"Nuclear assets 'vanish' in Iraq"

You know, if we can get more out of this over the next couple of days the Wednesday debate may have to shift focus a bit.

DOUBLE TIME BITCHES/

The latter. The material is bad only in the hands of someone with other materials and knowledge. Saddam didn't have those things, but the material might now be in the hands of someone who does. Like Iran, maybe.

That's what everyone who's voting for him believes anyway. Never over-estimate the intelligence of the American electorate.

i particularly like this bit

Names of US companies or citizens found on the secret Iraqi lists were left out of the report on grounds of the US Privacy Act, the ISG report notes.

This is standard procedure for any US citizens or corporations uncovered in the business of foreign intelligence gathering. It protects you from being investigated or reported on by our government's most powerful and intrusive agencies. It doesn't matter what activities were being monitored. You don't go after US persons without special special permission, and that includes businesses incorporated in the states.

You're welcome.

Mr Omar said he was not aware of any buildings being demolished at Iraq's main nuclear site at Tuwaitha.

But he added that eight buildings there were being rehabilitated as part of a plan to turn the site into a science and technology park for peaceful research.

"As far as I am concerned, the ministry of Science and Technology which controlled the Tuwaitha site, which included the Iraqi nuclear facilities, the location was looted - the buildings, the equipment - immediately after the collapse of the regime," he told the BBC.

"Then afterwards it came under the control of the coalition forces and the area was well-protected until the transition of sovereignty.

"After the transition of sovereignty to us it is under our control and the location is well-protected and there is no looting."

Mr Omar insisted that Iraq would fulfil its responsibilities to the IAEA, and inform it of any equipment being moved.

He invited the agency to come when it wanted to Iraq, promising free access.

Inspectors from the IAEA, who established that Saddam Hussein had abandoned any nuclear weapons programme before the war, have not been allowed to move about Iraq freely by the US.

US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher echoed the IAEA's concerns, saying Washington had no detailed knowledge of what might have disappeared or where it might have gone.

"That's a problem that occurred right after the war that we do think has been brought under control," he said.

I'm sure.

Because I firmly believe that, 100+ degree temperatures notwhithsanding, certain standards must be observed for us to remain civilized, I wear a cutaway coat, waistcoat, and salt and pepper trousers when looting during the day. When looting at a small, intimate facility in the evening, I'll wear a simple dinner jacket and black tie. If, on the other hand, it is a more prestigious facility and other nocturnal looters are bound to be present, I'll wear tails and white tie. Casual looters I simply loathe, the uncouth curs!

If Iraqi looters were responsible, it's now ruined, whatever it was.

The possibility also exists that the material is not of the sensitive or great value the news stories and other organizations insinuate that it is. In view of the way stories having to do with WMDs and the technology of WMDs are shaped by the administration, intelligence agencies and people leaking information under the cover of anonymity, this is also a quite reasonable assumption.

The government and news media have combined, for the war, to effect a kind of "Fu Manchu-ization" of alleged enemies and enemy activity. Every mistake, everything gone missing, every scrap of technology or machinery or whiff of possible security slip-up, is written up and delivered as a grand mythology attributed to the possible workings of the shadowy foe.

For me, this story is a non-starter. The Duelfer report is more interesting reading because any way you spin it, the raw data shows
ZERO. There's an amusing part in it where the Iraq Survey Group examines a castor oil plant and finds...that it was producing castor oil. And that it eventually went out of business because the market
for castor oil in Iraq failed them.

The language of it isn't, for the most part, being translated or retold well in the news reports on it. The ISG really did go out of its way to find something and couldn't. This is clear from the language, which is very tortured in places.

Like I said, for example, about the only people in the world who think castor oil plants are for manufacturing ricin are people in the employ of the administration or in the US intelligence agencies.

One could fairly say that the ISG's work was done when David Kay quit months ago and went outside the administration to say zip had been found. But the labor continued and continued and continued, pretending to be a scientifically and rationally guided effort. Real scientists, when faced with a preponderance of nothing in terms of raw data, know when to quit. So now it exists as a history of Saddam Hussein's thinking on some subjects and the mistakes in perception that dogged him and our government, the latter which everyone has known for a good long time. It's interesting but it doesn't explain what to do with an intelligence service that's wrong in the big things and a pre-emptive strike policy that is triggered on mistakes.

