Whoops! Iraqi explosives disappear under our guard

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

via the NYT (subscribe to it, cheapskates)

 

Huge Cache of Explosives Vanished From Site in Iraq

 

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 24 - The Iraqi interim government has warned the United States and international nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives - used to demolish buildings, produce missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons - are missing from one of Iraq's most sensitive former military installations.

 

The huge facility, called Al Qaqaa, was supposed to be under American military control but is now a no-man's land, still picked over by looters as recently as Sunday. United Nations weapons inspectors had monitored the explosives for many years, but White House and Pentagon officials acknowledge that the explosives vanished after the American invasion last year.

 

The White House said President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, was informed within the past month that the explosives were missing. It is unclear whether President Bush was informed. American officials have never publicly announced the disappearance, but beginning last week they answered questions about it posed by The New York Times and the CBS News program "60 Minutes."

 

Administration officials said yesterday that the Iraq Survey Group, the C.I.A. task force that searched for unconventional weapons, has been ordered to investigate the disappearance of the explosives.

 

American weapons experts say their immediate concern is that the explosives could be used in major bombing attacks against American or Iraqi forces: the explosives, mainly HMX and RDX, could be used to produce bombs strong enough to shatter airplanes or tear apart buildings. The bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 used less than a pound of the material of the type stolen from Al Qaqaa, and somewhat larger amounts were apparently used in the bombing of a housing complex in November 2003 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and the blasts in a Moscow apartment complex in September 1999 that killed nearly 300 people.

 

The explosives could also be used to trigger a nuclear weapon, which was why international nuclear inspectors had kept a watch on the material, and even sealed and locked some of it. But the other components of an atom bomb - the design and the radioactive fuel - are more difficult to obtain. "This is a high explosives risk, but not necessarily a proliferation risk," one senior Bush administration official said.

 

The International Atomic Energy Agency publicly warned about the danger of these explosives before the war, and after the invasion it specifically told United States officials about the need to keep the explosives secured, European diplomats said in interviews last week. Administration officials say they cannot explain why the explosives were not safeguarded, beyond the fact that the occupation force was overwhelmed by the amount of munitions they found throughout the country.

 

The Qaqaa facility, about 30 miles south of Baghdad, was well known to American intelligence officials: Saddam Hussein made conventional warheads at the site, and the I.A.E.A. dismantled parts of his nuclear program there in the early 1990's after the Persian Gulf war in 1991. In the prelude to the 2003 invasion, Mr. Bush cited a number of other "dual use" items - including tubes that the administration contended could be converted to use for the nuclear program - as a justification for invading Iraq.

 

After the invasion, when widespread looting began in Iraq, the international weapons experts grew concerned that the Qaqaa stockpile could fall into unfriendly hands. In May, an internal I.A.E.A. memorandum warned that terrorists might be helping "themselves to the greatest explosives bonanza in history."

 

In an interview with The Times and CBS in Baghdad, the minister of science and technology, Rashad M. Omar, confirmed the facts described in the letter. "Yes, they are missing," Dr. Omar said. "We don't know what happened." The I.A.E.A. says it also does not know, and has reported that machines tools that can be used for either nuclear or non-nuclear purposes have also been looted.

 

Dr. Omar said that after the American-led invasion, the sites containing the explosives were under the control of the Coalition Provisional Authority, an American-led entity that was the highest civilian authority in Iraq until it handed sovereignty of the country over to the interim government on June 28.

 

"After the collapse of the regime, our liberation, everything was under the coalition forces, under their control," Dr. Omar said. "So probably they can answer this question, what happened to the materials."

 

Officials in Washington said they had no answers to that question. One senior official noted that the Qaqaa complex where the explosives HMX and RDX were stored was listed as a "medium priority" site on the Central Intelligence Agency's list of more than 500 sites that needed to be searched and secured during the invasion. In the chaos that followed the invasion, many of those sites, even some considered a higher priority, were never secured.

 

"Should we have gone there? Definitely," said one senior administration official. "But there are a lot of things we should have done, and didn't."

