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October 25, 2004
Missing: 380 Tons of Explosives

Just for a little perspective, the bomb that blew up Pan Am 103 over Scotland in 1988 used less than a pound of the same type of explosive. We've lost track of over half a million pounds. 380 times the amount needed to detonate a weapon like the one we dropped on Nagasaki in 1945.

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, make 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 sometime after the American-led 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."

New York Times

They knew this stuff was there, and they did nothing to protect it. On top of that, they're not even offering an excuse. Scott McClellan said it was the Iraqis' responsibility to guard it. Someone should go to jail. We launched an invasion, knowing full well that there was this massive pile of explosives, and in almost two years, we've failed to even guard it. To think that some of that material has been used to kill American soldiers is not much of a stretch, and if it hasn't yet, it surely will be. This isn't an intelligence failure, they knew it was there. So what is it? Why? What possible excuse could there be for this?

Most importantly, though, is how will this story play in the media?

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