380 Tons of Reasons
Feel safer? With your Bible-thumping pseudo-tough guy, riding
tall, resolute, staying the course, God-appointed leader? And yes,
the primary foundations of the Bush cartel's fortunes are defense
and oil. Don't pretend you're an idiot.From the Ny TimesThe 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 Saturday. 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 [...]American weapons experts say their immediate concern is that the
explosives could be used in major bombing attacks against
American or Iraqi forces: the explosives, mainly HMX and RDX,
could be used to produce bombs strong enough to shatter
airplanes or tear apart buildings. The bomb that brought down Pan
Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 used less than a
pound of the material of the type stolen from Al Qaqaa, and
somewhat larger amounts were apparently used in the bombing of
a housing complex in November 2003 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and
the blasts in a Moscow apartment complex in September 1999 that
killed nearly 300 people.The explosives could also be used to trigger a nuclear weapon,
which was why international nuclear inspectors had kept a watch
on the material. But the other components of an atom bomb - the
design and the radioactive fuel - are more difficult to obtain. "This
is a high explosives risk, but not necessarily a proliferation risk,"
one senior Bush administration official said.The International Atomic Energy Agency publicly warned about the
danger of these explosives before the war, and after the invasion it
specifically told United States officials about the need to keep the
explosives secured, European diplomats said in interviews last
week.
B
Baerwald
(view)
Feel safer? With your Bible-thumping pseudo-tough guy, riding
tall, resolute, staying the course, God-appointed leader? And yes,
the primary foundations of the Bush cartel's fortunes are defense
and oil. Don't pretend you're an idiot.From the Ny TimesThe 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 Saturday. 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 [...]American weapons experts say their immediate concern is that the
explosives could be used in major bombing attacks against
American or Iraqi forces: the explosives, mainly HMX and RDX,
could be used to produce bombs strong enough to shatter
airplanes or tear apart buildings. The bomb that brought down Pan
Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 used less than a
pound of the material of the type stolen from Al Qaqaa, and
somewhat larger amounts were apparently used in the bombing of
a housing complex in November 2003 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and
the blasts in a Moscow apartment complex in September 1999 that
killed nearly 300 people.The explosives could also be used to trigger a nuclear weapon,
which was why international nuclear inspectors had kept a watch
on the material. But the other components of an atom bomb - the
design and the radioactive fuel - are more difficult to obtain. "This
is a high explosives risk, but not necessarily a proliferation risk,"
one senior Bush administration official said.The International Atomic Energy Agency publicly warned about the
danger of these explosives before the war, and after the invasion it
specifically told United States officials about the need to keep the
explosives secured, European diplomats said in interviews last
week.
