Iraq is Awash in Munitions!
Correspondent:: König Prüß, GfbAEV
Date: Mon, 01 Nov 2004 15:46:38 GMT
--------
Iraq is awash in munitions!
And not all of is TNT
Iraq is awash in munitions!
Oh, bring back my C4 to me...
Iraq still awash in munitions
Many thousands of tons are buried, and much has been looted
BY WILLIAM J. KOLE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Monday, November 1, 2004
VIENNA, Austria - From the deserts of the south and west to the
outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq is awash in weapons sites - some large,
others small; some guarded, others not.
Even after the U.S. military secured some 400,000 tons of munitions, as
many as 250,000 tons remain unaccounted for.
Attention has focused on the al-Qaqaa site south of Baghdad, where 377
tons of explosives are believed to have disappeared - becoming an issue
in the U.S. presidential campaign.
But with the names of other sites popping up everywhere - al-Mahaweel,
Baqouba, Ukhaider, Qaim - experts say the al-Qaqaa stash is only a
fraction of what's buried in Iraq.
"There is something truly absurd about focusing on 377 tons," said
Anthony Cordesman, a defense analyst and Iraq expert with the
Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. He con-
tends Iraq's prewar stockpiles "were probably in excess of 650,000
tons."
Underscoring the depth of Iraq's militarization before the March 2003
invasion, the Pentagon says coalition forces have destroyed 240,000 tons
of munitions and have secured an additional 160,000 tons that is
awaiting destruction.
Through mid-September, coalition forces inspected and cleared more than
10,000 caches of weapons, U.S. arms hunter Charles Duelfer said in a
recent report. But up to 250,000 tons remains unaccounted for, according
to military estimates, much of it in small stashes scattered around the
country.
"I caution that there is a lot that we probably don't know about,
because this was a country, as the inspectors acknowledged, that was
awash in weapons," Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said Friday in
Washington.
The 377 tons that Iraq says vanished from Al-Qaqaa sometime after the
April 9, 2003, fall of Baghdad represents just "one 1,000th of the
material that we are aware of," Di Rita said.
The Bush administration has touted the thousands of tons of explosives
it did find after the March 2003 invasion as a sign of success.
Critics, however, say war planners should have committed more troops to
securing sites or let U.N. inspectors back to help.
Among the sites that don't appear to have been secured was a cache of
hundreds of surface-to-surface warheads at the 2nd Military College in
Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Each warhead is believed to have
contained 57 pounds of high explosives.
Peter Bouckaert, who heads the emergency team for New York-based Human
Rights Watch, told The Associated Press he was shown a room "stacked to
the roof" with the warheads on May 9, 2003. He said he gave U.S.
officials in Baghdad the exact GPS coordinates for the site, but that it
was still not secured when he left the area 10 days later.
"Looting was taking place by a lot of armed men with Kalashnikovs and
rocket-propelled grenades," Bouckaert said Saturday in a telephone
interview from South Africa.
On the al-Qaqaa site, Cordesman thinks the Pentagon is taking a bad rap.
U.S. forces' main task when it invaded, he contends, was to advance
swiftly on Baghdad.
"There was little military point in securing this particular site during
a period the U.S. was rushing forward with limited forward-deployed
strength to seize Baghdad before Saddam's forces had any chance to
regroup," he said.
Correspondent:: König Prüß, GfbAEV
Date: Mon, 01 Nov 2004 15:48:14 GMT
--------
Iraq is awash in munitions!
And not all of is TNT
Iraq is awash in munitions!
Oh, bring back my C4 to me...
Iraq still awash in munitions
Many thousands of tons are buried, and much has been looted
BY WILLIAM J. KOLE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Monday, November 1, 2004
VIENNA, Austria - From the deserts of the south and west to the
outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq is awash in weapons sites - some large,
others small; some guarded, others not.
Even after the U.S. military secured some 400,000 tons of munitions, as
many as 250,000 tons remain unaccounted for.
Attention has focused on the al-Qaqaa site south of Baghdad, where 377
tons of explosives are believed to have disappeared - becoming an issue
in the U.S. presidential campaign.
But with the names of other sites popping up everywhere - al-Mahaweel,
Baqouba, Ukhaider, Qaim - experts say the al-Qaqaa stash is only a
fraction of what's buried in Iraq.
"There is something truly absurd about focusing on 377 tons," said
Anthony Cordesman, a defense analyst and Iraq expert with the
Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. He con-
tends Iraq's prewar stockpiles "were probably in excess of 650,000
tons."
Underscoring the depth of Iraq's militarization before the March 2003
invasion, the Pentagon says coalition forces have destroyed 240,000 tons
of munitions and have secured an additional 160,000 tons that is
awaiting destruction.
Through mid-September, coalition forces inspected and cleared more than
10,000 caches of weapons, U.S. arms hunter Charles Duelfer said in a
recent report. But up to 250,000 tons remains unaccounted for, according
to military estimates, much of it in small stashes scattered around the
country.
"I caution that there is a lot that we probably don't know about,
because this was a country, as the inspectors acknowledged, that was
awash in weapons," Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said Friday in
Washington.