 

An Arsenal Turned No-Man's Land

 

To see the bunkers that makeup the vast Qaqaa complex today, it is hard to recall that just two years ago it was part of Saddam Hussein's secret military complex. The bunkers are so large that they are reminiscent of pyramids, though with rounded edges and the tops chopped off. Several are blackened and eviscerated as a result of American bombing. Smokestacks rise in the distance.

 

Today, Al Qaqaa has become a no-man's land that is generally avoided even by the Marines in charge of north Babil Province. Headless bodies are found there. An ammunition dump has been looted, and on Sunday an Iraqi employee of The New York Times who made a furtive visit to the site saw looters tearing out metal fixtures. Bare pipes within the darkened interior of one of the buildings were a tangled mess, zigzagging along charred walls. Someone fired a shot, probably to frighten the visitors off.

 

"It's like Mars on Earth," said Maj. Dan Whisnant, an intelligence officer for the Second Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment. "It would take probably 10 battalions 10 years to clear that out."

 

Saddam Hussein's engineers acquired HMX and RDX when they embarked on a crash effort to build an atomic bomb in the late 1980's. It did not go smoothly. In 1989, a huge blast ripped through Al Qaqaa, the boom reportedly heard hundreds of miles away. The explosion, it was later determined, occurred when a stockpile of the high explosives ignited.

 

After the 1991 Persian Gulf war, the United Nations discovered Iraq's clandestine effort and put the I.A.E.A., the United Nations arms agency, in charge of Al Qaqaa's huge stockpile. Weapon inspectors determined that Iraq had bought the explosives from France, China and Yugoslavia, a European diplomat said.

 

None of the explosives were destroyed, arms experts familiar with the decision recalled, because Iraq argued that it should be allowed to keep them for eventual use in mining and civilian construction. But Al Qaqaa was still under the authority of the Military Industrial Council, which was led for a time by Hussein Kamel, Saddam Hussein's son-in-law. He defected to the West, then returned to Iraq and was immediately killed.

 

In 1996, the United Nations hauled away some of the HMX and used it to blow up Al Hakam, a vast Iraqi factory for making germ weapons.

 

The Qaqaa stockpile went unmonitored from late 1998, when United Nations inspectors left Iraq, to late 2002, when they came back. Upon their return, the inspectors discovered that about 35 tons of HMX were missing. The Iraqis said they had used the explosive in civilian programs.

 

The remaining stockpile was no secret. Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the I.A.E.A., frequently talked about it publicly as he investigated, in late 2002 and early 2003, the Bush administration's claims that Iraq was secretly renewing its pursuit of nuclear arms. He ordered his weapons inspectors to conduct an inventory, and publicly reported their findings to the Security Council on Jan. 9, 2003.

 

During the following weeks, the I.A.E.A. repeatedly drew public attention to the explosives. In New York on Feb. 14, nine days after Secretary of State Colin L. Powell presented his arms case to the Security Council, Dr. ElBaradei reported that the I.A.E.A. had found no sign of new atom endeavors but "has continued to investigate the relocation and consumption of the high explosive HMX."

 

An Inspector's Warning

 

A European diplomat reported that Jacques Baute, head of the I.A.E.A.'s Iraq nuclear inspection team, warned officials at the United States mission in Vienna about the danger of the nuclear sites and materials once under I.A.E.A. supervision, including Al Qaqaa.

 

But apparently, little was done. A senior Bush administration official said that during the initial race to Baghdad, American forces "went through the bunkers, but saw no materials bearing the I.A.E.A. seal." It is unclear whether they ever returned.

 

By late 2003, diplomats said, I.A.E.A. experts had obtained commercial satellite photos of Al Qaqaa showing that two of roughly 10 bunkers that contained HMX appeared to have been leveled by titanic blasts, apparently during the war. They presumed some of the HMX had exploded, but that is unclear.

 

Other HMX bunkers were untouched. Some were damaged but not devastated. I.A.E.A. experts say they assume that just before the invasion the Iraqis followed their standard practice of moving crucial explosives out of buildings, so they would not be tempting targets. If so, the experts say, the Iraqi must have broken I.A.E.A. seals on bunker doors and moved most of the HMX to nearby fields, where it would have been lightly camouflaged - and ripe for looting.