You shouldn't trust your government or your intelligence apparatchiks in these affairs.

The United Nations nuclear watchdog told the Security Council this week that equipment and materials that could be used to make atomic weapons had been vanishing from Iraq without either Baghdad or Washington noticing.

"This process carried on at least through 2003 ... and probably into 2004, at least in early 2004," said a Western diplomat close to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which monitored Iraq's nuclear sites before last year's war.

That contrasted with statements by Western and Iraqi officials, who have played down the disappearance of the equipment. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Tuesday he believed most of the removals took place in the chaos shortly after the March 2003 invasion.

I quote from Chris Nelson's summary ...

Despite pressure from DOD to keep it quiet, the IAEA and the Iraqi Interim Government this month officially reported that 350-tons of dual-use, very high explosives were looted from a previously secure site in the early days of the US occupation in 2003. Administration officials privately admit this material is likely a primary source of the lethal car bomb attacks which cause so many US and Iraqi casualties. In the first presidential candidate debate, on foreign policy, Democratic nominee John Kerry charged that captured munitions and weapons were being turned against Coalition Forces, with US troops suffering 90% of the casualties. But the specifics of the losses from the Al Qa Qaa bunker and building complex, only now being reported, were apparently unknown outside of DOD and the US occupation authorities. The Bush Administration barred the IAEA from any participation in the Iraq invasion and occupation process, and blocked IAEA requests to help in the search for WMD and other dangerous materials. As part of the UN sanctions regime still in place when the US invaded, the IAEA had “under seal” 350 tons of RDX and HDX explosives, since singly, and in combination, these materials can be used in the triggering process for a nuclear weapon. However, the explosives were allowed to remain in Iraq due to their conventional use in construction, oil pipe lines, and the like. Since the explosives went missing last year, sources say DOD and other elements in the Administration sought to block the IAEA from officially reporting the problem, and also tried to stop the new Iraqi Interim Government from cooperating with the IAEA. But finally, on Oct. 10, the Iraqi’s formally notified the IAEA, and on Oct. 15, the IAEA formally notified the Bush Administration. In press guidance prepared for release in the event news got out, but not released until today, when requested by The Nelson Report, State Department spokesmen confirmed the Iraqi government and IAEA report dates, and that 350 tons of dual use high explosives could not be accounted for. State says DOD has now authorized the Iraq Survey Group to investigate the situation, which, by all accounts, took place in April, 2003. The official press guidance claims “no indications of WMD” at the Al Qa Qaa site, but concedes that the IAEA-sealed explosives were already missing at that time. Some sources say that in addition to the explosives, 20,000 RDX-armed rockets were lost, but we cannot confirm this. However, sources do say that parts of Iraqi Scud engines, and other metal components, have turned up in scrap metal yards in Amsterdam.

Oh well. At least I can look forward to hearing Jon Stewart say "Al Qa Qaa."

They didn't fire Rumsfeld for having troops getting caught on video/pictures committing war crimes, so appearantly they could do whatever comes along and it won't matter to BushCo.

I think you mean coño, mang.

Yeah, but not reaching the voters they need. Instead of hammering it as "the Bush admin fucks up again" they need to do a 30-second commercial showing Candy-O acting helpless and unaware .. and tag it with "Is this YOUR idea of fighting terrorism?"

Message needs to be concise and direct. All of the talking head nonsense is wasted effort because only politics enthusiasts watch that shit. Commercials during Oprah is where it needs to be placed.

you could add Lockharts point that Condi is running around campaigning for her boyfriend as well..

Others in the Bush campaign characterized Mr. Kerry's attack as another instance of his willingness to say anything to be elected.

I can't believe that this is the final line the Bush administration has settled on with Kerry. I guess the one thing to look forward to in a second Bush term is just the daily and weekly suspense of what completely insane thing they'll say next.

Next question."

Hi, I'm George Bush. Welcome to the "I Didn't Do It" Administration.

http://kstp.com/article/stories/S3723.html?cat=1

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/atrios/saintrudy.wmv

Also consider the source: Moonie Times

http://kstp.com/article/stories/S3741.html?cat=1

Stick a fork in it and feel the truth!

