Now, about roughly 140 tons of the stuff, ie all the RDX:
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. I first started posting this 10.27 with little or no response, probably because I did not include links and noone could find the story - I stumbled across it by accident and had trouble finding it again, so I've added the links and how to find it on Google. Is that better?
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10.25.2004 ?RDX never at alQQ? And never sealed?
. text http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2004/s1227830.htm
. audio Real player http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200410/r34182_85029.ram
. audio WIndows player http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200410/r34182_85034.asx
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IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming interview on ABC (Australia) - "IAEA inspectors visited Al-Mahaweel on Jan. 15, 2003, and verified the RDX inventory by weighing sampling," Fleming said. She said the RDX at Al-Mahaweel was NOT UNDER SEAL [emphasis added - JSA] but was subject to IAEA monitoring."
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Al-Mahaweel?
"The bulk of the RDX was stored at ANOTHER SITE that was under Al Qaqaa's jurisdiction," IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said.
She says that the report seen by ABC only covers the Al Qaqaa site itself.
The second site, Al Mahaweel, is roughly 45 kilometres from Al Qaqaa.
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Well, so much for about 140 of the 372 tons? Or what?
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10.29.2004 3ID says "I did not see any IAEA seals at any of the locations we went into," Maj. Austin Pearson said.
Search google for "Mahaweel" - http://www.dailyherald.com/news_story.asp?intid=38289156 is the only one in the US to have this?
. But search "Melissa Fleming" and you find the Australian ABC entry.
. What KSTP video? pics of a seal on the ABC/KSTP are of a "sample" seal, not from the video! http://instapundit.com/archives/018748.php
. and from "r-dubya" comment at the Captain's place "The close up picture from KSTP is a cropped photo that is available at the IAEA site. http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/News/2002/31012002_news01.shtml It is not a close up of the seal that the news crew may have viewed at whatever bunker they had filmed.
. Another paper has done the story! http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031778817576 but thinks it was the 28th: guys, it was the 25th!
. OK, the video is available, my bad - http://kstp.dayport.com/viewer/viewerpage.php?Art_ID=159669 but at least one thing said raises a warning flag, the claim that the 3ID did not search alQQ between the 3rd and the 13th: funny, at the time (the 4th for CBS, the 6th for NYT), it was reported that the 3ID did search, finding explosives and documents.

Some say well it was moved before we got here. That is great so how do you know it was moved and where did it go? When did it move?

Some now say we destroyed some of something. How much of what and where did it come from? Who destroyed it and by what means? When was it destroyed?

And some say that it was there it was a lot and we did not guard it well enough so it is gone. Again How much? Who guarded it? Where did it go? When did it go?

At the end of the day the real problem is that we don’t know and we should know the President should know the answer to all theses questions. The Failure is that he does not know and almost a week has passed and he still does not know. Where is the paper work? Where are the orders? Where are the pictures that are consistent? Inspector’s photo gallery: Here we are In front of the stuff? Here are the documents that tell us what the stuff is. He I am locking it away and putting my magic seal on it. Here is the US army arriving on seen. Here is us cutting the seal. Here is a close up of the seal so you can see it is the same number. Here is the inventory of what we found and what was done with it.

In a world where it takes three pages to tell the government how much money they took out of our taxes and how much they owe me back. And Legal briefs about absentee ballots that look more like novels from Opera’s book of the month club. You would think there would be a better paper trail.

So who’s fault is all this well I say it is old Georges fault. Even if the people under him did the screw up at the end of the day not matter what he or anybody else says the buck does stop at his desk.

The onus is not on our Government to prove the stuff was not there. If claims of incompetence are to be made, the responsibility lies with the IAEA to account for what was actually there, and when it came up missing. They don't seem to be able to do so.

Too bad the dems and John Kerry had to try tarnishing our troops before they knew the answers. He is doing everything he can to shoot himself in the foot before next Tuesday. I suppose its lucky for him that there are only a few days left for him to put his foot in his mouth.

A comic one asked 'who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?'.

Who do you believe James, the eyewitnessess with video proof that the explosives were there on April 19, or someone with a spin more comforting to your faith in GWBush?

Your question of why this is just coming out now, a week before the election is simple. Iraq and the IAEA just this month officially declared that explosives were missing. But since for the last eighteen months we know that many more tons and tons of munition depots had been looted a better question is why the incompetence of the Bush adminstration was not being reported until just now.

Bush failed us all and our troops in two ways. He never ordered this particular depot guarded or destroyed, yet the IAEA repeatedly warned him about its dangerous contents. Second he had too few soldiers on the ground to do the job right militarily, ie guard or destroy all enemy munitions before they fall into the wrong hands, and for political reasons he refused to correct his error.

This stuff is NOT DENSE, like say... LEAD.

It's a powder, most often.

Powders are LIGHTWEIGHT.

377 TONS would fill 40 trucks.

I unloaded trucks for a few years (after school, while in highschool, and one summer in college).

I did not see 40 truckloads of containers in the video.

REPEAT: I did not see 40 trucks-worth of containers on the video.

EVEN IF IT IS 377 tons, that's only 1/10 of 1% of what we've destroyed in Iraq - so far.

If it was JUST 3 tons, then it's only...

one one-thousandth . . . 1/1000.

This fact alone makes the entire story/"scandal ABSURD! At least according to Anthony Cordesman in today's WaPo - and he's the longtime ABC TV military analyst (a non-partisan guy).

The NYTimes editors and reporters aren't dumb - they can do math -- THEY KNOW THE AMOUNT IS relatively MINISCULE. They KNOW THIS, and yet still went forward with the story ---- which proves taht they know they are writing a SLANTED/DISTORTED MISLEADING HIT PIECE for Kerry.

Carrying Kerry's water the way Kerry carried water for ther Vietcong.