THERE'S ANOTHER WEAPONS SITE BESIDES AL QAQAA

[stevedeshazer]

Ukhaider

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/front_page/1099052619177610.xml

U.S. left ammo site unguarded
Friday, October 29, 2004
MIKE FRANCIS

Six months after the fall of Baghdad, a vast Iraqi weapons depot with tens of thousands of artillery rounds and other explosives remained unguarded, according to two U.S. aid workers who say they reported looting of the site to U.S. military officials.

The aid workers say they informed Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the highest ranking Army officer in Iraq in October 2003 but were told that the United States did not have enough troops to seal off the facility, which included more than 60 bunkers packed with munitions.

<snip>

The two American aid workers who stumbled upon the Ukhaider depot, Hare and Kuhaida, were in Iraq as employees of the International City/County Management Association. They said in separate interviews that they found the depot on Oct. 10, 2003, while on a recreational trip with Polish soldiers through the desert southwest of Karbala, Iraq.

They visited a lake and the ruins of the Palace of Ukhaider.

After leaving the palace, they followed a remote road that led to a facility surrounded by several strands of barbed wire. As they got closer, Hare and Kuhaida said, they saw a series of open bunkers with mortar rounds, ammunition and loose gunpowder scattered around the grounds.

[annabanana]

1. I fear there are LOTS of them.............

Without adequate troop strength, there's not much our guys can do but.....duck.
It's shameful.

[AIJ Alom]

2. This is 5 months after Al Qaa Qa ! More trouble for the Bush campaign.

This story, like the Al Qaa Qa story backs the Kerry talking point: we did not guard the munitions dumps and now the same munitions are being used against our troops.

[Weembo]

3. They forgot to listen

To their friends from Poland!

[ejcastellanos]

4. There is a country full of weapons sites.

But the oil comes first.

[stevedeshazer]

5. ...

:kick:

[MrModerate]

6. Holy Moly, there were HUNDREDS of sites . . .

When I was there last year. It was common knowledge that most of the military armories (not to mention the caches that bad ol' Saddam had his Orcs set up before the deluge) were unguarded and being WalMarted by the insurgents.

The price of an RPG in the Baghdad market dropped from thousands of dollars (the dinar took something of a hit and no one was taking 'em anymore) to hundreds. A good bargainer could get one for a couple of bills. And then the cell leaders were handing 'em out for free.

IEDs are almost entirely made from looted munitions -- almost every roadside bomb or car bomb you hear about is made from materials looted from facilities we "didn't have enough troops to guard."