Iraq: Coalition Ignored Warnings on Weapons Stocks

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/b86913a967afd6908f30faf8eaefd9b4.htm

(New York, October 29, 2004) - Human Rights Watch repeatedly gave U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq detailed information about massive stockpiles of unsecured explosives and munitions located throughout the country, but coalition forces took little or no action to secure the stockpiles. In May 2003, Human Rights Watch provided U.S. and British forces with specific data, including precise GPS coordinates, on unsecured weapons stockpiles around Baghdad and in Basra. "Immediately after the fall of Baghdad, our researchers were finding massive stockpiles of weapons and explosives throughout Iraq," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "But when we informed coalition forces, they told us they just didn't have enough troops to secure these sites."

On May 9, 2003, a Human Rights Watch researcher encountered a massive stockpile of warheads, anti-tank mines, anti-personnel mines, and other weaponry at the unsecured Second Military College, located on the main road between Baghdad and Baquba. Among the weaponry were hundreds of high-explosive surface-to-surface warheads for the ASTROS multiple rocket launcher system, packing 26 kilograms of high explosives each. The weapon stocks were in the process of being looted.

Concerned about the safety of the displaced persons at the military college, the researcher immediately went to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad and reported the weapons stockpile, showing U.S. military officials photographs of the weaponry, giving the exact GPS coordinates of the site, and showing the location of the site on a military map. The researcher repeatedly returned to the "Green Zone" over the next days to report continuing looting at the site, but U.S. coalition forces did not move to secure the site. The road between Baghdad and Baquba is now one of the main locations for attacks using "improvised explosive devices" (IEDs) against passing coalition troops and Iraqi security forces. Typically, suicide bombers and IEDs involve between 25 to 200 kilograms of high explosives.

U.S. troops were not the only ones who failed to secure weapon dumps. Also in May 2003, a Human Rights Watch research team located 20 trucking containers packed with anti-aircraft shells, mortar rounds, rocket-propelled grenades and Katyusha rockets near the old airport in Basra. The team approached the British troop contingent stationed nearby and asked them to secure the site, as civilians were looting the site and being injured. Even though the site was less than one kilometer away from the headquarters of the British First Fusilliers Battle Group, the British forces failed to secure the site.

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[Trajan]

1. Wow ....

Its staggering how much of this is coming on .....

It ALL boils down to this > Rumsfeld's War on the cheap ...

He and his droogies said they could fight this war for pennies on the dollar ... they planned on 40000 troops ....

The President agreed with them ... and signed on the dotted line ....

It is THEIR FAULT because they did not plan this action to succeed ....

[ClintonTyree]

2. Why, why, why..............

this is SO bad. These explosives will now be used to kill our fighting men and women. This sucks SO much. God Damn Bush. God Damn Cheney. God damn Rumsfeld. God damn Wolfowitz. God damn Rice. God damn the rest of the freaking morons in this administration that thought they could win this war on the cheap and not send the number of soldiers that every General said would be needed to secure that country.
Bush LIED to take us TO war. He's LIED about everything since.
God damn them all to hell!

[troubleinwinter]

3. Seems to me if you were planning a war...

Number ONE issue in planning would be to secure the weapons so that they would not fall into the hands of the enemy so that they could later be turned on our own troops. Isn't it fucking OBVIOUS??? WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? Oh... never mind...

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. This is all very old news. chimp was never called to account before this

and I don't know why. We need to kick his ass now.

[acmavm]

5. This administration was (is) all greed, no brains. The weapons were the

one way Iraqis could make a few bucks right after the attack on the country. It was one of the few things that they KNEW the could sell, therefore there was big motivation to steal the stuff.

The Iraqi people knew that there would be an aftermath to this mess. They've been through this scenario how many times before? The west has tried it's best to control that part of the war for hundreds of years, and they haven't been able to tame that tiger yet. The west never will.