 

But the Bush administration would not allow the agency back into the country to verify the status of the stockpile. In May 2004, Iraqi officials say in interviews, they warned L. Paul Bremer III, the American head of the occupation authority, that Al Qaqaa had probably been looted. It is unclear if that warning was passed anywhere. Efforts to reach Mr. Bremer by telephone were unsuccessful. But by that time, the Americans were preoccupied with the transfer of authority to Iraq, and the insurgency was gaining strength. "It's not an excuse," said one senior administration official. "But a lot of things went by the boards."

 

Early this month, Dr. ElBaradei put public pressure on the interim Iraqi government to start the process of accounting for nuclear-related materials still ostensibly under I.A.E.A. supervision, including the Al Qaqaa stockpile.

 

"Iraq is obliged," he wrote to the president of the Security Council on Oct. 1, "to declare semiannually changes that have occurred or are foreseen."

 

The agency, Dr. ElBaradei added pointedly, "has received no such notifications or declarations from any state since the agency's inspectors were withdrawn from Iraq in March 2003."

 

Two weeks ago, on Oct. 10, Dr. Mohammed J. Abbas of the Iraqi Ministry of Science and Technology wrote a letter to the I.A.E.A. to say that the Qaqaa stockpile had been lost . He added that his ministry judged that an "urgent updating of the registered materials is required."

 

A chart in his letter listed 341.7 metric tons, about 377 American tons, of HMX, RDX and PETN as missing.

 

Five days later, on Oct. 15, European diplomats said, the I.A.E.A. wrote the United States mission in Vienna to forward the Iraqi letter and ask that American authorities inform the international coalition in Iraq of the missing explosives.

 

Dr. ElBaradei, a European diplomat said, is "extremely concerned" about the potentially "devastating consequences" of the vanished stockpile.

 

Its fate remains unknown. Glenn Earhart, manager of an Army Corps of Engineers program in Huntsville, Ala., that is in charge of rounding up and destroying lost Iraqi munitions, said he and his colleagues knew nothing of the whereabouts of the Qaqaa stockpile.

 

Administration officials say Iraq was awash in munitions, including other stockpiles of exotic explosives.

 

"The only reason this stockpile was under seal," said one senior administration official, "is because it was located at Al Qaqaa," where nuclear work had gone on years ago.

 

James Glanz reported from Baghdad and Yusifiya, Iraq, for this article, William J. Broad from New York and Vienna, and David E. Sanger from Washington and Crawford, Tex. Khalid al-Ansary contributed reporting from Baghdad.

 

So.. on our way to Baghdad.. we didn't find it important to guard a stockpile of explosives. Which could have possibly found use by suicide bombers or whoever else would need a lot of explosives.

 

Greeeeeeeat...

 

but still.. what a great development from Iraq. A mistake which was completely preventable. A mistake which was helped contribute to the deaths of our soldiers and innocent Iraqis.

[NoCalMike 0]

Thank gawd we have a fantastic plan to deal with this situation......

[Guest GreatOne]

But this was all a lie...............Saddam didn't HAVE any of that, remember?

[jesse_ewiak 0]

Who ever said Saddam didn't have conventional explosives? This isn't WMD, it's a metric fuckload of what is essentially dynamite in insurgent hands. But, hey, I guess it was more important to guard the Oil Ministry.

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

But this was all a lie...............Saddam didn't HAVE any of that, remember?

Explosives are not WMD.

 

And it was catalouged and sealed by the IAEA. And then stuff sorta fell apart.

[SuperJerk 0]

HMX + RDX < WMD

 

 

Everyone got it now?

[Guest GreatOne]

I'm aware of the difference clappy. But neither is acceptable--especially if they're being used to kill US forces and Iraqis today.

 

Hmm, I'm TEH SUXORS for stating that, yet no one has a problem w the guy who constantly makes derisive and mocking posts of our efforts (which I guess are OK BECAUSE BUSH=HITLER AND HE NEEDS TO BE OVERTHROWN!!!!!!!!!!), got it.

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

I'm aware of the difference clappy. But neither is acceptable--especially if they're being used to kill US forces and Iraqis today.

