A top Iraqi science official says it is impossible that 350 tonnes of high explosives could have been smuggled out of a military site south of Baghdad before the regime fell last year. | Well, if they were moved by Saddam's regime before it fell, it wouldn't be smuggling now, would it? |
The UN nuclear watchdog this week said the explosives went missing from a weapons dump some time after Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled in April 2003. | Not that they were anywhere near Iraq at the time. |
But as the issue of the missing explosives took centre stage in the US presidential campaign, some US officials have suggested they had gone before the US-led forces moved on Baghdad.
"It is impossible that these materials could have been taken from this site before the regime's fall," Mohammed al-Sharaa, who heads the Science Ministry's site monitoring department, said. "The officials that were inside this facility (Al-Qaqaa) beforehand confirm that not even a shred of paper left it before the fall. "I spoke to them about it and they even issued certified statements to this effect which the US-led coalition was aware of." | NOTE: "The officials that were inside this facility beforehand" Which means they were part of Saddam's regime, as I expect Mohammed al-Sharaa was as well. Of course, they don't have any reason to lie. Right? |
Mr Sharaa also warns that other nearby sites with similar materials could have also been plundered. -- AFP |