Irregular Times: News Unfit for Print

Irregular Times: News Unfit for Print: "380 Tons of High Explosives Missing From Iraq, thanks to US Government Inattention

Does the Bush administration make you safer?

Oh, really?

380 tons (that's 760,000 pounds) of high explosives have been looted from the Iraqi site of Al Qaqaa (sounds like 'Deep Shit'), which was supposed to be under U.S. military control but the security of which has been neglected since the war began. The Bush administration has acknowledged that the 380 tons (that's 760,000 pounds) of high explosives disappeared on their watch, after April 2003, as a result of chaotic looting. The U.S. military knew about the site and the existence of the explosives, in no small part because the agency that George W. Bush termed 'irrelevant,' the IAEA, specifically informed the U.S. about it and told them they needed to guard the site. But looters were still picking over the site of Al Qaqaa as recently as yesterday.

How much is 380 tons (that's 760,000 pounds) of high explosives?

* it would take 40 large trucks to hold all the explosives;
* less than one pound of the sort of explosive gone missing was used to take down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland;
* just five pounds could blow up a dozen jetliners;
* 760,000 pounds makes one and a half million downed jetliners.


(Sources: New York Times October 25, 2004 and Associated Press October 25, 2004)

Has the Bush administration made you safer?"