 

Hmm, I'm TEH SUXORS for stating that, yet no one has a problem w the guy who constantly makes derisive and mocking posts (which I guess are OK BECAUSE BUSH=HITLER!!!!!!!!), got it.

the US military not securing these sites, allowing them to be looted, wasn't very acceptable

 

The material stolen is supposedly enough for a car bombing every day for the next 200 years

[Guest GreatOne]

Well you know, we're kind of, preoccupied....................

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

Well you know, we're kind of, preoccupied....................

yeah.. I hope we guarded something of importance in Iraq as we were invading.

 

Terrorists having a lot of explosives or access to explosives is generally a bad thing.

 

I think this situation was preventable. Yet, that site was not guarded.

[Guest GreatOne]

Playing Monday morning QB is nice eh?

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

Yeah.. but we were busy.

 

who expected there'd be such interest in getting 377 tons of explosives?

[jesse_ewiak 0]

Well, guarding the Oil Ministry was obviously much more important.

[Guest GreatOne]

OMGOIL2004LOLFAUXNEWSTEHSHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wondered when that was gonna come up.

 

But I do feel a whole lot better actually. Next time one of you tells me that I add nothing I'll just refer to this thread OK?

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

was the Oil Ministry story confirmed or is that an urban myth?

 

just curious..

 

I figure we guarded other stuff in Baghdad.

[NoCalMike 0]

I am suprised Fox hasn't labled these new findings, "POTENTIAL BIO CHEMICAL AND NUCLEAR MATERIALS LOADED UP ON A TRUCK AND DRIVEN TO SYRIA.....YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST."

[Guest INXS]

Haha, yep i'm waiting for that. It will be claimed that any missing explosives are in Syria or Iran.

 

If Iraq had all these explosives though it makes me think WHY didn't the Iraqi army use them when they were invaded?!

 

Besides that, this is a major fuck up.

[Guest Cerebus]

Been there, posted that.

[Guest MikeSC]

Been there, posted that.

Like that ever slowed people down...

-=Mike

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/25/...ives/index.html

 

A senior administration official told CNN that national security adviser Condoleezza Rice was notified about the missing weapons about a month ago. Iraq Survey Group inspectors are investigating, the official said.

 

The discovery was not made public sooner because standard intelligence practice is not to let the enemy know such information, the official said.

 

Yeah.. I guess we're not fighting an enemy smart enough to notice that they were able to get tons of explosives. We're facing a 1+?=2 group, according to the administration

[Guest MikeSC]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/25/...ives/index.html

 

A senior administration official told CNN that national security adviser Condoleezza Rice was notified about the missing weapons about a month ago. Iraq Survey Group inspectors are investigating, the official said.

 

The discovery was not made public sooner because standard intelligence practice is not to let the enemy know such information, the official said.

 

Yeah.. I guess we're not fighting an enemy smart enough to notice that they were able to get tons of explosives. We're facing a 1+?=2 group, according to the administration

I know, shocking concept that a country might not inform an enemy of every possible thing that could benefit them.

-=Mike

[Special K 0]

Now we're the current Iraq's enemy?

 

It said that we knew quite well of this facility.

 

 

And what the hell, GreatOne? Leave the snippy posts to those that actually try to read the article. If you had done so, you wouldn't have made your dumbass original post.

[Guest GreatOne]

And what the hell, GreatOne? Leave the snippy posts to those that actually try to read the article. If you had done so, you wouldn't have made your dumbass original post.

Or your dumbass current one........................

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

and the supposed e-mail from the Bush mailing list.

 

Dear [first name deleted],

Kerry's campaign is becoming desperate.

 

Everyday brings a new charge against the President and every charge is pulled right from the headlines of the New York Times.  If you want to know how John Kerry will attack the President in the afternoon, just read the Times in the morning.

 

John Kerry will say anything he believes will help him politically, and today he is grasping at headlines to obscure his record of weakness and indecision in the War on Terror.  These are the tactics of a candidate who has no message for the future and no positive record to run on.

 

The entire country of Iraq was a weapons stockpile.  So far, 243,000 tons of weapons and explosives have been secured and destroyed.  In addition, 163,000 tons of weapons and explosives have been secured and are awaiting destruction.  All the Monday morning-quarterbacking and armchair-generaling in the world by John Kerry won't make up for the fact that he does not have a vision, a strategy or a plan to fight and win the War on Terror.

