is unclear whether President Bush was informed. American officials have never publicly announced the disappearance, but beginning last week they answered questions about it posed by The New York Times and the CBS News program '60 Minutes.'"