We have to learn to deal with the Middle East on a humane level. Something no western government has ever tried so far. All the way back to the crusades we've been trying to beat them into submission. It just ain't going to happen, even with Israel in the picture. There has to be a day when the west realizes that you have to talk to their leaders, try to work out our differences, not attack and kill the people. And now the stakes are tremendous. They have unlimited weapons with those explosives. Iran has nukes. If we don't try another method of dealing with the Middle East, this will be a lose/lose situation for us all.

[VegasWolf]

6. Makes me wonder how soon the munitions dumps here will be

left unguarded so that bush will have more human meat
to supply his oil war in Iraq? * claims no draft, well, where
will he get his foot soldiers?

New Information Shows Bush Indecisive, Paranoid, Delusional

[maddezmom]

7. they only had one mission...secure the OIL MINISTRY

:eyes:

[LanternWaste]

8. Mr. pResident, you're fired!

Well, crap. This appears to be a seriously dangerous amount of incompetence at higher command levels. I have a difficult believing that our officer staff, as professional and well-trained as they are could fail to notice the value of this base, both to the opposition forces and to the area civilians.

On the other hand, I have no problem believing that our civilian command authorities and the WH simply jumped in over their heads based on wishes and (erroneous) assumptions.

A single-minded drive toward Baghdad with reckless disregard for anything that did not directly affect that goal seems to be the only plan the WH had in place.
:mad:

Mr. pResident, you're fired!

[goforit]

9. Orders from the TOP!!!!!.......Chaos, ...Project #1!!!

[DeepModem Mom]

10. kick

[Eloriel]

11. And another

:kick:

[Sinnerman]

12. Idiots..... These are not WMD's

[leftchick]

13. This says it all about the inept administration.....

<snip>
Even in volatile Falluja, U.S. troops seemed oblivious of the weapons being sold openly in the town. On May 5, 2003, shortly after the first deadly clashes between U.S. coalition troops and residents of Falluja, Human Rights Watch researchers visited weapons markets operating openly in Falluja, where buyers were testing AK-47 assault rifles and heavy .50 caliber machine guns by firing them openly in the air. Rocket-propelled grenades and regular grenades were also being sold openly. When the researchers asked U.S. intelligence officers at the main U.S. base in Falluja about the weapon markets, they were unaware of their existence.

"While the U.S.-led coalition deployed more than 1,000 people to search for weapons of mass destruction, they weren't organized to neutralize the threat of conventional weapons right under their noses," said Roth. "Now Iraqi civilians are paying a deadly price for the failure to secure the vast weapon stocks in Iraq during the U.S.-led invasion."

.... excellent article. Thanks Don... :hi:

[Moderator]

14. Kick

:kick:

[tomlu8]

15. It's always been about the oil

I remember an awful lot of our soldiers deployed to protect the oil fields and oil assets of Iraq when they would have been better used to secure weapons stockpiles before they fell into the wrong hands.
Now our soldiers are dealing with the consequences of the Bush Administrations poor planning.

Q:
Why didn't our soldiers secure all of the loose weapons in Iraq before the looters got to them?

A:
I'll tell you why, because Bush was only interested in securing oilfields and the oil ministry during the early days after the fall of Baghdad, now our soldiers are being blown up every day by these explosives that were allowed to fall into Guerrila hands.
Bush/Cheney, Rummy and the entire high command should be clapped in irons for their gross negligence.
They failed to muster enough troops to secure Iraqi assets during the chaotic aftermath of the fall of Baghdad.

[sattahipdeep]

16. Black water security

Paul Bremer....

Baghdad Year Zero
Written By
Klein, Naomi

The tone of Bremer’s tenure was set with his first major act on the job:
he fired 500,000 state workers, most of them soldiers, but also doctors,
nurses, teachers, publishers, and printers. Next, he flung open the
country’s borders to absolutely unrestricted imports: no tariffs, no duties,
no inspections, no taxes. Iraq, Bremer declared two weeks after he
arrived, was “open for business.”

http://www.harpers.org/BaghdadYearZero.html