Discrepancy Found in Explosives Amounts

Discrepancy Found in Explosives Amounts
Documents Show Iraqis May Be Overstating Amount of
Missing Material
Oct. 27, 2004 - Iraqi officials may be overstating the
amount of explosives reported to have disappeared from
a weapons depot, documents obtained by ABC News show.

The Iraqi interim government has told the United
States and international weapons inspectors that 377
tons of conventional explosives are missing from the
Al-Qaqaa installation, which was supposed to be under
U.S. military control.

But International Atomic Energy Agency documents
obtained by ABC News and first reported on "World News
Tonight with Peter Jennings" indicate the amount of
missing explosives may be substantially less than the
Iraqis reported.

The information on which the Iraqi Science Ministry
based an Oct. 10 memo in which it reported that 377
tons of RDX explosives were missing -- presumably
stolen due to a lack of security -- was based on
"declaration" from July 15, 2002. At that time, the
Iraqis said there were 141 tons of RDX explosives at
the facility.

But the confidential IAEA documents obtained by ABC
News show that on Jan. 14, 2003, the agency's
inspectors recorded that just over three tons of RDX
were stored at the facility -- a considerable
discrepancy from what the Iraqis reported.

The IAEA documents could mean that 138 tons of
explosives were removed from the facility long before
the United States launched "Operation Iraqi Freedom"
in March 2003.

The missing explosives have become an issue in the
presidential campaign. Sen. John Kerry has pointed to
the disappearance as evidence of the Bush
administration's poor handling of the war. The Bush
camp has responded that more than a thousand times
that amount of explosives or munitions have been
recovered or destroyed in Iraq.


Another Concern

The IAEA documents from January 2003 found no
discrepancy in the amount of the more dangerous HMX
explosives thought to be stored at Al-Qaqaa, but they
do raise another disturbing possibility.

The documents show IAEA inspectors looked at nine
bunkers containing more than 194 tons of HMX at the
facility. Although these bunkers were still under IAEA
seal, the inspectors said the seals may be potentially
ineffective because they had ventilation slats on the
sides. These slats could be easily removed to remove
the materials inside the bunkers without breaking the
seals, the inspectors noted.


ABC News' Martha Raddatz filed this report for "World
News Tonight." Luis Martinez contributed to this
report.

Copyright © 2004 ABC News Internet Ventures


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