WAR: US Soldiers watched explosives being looted

For the first time, there are eye witness accounts of explosives being looted from the the ammunition site in Al-Qaqaa, Iraq. Soldiers who were guarding the site have told the LA Times that there were about 1 dozen troops assigned to guard the explosives, but were helpless to stop all the looting. Requests for assistance went unanswered.



Finally the truth about what happenned in Al Qaqaa is coming out. Will Bush finally admit that they screwed up and take the blame for this fiasco? My assumption is that now that he has secured another 4 years, this will be widely ignored by Bush, Rummy, etc.

[edited to fix the link]

[edit on 4-11-2004 by sensfan]

IS this FINALLY the truth? This story has changed so many times that I've given up on trying to find the "truth". I wouldn't get too happy just yet, in a week there will be yet another explanation.

Could be, but I'd take the word of some soldiers who said they were there over all the different stories that the Bush administration has been coming up with.

I just read all the information in the link you provided, nothing in that link even remotely mentions anything at all about what you quote in your post sensfan... There is no mention of the AL Qaqaa explosives in that link.

[edit on 4-11-2004 by Muaddib]

Nor me, i cant see anything relating to the link.

Perhaps the page has changed since the link was posted, as it seems to go to the world news.

Im sure its there somewhere, still checking right now.

I did not find any links to the explosives either, but I have to tell you I kind of sad after reading the link of how bad things are in Iraq, and it strikes me that we are not 85% of the fighting force in that country, our troops are indeed overwhelm and worn out with the burden of this war.

Here's a CNN link on the looting:

CNN
The soldiers said they could not confirm that looters took the particularly powerful explosives known as HMX and RDX. One soldier, however, said U.S. forces saw looters load trucks with bags marked "hexamine," which is a key ingredient for HMX.

One senior noncommissioned officer said troops "were running from one side of the compound to the other side, trying to kick people out" and that at least 100 vehicles were at the site waiting for the military to leave so that they could loot the munitions...

...Four soldiers who are members of the Germany-based 317th Support Center and the 258th Rear Area Operations Center, an Arizona-based Army National Guard unit, said the looting happened over several weeks in late April and early May 2003.

I guess he had more than one article open and pasted the wrong link.

Here you go:

cnews.canoe.ca...

I had heard this this morning on the radio as I was driving to work.

Thanks Valhall

just found it myself and was about to post the link.lol

Well thanks for the links Valhall and Ace,

I guess with all the looting at that time the explosive just slipped out of site.

I hope they are not the ones been used against our soldier now, I keep reading about soldiers being caught on bombings all the time.

I wonder how hard for families not been able to give a last look to a love one from Iraq do to the tragic way in which they die.

Sad very sad, every time a soldier is kill all I can think is could be my son or my daughter, do to the age range.
.

Sorry about that everyone. Either they changed the link or I did post the wrong one. Thanks Valhall for finding the right one. I've fixed the origional post to point to the correct story.

This is also now being reported on CNN

edition.cnn.com...



[edit on 4-11-2004 by sensfan]

Reading the articles, according to L.A. Times the soldiers indentity were kept secret... why would their identity be secret if soldiers have come forward and their names have been given in issues such as the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and other scandals?

It seems every other news source copied this from the L.A. Times. If there were only a dozen soldiers guarding the explosives it wouldn't be hard to find what group leaked the information, so "keeping their identity a secret" would not stop the Armed Forces from finding who these people were.

My belief is that the L.A. Times just made up this story, all the other news agencies decided to also cover this even thou their info came only from the L.A. Times supposed interview.

Yep, yet another unsubstantiated story from undisclosed witnesses. Rather like every time US / Iraqi forces make a strike in Fallujah they manage to kill only women and children, according to unnamed "hospital officials".

This combined with the laziness and sensationalism that seems to be prevalent in the mainstream media these days, it's no wonder the terrorists are winning the propaganda war.


[edit on 5-11-2004 by mattpryor]