The incredible shrinking explosives looting scandal

More and more like the museum looting

Excerpt:

Iraqi officials may be overstating the amount of explosives reported
to have disappeared from a weapons depot, documents obtained by ABC News
show.

The Iraqi interim government has told the United States and international
weapons inspectors that 377 tons of conventional explosives are missing
from the Al-Qaqaa installation, which was supposed to be under U.S
military control.

But International Atomic Energy Agency documents obtained by ABC News and
first reported on "World News Tonight with Peter Jennings" indicate the
amount of missing explosives may be substantially less than the Iraqis
reported.

The information on which the Iraqi Science Ministry based an Oct. 10
memo in which it reported that 377 tons of RDX explosives were missing -
presumably stolen due to a lack of security - was based on "declaration"
from July 15, 2002. At that time, the Iraqis said there were 141 tons of
RDX explosives at the facility.

But the confidential IAEA documents obtained by ABC News show that on
Jan. 14, 2003, the agency's inspectors recorded that just over three
tons of RDX were stored at the facility - a considerable discrepancy
from what the Iraqis reported.

The IAEA documents could mean that 138 tons of explosives were removed
from the facility long before the United States launched "Operation
Iraqi Freedom" in March 2003.

I say:

It's looking more and more like whatever went missing did so while
we were wasting precious time with the UN Security Council. And rumor
is it all went to Syria, with help from Russian Special Forces.

Also, it's said that CBS planned to come out with this just before the
election for maximum impact, leaving no time to debunk, but the New York
Times jumped the gun.

One thing we know for sure: this scandal is trumped up, just like most
of the others.

Oh, and speaking of weapons caches:

Excerpt:

Littered with burned out Soviet military vehicles, the whole area is
a junk pile strewn with every sort of live ammunition, fuses, unexploded
shells, rockets, etc., all supposedly under the authority of Belgian
troops (at the moment), who ignored it.

In the midst of examining the bunkers and taking photos, a Swedish UN
guy, a French major and a German colonel arrived to make a fuss and
order the Canadians to leave. The French major insisted his government
had a deal with the Afghan government for the area, and ISAF had no
business being there.

This cut little ice with Maj. Hynes, who is responsible -- not to the
commander of Camp Julien, Col. Jim Ellis -- but to the ANA, which has
now moved in to secure the site.

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