Bob's Boring Banter

Monday, October 25, 2004

 

Dear Bob,

This morning, The New York Times published a story that offers further
proof of how the Bush administration's incompetence and arrogance has
endangered the lives of our troops and the American people.

Even before invading Iraq, the Bush administration knew that a huge
facility, called Al Qaqaa, contained nearly 380 tons of deadly
explosives. Despite the fact that they knew exactly where this
facility was and what was there, they took no action to secure or
protect the site. Due to the stunning incompetence of the Bush
administration and their incomprehensible failure to plan, these
explosives have disappeared.

Let me put this in perspective -- the bomb that took down Pan Am
Flight 103 over Scotland used less than one pound of this same
explosive. There were 760,000 pounds at Al Qaqaa.

You can read the article by visiting:


http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/news/news_2004_1025.html

Our troops are the best-trained and best-led forces in the world, and
they have been doing their job honorably and bravely. The problem is
the commander in chief has not being doing his. George Bush refuses to
recognize his failures in Iraq, so he can't fix them and is doomed to
repeat them.

Thank you,

Joe Lockhart
Senior Advisor

P.S. Use our online volunteer center to talk to your local media
outlets about this story:


http://volunteer.johnkerry.com/speakout/
After being warned about the danger of major stockpiles of explosives
in Iraq, this administration failed to guard those stockpiles. This is
one of the great blunders of the Bush policy in Iraq. The
administration has several key questions to answer:

Why did the administration ignore warnings from the IAEA to secure the
nearly 380 tons of explosives in Iraq?


Did President Bush's failure to listen to General Shinseki and others
about the troop levels that would be needed to secure Iraq after the
initial military operations contribute to the military's inability to
secure the site?


How many terrorist bombings in Iraq, Egypt or elsewhere have been
carried out using HMX, RDX or PETN explosives since 2002?


Who knew what, when? When was the civilian leadership at the Pentagon
told about the missing explosives? When did Secretary Rumsfeld learn
that the explosives had gone missing? When was the president's
National Security Council informed? When was national security advisor
Condoleezza Rice briefed on this? When was the president told?


What is the chronology of action taken by the Bush administration
after being informed that the explosives had gone missing?


Has the site been inspected recently?


Why did the Bush administration deny the IAEA's request to go back
into Iraq to verify the status of the stockpile?


What action did Paul Bremer take after reportedly being warned in May
2004 that the explosives had gone missing?


In addition to the missing explosives and reports of machine tools
that can be used for nuclear and non nuclear purposes, what other
sites in Iraq with dangerous material were not adequately protected
and subsequently looted?


Is there an estimate for the total amount of munitions, weapons and
explosives that have gone missing in Iraq?



Paid for by Kerry-Edwards 2004, Inc.

posted by Bob R. 1:14 PM

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