 

Saddam Hussein's government stored weapons in mosques, schools, hospitals and countless other locations throughout Iraq. Yet, John Kerry showed today that he still cannot decide whether Saddam Hussein was a threat or not.  He claims the weapons our troops have secured and destroyed were not a threat, but any other weapons were.

 

You should prepare for more baseless attacks torn from the headlines in the coming days by John Kerry.  You should also expect more desperate flailing by his campaign as more polls show President Bush on his way to re-election.

 

John Kerry is attempting to distract voters from the clear choice they face between President Bush's strong leadership to protect America and John Kerry's weak record of proposing reckless cuts to our defense and intelligence budgets.

 

They will not succeed.

 

Sincerely,

 

Ken Mehlman

 

Now.. that's spin

 

"The entire place has weapons.. it's no big deal that 380 tons of it has disappeared!"

 

I know, shocking concept that a country might not inform an enemy of every possible thing that could benefit them.

 

Do you think they've not noticed that there's tons of weapons that are now out on the market?

 

Meanwhile.. McClellan makes me miss Ari

 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/20...20041025-1.html

 

Q But after Iraqi Freedom, there were those caches all around, wasn't the multinational force -- who was responsible for keeping track --

 

MR. McCLELLAN: At the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom there were a number of priorities. It was a priority to make sure that the oil fields were secure, so that there wasn't massive destruction of the oil fields, which we thought would occur. It was a priority to get the reconstruction office up and running. It was a priority to secure the various ministries, so that we could get those ministries working on their priorities, whether it was -

 

Q So it was the multinational force's responsibility --

 

MR. McCLELLAN: There were a number of -- well, the coalition forces, there were a number of priorities at the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

[Special K 0]

I didn't equate conventional weapons with WMDs. You did and then tried to backtrack. Then you just start posting little snide comments because you can't back yourself up. Leave it to the people who can make an argument.

 

Of course I await your typical response of

 

A) Shut up!

B) You're Dumb

C) Ripping off LOL2004

 

with bated breath.

[Guest MikeSC]

and the supposed e-mail from the Bush mailing list.

 

Dear [first name deleted],

Kerry's campaign is becoming desperate.

 

Everyday brings a new charge against the President and every charge is pulled right from the headlines of the New York Times.  If you want to know how John Kerry will attack the President in the afternoon, just read the Times in the morning.

 

John Kerry will say anything he believes will help him politically, and today he is grasping at headlines to obscure his record of weakness and indecision in the War on Terror.  These are the tactics of a candidate who has no message for the future and no positive record to run on.

 

The entire country of Iraq was a weapons stockpile.  So far, 243,000 tons of weapons and explosives have been secured and destroyed.  In addition, 163,000 tons of weapons and explosives have been secured and are awaiting destruction.  All the Monday morning-quarterbacking and armchair-generaling in the world by John Kerry won't make up for the fact that he does not have a vision, a strategy or a plan to fight and win the War on Terror.

 

Saddam Hussein's government stored weapons in mosques, schools, hospitals and countless other locations throughout Iraq. Yet, John Kerry showed today that he still cannot decide whether Saddam Hussein was a threat or not.  He claims the weapons our troops have secured and destroyed were not a threat, but any other weapons were.

 

You should prepare for more baseless attacks torn from the headlines in the coming days by John Kerry.  You should also expect more desperate flailing by his campaign as more polls show President Bush on his way to re-election.

 

John Kerry is attempting to distract voters from the clear choice they face between President Bush's strong leadership to protect America and John Kerry's weak record of proposing reckless cuts to our defense and intelligence budgets.

 

They will not succeed.

 

Sincerely,

 

Ken Mehlman

 

Now.. that's spin

 

"The entire place has weapons.. it's no big deal that 380 tons of it has disappeared!"

Do you REALLY want to get into a battle of dueling campaign e-mails?

-=Mike

[Special K 0]

Actually, a thread for posting campaign emails could be pretty edifying, or if nothing else, entertaining.

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

and the supposed e-mail from the Bush mailing list.

 

Dear [first name deleted],

Kerry's campaign is becoming desperate.

 

Everyday brings a new charge against the President and every charge is pulled right from the headlines of the New York Times.  If you want to know how John Kerry will attack the President in the afternoon, just read the Times in the morning.

