The White House claims that nobody knows the facts on who looted the 380 tons of explosives from Al Qaqaa, or when. Well, that's
complete bull. I give you
exhibit A:
POWELL: In this next example, you will see the type of concealment activity Iraq has undertaken in response to the resumption of inspections. Indeed, in November 2002, just when the inspections were about to resume this type of activity spiked. Here are three examples.
Slide 15
POWELL: At this ballistic missile site, on November 10, we saw a cargo truck preparing to move ballistic missile components. At this biological weapons related facility, on November 25, just two days before inspections resumed, this truck caravan appeared, something we almost never see at this facility, and we monitor it carefully and regularly.
(jump)
Slide 16
POWELL: At this ballistic missile facility, again, two days before inspections began, five large cargo trucks appeared along with the truck-mounted crane to move missiles. We saw this kind of house cleaning at close to 30 sites.
Okay I think you see where I'm going with this. We have 24/7 satellite surveillance on the most sensitive WMD sites in Iraq, a virtual Pentagon Security Camera. WE SEE EVERYTHING. WE RECORD EVERYTHING. Al Qaqaa was THE BIGGEST MUNITIONS site with the most sensitive materiel in Iraq. The reason for the dissembling on behalf of the White House on this, the reason Bush took over 36 hours to respond is... the Bush Administration is BUSTED. I believe the NYTimes article tomorrow with Iraqi chemist eyewitnesses who were employed at Al Qaqaa describing the looting of Al Qaqaa is correct. The Pentagon possesses photographs (and I suspect video footage) showing that the site was looted after the invasion, after our troops had been there twice and abandoned the site for lack of adequate security forces. There is an internal struggle within the Pentagon, of epic proportions and the truth is leaking out. The Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld faction literally are fumbling to cover this up now, and Kerry knows it. Give it another day or two and it's going to break wide open.
UPDATE: Here are some actual satellite photos of Al Qaqaa, via sbwoodside's diary. (The Pentagon, we can safely assume, has MUCH BETTER technology than you see here).
Al Qaqaa
UPDATE II: And again via sbwoodside, DigitalGlobe has some absolutely phenomenal 60 cm satellite images of Al Qaqaa, too large to post here but please LOOK AT THE 60 cm EAST FACILITY IMAGE and you get the gist. Remember, this is just the stuff we can get off the internet with a little searching, for FREE. Check it out, and tell me you're not convinced that Bush and the Pentagon know.
And they think we're too stupid to figure it out...
UPDATE III: Kossian harrier asks an interesting question:
"I love this thread, but it was my understanding that most low-earth orbit satellites cannot be positioned above a particular viewpoint constantly, and are therefore only able to take pictures during the period where their orbit matches the location.
Could the right claim that Saddam knew where the satellites were and deliberately moved the materiel(al?) while the satellites were not able to watch?"
Here's my answer:
Even if the surveillance wasn't constant, and I think it was, say you have a dozen or so spy satellites up there (and my guess is we have more like thousands)... well even say you can only get three or four good shots a day. You would still have indisputable proof of what happened. Even with one shot a day you would absolutely know when it happened. And you can't use bad weather as an excuse - the reason we were in such a hurry to invade is so we could do it during the good weather. There were maybe a few heinous sandstorms but I don't think you could realistically truck this shit away in those conditions. And these satellites can see almost as well at night, so that argument is moot.
I see what harrier's saying, but even in the worst case surveillance scenario.. that dog won't hunt. For cryin' out loud, I CAN WATCH SOMEONE'S FREAKIN' IGUANA ON THE INTERNET 24/7, why couldn't we set up hidden internet cameras onsite if we really wanted to monitor this stuff? And the alternative, not keeping an eye on the site at all, is such grotesque negligence that I don't think even the Bush faction is willing to go there.
And y'all ask yourselves... we have satellite technology that can make out individual bicycle spokes from space. We have smart missiles with cameras that can be guided to hit specific targets with horrifying precision.
TELL ME AGAIN WHY WE WENT TO WAR AND RISKED TROOPS ON THE GROUND JUST TO GET RID OF SADDAM HUSSEIN.
UPDATE IV:
Game over, assholes.
CODA: The Pentagon's only defense, a satellite photo realeased Thursday "proving" a truck was parked at an Al Qaqaa HMX bunker 3 days before invasion, debunked as a desperate lie.
You can run, Mr. Bush, but you cannot hide.