PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Video of Al Qaqaa Explosives
by Washington Dispatch Thursday, Oct. 28, 2004 at 10:21 AM

''The video, shot by embedded reporters on April 18th, nine days after the fall of Baghdad, showed massive quantities of various explosives.''

alqaqaabox.jpg, image/jpeg, 200x150

Local News Station Releases Video of Possible Missing Explosives

A Minneapolis ABC affiliate, KSTP Channel 5, may have provided definitive proof to end the speculation as to when the 380 tons of high explosives (HE) disappeared from an al-Qaqaa storage depot within Iraq.

The video, shot by embedded reporters on April 18th, nine days after the fall of Baghdad, showed massive quantities of various explosives. The crew reports that they were on the southern border of al-Qaqaa when the footage was taken and recorded 'bunker after bunker' that were opened with bolt-cutters and left unsecured, yet filled with explosives. Many of the boxes marked as 'explosive' were also labeled with the words 'al-Qaqaa State Establishment.'

The Bush administration contends that the explosives may have disappeared before the start of the war, thereby lifting the burden of responsibility off of the president. The Iraqi Interim Government argues that they were looted sometime after April 9th.

The footage and reports by the Channel 5 News crew supports the Iraqi government's claim as they state that Iraqi's were 'coming and going' and the site and bunkers were left unsecured.

The Washington Times went so far as to claim that the explosives were taken by Russian forces. They based their report on the words of a controversial pentagon official.

The video is clear and the explosives shown on the film are being verified by experts in Washington, D.C. to see if they are the specific HMX and RDX explosives that the IAEA claims are now missing.

kstp.dayport.com/article/view/159660/

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