Aaron Brown: We saw at the top of the program there is new information to factor in. Pretty conclusive to our eye. So we'll sort through this now. Take the politics out of it and try and deal with facts with former head UN weapons inspector, US weapons inspector, David Kay. David, it’s nice to see you.

David Kay: Good to be with you, Aaron.

AB: I don't know how better to do this than to show you some pictures have you explain to me what they are or are not. Okay? First what I’ll just call the seal. And tell me if this is an IAEA seal on that bunker at that munitions dump?

DK: Aaron, about as certain as I can be looking at a picture, not physically holding it which, obviously, I would have preferred to have been there, that is an IAEA seal. I've never seen anything else in Iraq in about 15 years of being in Iraq and around Iraq that was other than an IAEA seal of that shape.

AB: Was there anything else at the facility that would have been under IAEA seal?

DK: Absolutely nothing. It was the HMX, RDX, the two high explosives.

AB: OK now, I’ll take a look at barrels here for a second. You can tell me what they tell you. They, obviously, to us just show us a bunch of barrels. You'll see it somewhat differently.

DK: Well, it's interesting. There were three foreign suppliers to Iraq of this explosive in the 1980s. One of them used barrels like this, and inside the barrels a bag. HMX is in powder form because you actually use it to shape a spherical lens that is used to create the triggering device for nuclear weapons. And particularly on the videotape, which is actually better than the still photos, as the soldier dips into it, that's either HMX or RDX. I don't know of anything else in al Qaqaa that was in that form.

AB: Let me ask you then, David, the question I asked Jamie. In regard to the dispute about whether that stuff was there when the Americans arrived, is it game, set, match? Is that part of the argument now over?

DK: Well, at least with regard to this one bunker, and the film shows one seal, one bunker, one group of soldiers going through, and there were others there that were sealed. With this one, I think it is game, set, and match. There was HMX, RDX in there. The seal was broken. And quite frankly, to me the most frightening thing is not only was the seal broken, lock broken, but the soldiers left after opening it up. I mean, to rephrase the so-called pottery barn rule. If you open an arms bunker, you own it. You have to provide security.

AB: I'm -- that raises a number of questions. Let me throw out one. It suggests that maybe they just didn't know what they had?

DK: I think you're quite likely they didn't know they had HMX, which speaks to lack of intelligence given troops moving through that area, but they certainly knew they had explosives. And to put this in context, I think it's important, this loss of 360 tons, but Iraq is awash with tens of thousands of tons of explosives right now in the hands of insurgents because we did not provide the security when we took over the country.

AB: Could you -- I’m trying to stay out of the realm of politics. I'm not sure you can.

DK: So am I.

AB: I know. It's a little tricky here. But, is there any -- is there any reason not to have anticipated the fact that there would be bunkers like this, explosives like this, and a need to secure them?

DK: Absolutely not. For example, al Qaqaa was a site of Gerald Bull's super gun project. It was a team of mine that discovered the HMX originally in 1991. That was one of the most well-documented explosive sites in all of Iraq. The other 80 or so major ammunition storage points were also well documented. Iraq had, and it's a frightening number, two-thirds of the total conventional explosives that the US has in its entire inventory. The country was an armed camp.

AB: David, as quickly as you can, because this just came up in the last hour, as dangerous as this stuff is, this would not be described as a WMD, correct?

DK: Oh absolutely not.

AB: Thank you.

DK: And, in fact, the loss of it is not a proliferation issue.

AB: Okay. It's just dangerous and its out there and by your thinking it should have been secured.

DK: Well look, it was used to bring the Pan Am flight down. It's a very dangerous explosive, particularly in the hands of terrorists.

AB: David, thank you for walking me through this. I appreciate it, David Kay the former head US weapons inspector in Iraq.

(What WOULD Stuart say about all this?)

Did I ever tell you about the time that the instapundit wrote me an email that began with the word "dude"?

I wrote him an email giving him shit for hyping the Sandy Berger document flap, and he wrote back: "Dude - FOLLOW THE LINKS -- that's where it's sourced." I half-assedly considered starting the "instapunditcalledmedude.com" blog for a while.