 

John Kerry will say anything he believes will help him politically, and today he is grasping at headlines to obscure his record of weakness and indecision in the War on Terror.  These are the tactics of a candidate who has no message for the future and no positive record to run on.

 

The entire country of Iraq was a weapons stockpile.  So far, 243,000 tons of weapons and explosives have been secured and destroyed.  In addition, 163,000 tons of weapons and explosives have been secured and are awaiting destruction.  All the Monday morning-quarterbacking and armchair-generaling in the world by John Kerry won't make up for the fact that he does not have a vision, a strategy or a plan to fight and win the War on Terror.

 

Saddam Hussein's government stored weapons in mosques, schools, hospitals and countless other locations throughout Iraq. Yet, John Kerry showed today that he still cannot decide whether Saddam Hussein was a threat or not.  He claims the weapons our troops have secured and destroyed were not a threat, but any other weapons were.

 

You should prepare for more baseless attacks torn from the headlines in the coming days by John Kerry.  You should also expect more desperate flailing by his campaign as more polls show President Bush on his way to re-election.

 

John Kerry is attempting to distract voters from the clear choice they face between President Bush's strong leadership to protect America and John Kerry's weak record of proposing reckless cuts to our defense and intelligence budgets.

 

They will not succeed.

 

Sincerely,

 

Ken Mehlman

 

Now.. that's spin

 

"The entire place has weapons.. it's no big deal that 380 tons of it has disappeared!"

Do you REALLY want to get into a battle of dueling campaign e-mails?

-=Mike

I'm actually waiting on Mehlman's e-mail to get to my inbox.

 

Yes, I get the BC04 e-mails, for entertainment value.

 

I think the Mehlman e-mail is close to the messege from the Bush administration

[Guest MikeSC]

And, to keep these 380 missing tons in perspective:

WMD? Iraq is teeming with conventional arms

Anacortes men help lead effort to destroy Saddam's many explosive caches

 

By MIKE BARBER

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

 

While combing through an ammunition cache squirreled away for four decades by Saddam Hussein, Curt Murdock found yet another sign of desperation: a human hand, obviously blown off while its owner was looting a munitions stockpile that Murdock's team had arrived to survey.

 

"It was still holding a sandwich," recalls Murdock, 51, an Anacortes native and chief of operations in Iraq for the Army Corps of Engineers' Captured Enemy Ammunition program, or CEA.

 

"It wasn't the only time we've found body parts. It shows how desperate the people are here. Iraqis have no industry, so they are selling whatever they have their hands on."

 

Although the world's attention has focused on the failure to find weapons of mass destruction, scant attention has been paid to the mountains of weapons of conventional destruction unearthed in Iraq.

 

The bombs, rockets, grenades, cannon shells and bullets amount to the world's fourth-largest stockpile of weapons, Army Corps of Engineers officials say. An estimated 600,000 tons of munitions with markings from all over the world, including the United States, and some so old that the weapons that fired them are no longer made, were stashed in Saddam's innumerable caches.

 

To date, 110,000 tons have been destroyed. An additional 138,000 tons are stored behind protective barriers. Saddam seemed to hoard this cornucopia of death aimlessly. "There are no aisles to walk down. It's just heaped," he said. "It just blows your mind to see this stuff."

 

Most often, desperate people mine the caches, some of them destroyed by U.S. military action that scattered the contents.

 

"Most of the people who loot are just doing it to sell it to someone to put food on their table," Murdock said. In a country where telephone poles were stripped of wires so people could sell the copper in them, many pry loose valued brass shell casings to sell. They spill explosive propellants on the ground. Intense desert heat renders them unstable.

 

The accidental explosions kill or maim kids and adults.

 

Often, however, the explosives find their way into the hands of people who use them against U.S. and coalition troops. "Improvised explosive devices," as the U.S. military calls the bombs, is part of the lexicon of this war. Drying up their source fuels the conventional-weapons program's urgency, Murdock said.

 

Murdock is one of two Anacortes men who, by coincidence, occupy leading roles in the $600 million CEA program. He graduated from Anacortes High School in 1971.