The 377 tons that Iraq says vanished from Al-Qaqaa sometime after the
April 9, 2003, fall of Baghdad represents just "one 1,000th of the
material that we are aware of," Di Rita said.
The Bush administration has touted the thousands of tons of explosives
it did find after the March 2003 invasion as a sign of success.
Critics, however, say war planners should have committed more troops to
securing sites or let U.N. inspectors back to help.
Among the sites that don't appear to have been secured was a cache of
hundreds of surface-to-surface warheads at the 2nd Military College in
Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Each warhead is believed to have
contained 57 pounds of high explosives.
Peter Bouckaert, who heads the emergency team for New York-based Human
Rights Watch, told The Associated Press he was shown a room "stacked to
the roof" with the warheads on May 9, 2003. He said he gave U.S.
officials in Baghdad the exact GPS coordinates for the site, but that it
was still not secured when he left the area 10 days later.
"Looting was taking place by a lot of armed men with Kalashnikovs and
rocket-propelled grenades," Bouckaert said Saturday in a telephone
interview from South Africa.
On the al-Qaqaa site, Cordesman thinks the Pentagon is taking a bad rap.
U.S. forces' main task when it invaded, he contends, was to advance
swiftly on Baghdad.
"There was little military point in securing this particular site during
a period the U.S. was rushing forward with limited forward-deployed
strength to seize Baghdad before Saddam's forces had any chance to
regroup," he said.
Correspondent:: humanoid
Date: Tue, 02 Nov 2004 14:45:04 GMT
--------
On Mon, 01 Nov 2004 15:46:38 +0000, König Prüß, GfbAEV wrote:
> Iraq is awash in munitions!
> And not all of is TNT
> Iraq is awash in munitions!
> Oh, bring back my C4 to me...
>
Munitions ahoy!
I likes it when furriner-type journalists report on small arms ammo caches
with no small amount of terrified awe in their voice. The "big find" is
often numerically inferior to the average weekly sales volume of an
American mail order ammo retailer.
Correspondent:: König Prüß, GfbAEV
Date: Tue, 02 Nov 2004 15:01:47 GMT
--------
humanoid wrote:
> On Mon, 01 Nov 2004 15:46:38 +0000, König Prüß, GfbAEV wrote:
>
> > Iraq is awash in munitions!
> > And not all of is TNT
> > Iraq is awash in munitions!
> > Oh, bring back my C4 to me...
> >
>
> Munitions ahoy!
>
> I likes it when furriner-type journalists report on small arms ammo caches
> with no small amount of terrified awe in their voice. The "big find" is
> often numerically inferior to the average weekly sales volume of an
> American mail order ammo retailer.
Yeah, I sort of think it's like the DEA dope busts that they find a duffle
bag
of weed, and say they made a million dollar dent in the narcotics market.
That's at $100 per joint. But all of that feeds back into better performance
ratings and a bigger budget; so, it's all good. The local arms dealer,
Interarmco,
I think, the average arms deal is about $50m; they got ships coming and going
all the time. It reminds me of the boxes labeled "Farm Equipment"
A quick Google says Interarmco is the largest surplus arms dealer in the
world.
Anyway, they got all kinda junk. When I went to their showroom a while back,
not the warehouse but nextdoor, they had a nice old-timey Rossi double-barrel
shotgun with big hammers, the kind that cock-back with a real satisfying
click.
Correspondent:: HellPope Huey
Date: Tue, 02 Nov 2004 17:23:15 GMT
--------
In article <4187A148.8338570D@ranunculus.org>,
König Prüß, GfbAEV wrote:
> I think, the average arms deal is about $50m; they got ships coming and going
> all the time. It reminds me of the boxes labeled "Farm Equipment"
> A quick Google says Interarmco is the largest surplus arms dealer in the
> world.
> Anyway, they got all kinda junk. When I went to their showroom a while back,
> not the warehouse but nextdoor, they had a nice old-timey Rossi double-barrel
> shotgun with big hammers, the kind that cock-back with a real satisfying
> click.
Now you know what to get Stang for Xistmas.
--
HellPope Huey
Pull my lever, you lush hottie
Doesn't matter who you vote for,
the Goverment gets elected.
- Mr. M. J. Lush
"Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos."
- Homer Simpson
www.georgecarlin.com
Correspondent:: König Prüß, GfbAEV
Date: Tue, 02 Nov 2004 18:43:04 GMT
--------
HellPope Huey wrote:
> In article <4187A148.8338570D@ranunculus.org>,
> König Prüß, GfbAEV wrote:
>
> > I think, the average arms deal is about $50m; they got ships coming and going
> > all the time. It reminds me of the boxes labeled "Farm Equipment"
> > A quick Google says Interarmco is the largest surplus arms dealer in the
> > world.
> > Anyway, they got all kinda junk. When I went to their showroom a while back,
> > not the warehouse but nextdoor, they had a nice old-timey Rossi double-barrel
> > shotgun with big hammers, the kind that cock-back with a real satisfying
> > click.
>
> Now you know what to get Stang for Xistmas.
>
> --
I dunno; I know where to shop, but so many nice toys!