 

The other is Paul Johnston, 47, a retired, 22-year veteran of Navy special operations and the Energy Department's nuclear-security team. Johnston is chief of operations for Nevada-based Special Operations Consulting-Security Management Group. He plans to return to Whidbey Island to retire for good one day.

 

Known more commonly as SOC-SMG, Johnston's organization is one of five private security contractors retained by CEA. His unit screens and hires mostly former special-operations troops, many former Green Berets, to protect CEA workers dismantling Saddam's messy arsenal.

 

"We make sure they have the ability to focus on that mission. Imagine working on a piece of ordnance and looking over your shoulder because someone is shooting at you," Johnston said in a phone interview.

 

Johnston said his security personnel fall under prosecutable Army Corps of Engineers regulations. While having some leeway with carrying the best weaponry possible, they are limited. "We can't carry .50-caliber machine guns," he said. "And if I even suspect you had a drink of booze, you are gone."

 

It rankles Johnston to be called a hired gun. "We're not mercenaries. We're not an army going out to do combat with an enemy. We're kind of what the Secret Service does with the president. If we make combat with an enemy in some way, then we've not done our intelligence homework."

 

Johnston said CEA workers live in austere environments of "flies, mosquitoes, lack of water, camel spiders the size of large Frisbees, desert vipers, 120 degrees in the shade, and worrying whether people are friendly or not."

 

Although compensated well, many civilian contract workers are motivated more by a belief in their cause, he said. Five have lost their lives -- in ambushes, not by handling explosives.

 

"I get choked up when I think of the sacrifices they make," said Johnston, whose security force also hires and trains Iraqi guards.

 

"Some Iraqis have given us intelligence that saved our lives. The majority of Iraqis I know want us there. They are a highly educated people who with the right opportunities can make something of their future."

 

Glenn Earhart, 51, CEA's chief of international operations and program manager at the Army's engineering and support center in Huntsville, Ala., said the program employs about 2,200 people. Of them, 1,600 are Iraqis; 600 are U.S. contract workers, and 12 to15 are U.S. government employees.

 

"I don't think the Iraqi people get enough credit for supporting the U.S. effort," he said. "In my 29 years in the Corps of Engineers, this is the most important job I've done."

 

CEA's creation only 11 months ago has been a phenomenon of government expedience.

 

Earhart recalled receiving the first phone call on July 3 for help about troops encountering a massive problem with captured munitions. "The question was, 'Can you help us with captured enemy ammunition in Iraq?' " he said. "The Army wanted us operational as soon as possible."

 

A three-man team assessed the problem for four weeks, funding followed shortly afterward, $285 million in contracts were awarded, a team of private contractors and Army representatives was pulled together and demolitions started Sept. 11. Every deadline since has been kept.

 

"The good news is that the expectation is that we will have everything behind the fence in early fall '04," Earhart said.

 

"Suffice it to say, I am ready to retire in a year, so I don't have to worry about the bridges I burned" to get it done, he added only half in jest.

 

It is the encounters with the Iraqi people that have most affected CEA workers and fueled their drive to help, Earhart and others said.

 

Iraqis have broken into caches and used ball-peen hammers to remove brass. Some have caused the roofs of weapons caches to cave in by prying bricks from the walls to sell for food. Program workers have tried to help by giving them brass that was first flattened so it can't be reused in weapons, or old empty ammunition boxes converted to other uses.

 

Occasionally, CEA workers have caught bad guys in the act.

 

"Not too long ago, some of our ordnance folks went to a cache and spotted 180 Iraqis putting together (homemade bombs). They stayed away, called me and said, 'What do you want us to do?' I said, 'Surround them.' Then we called in the 'big army.' There was some gunfire, but no one was hurt," Murdock said.

 

"We see the urgency to do it fast, as safe as possible and get home," he said. "The sooner we get our arms around this and secure it, the better off everyone will be."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/177738_weapons14.asp

380 or so tons are missing. 248,000 tons have been destroyed or secured.

 

Yeah, MASSIVE problem there.

-=Mike

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

yeah.. 380 tons of explosives isn't a big deal.

 

When you compare it to the tons of bullets, grenades and so on.

 

Well, that makes us all feel much better.

 

We may have 60 apples missing, but we've found 50,000 oranges!