Missing explosives add fuel to Iraqi
fire By Robert McMahon
NEW
YORK - For the second time this month, the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has notified the United
Nations Security Council about the loss of sensitive
weapons material formerly under its supervision in Iraq,
an issue that has made its way onto the US presidential
campaign trail. IAEA director Muhammad el-Baradei sent
the Security Council a letter this week alerting it to a
message from the Iraqi Ministry of Science and
Technology.
The ministry reported that more than
340 metric tons of highly explosive material - known as
HMX, RDX, and PETN - had been stolen. HMX is powerful
enough to ignite the fissile material in an atomic bomb
and set off a nuclear chain reaction. HMX and RDX are
also key components in powerful plastic explosives such
as C-4 and Semtex. The ministry's message to the IAEA
said the material was looted after April 9, 2003, "due
to lack of security".
The material was sealed
and tagged by the IAEA at the al-Qaqaa military facility
prior to the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told reporters that
the whereabouts of the material is unknown.
"This isn't the first time that the IAEA has
reported that material or equipment under IAEA watch had
been looted or gone missing. In fact, just two weeks ago
Dr el-Baradei reported to the Security Council that on
many sites we had observed whole buildings being
stripped completely and dismantled and the contents
within having gone missing," Fleming said.
The
first report to the Security Council was based on agency
monitoring of Iraq mainly through satellite
surveillance. US officials said at the time they had
taken measures to improve security, helping Iraqi
officials put new controls in place prohibiting the
export of items related to weapons of mass destruction
(WMD).
US State Department spokesman Adam Ereli
said it has been a challenge to safeguard Iraq's many
weapons sites. "We, from the very beginning of Operation
Iraqi Freedom, did everything we could to secure arms
caches throughout the country. But given the number of
arms and the number of caches and the extent of
militarization of Iraq, it was impossible to provide
100% security for 100% of the sites," Ereli said.
The latest report was made public by the agency
following an article about the missing explosives in
Monday's New York Times citing Iraqi, US, and UN
officials. Bush administration officials have since
stressed that no nuclear material was involved, but said
they are treating the report seriously.
But
weapons experts say the explosive material stored at
al-Qaqaa was widely known to be part of Iraq's nuclear
program.
"That was [the Iraqis'] premier site
for designing implosion devices, and they were certainly
using these materials to do that. And that's where the
experts were. So that was a site that everybody knew
about and that should have been a high priority for
securing," said Gary Milhollin, director of the
Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, a US-based
foundation that works to prevent the proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction.
David Kay, the
former chief US weapons inspector in Iraq, said that the
ongoing Iraqi insurgency is being "fueled" by such
incidents.
"The insurgency has been fueled by
Iraqi explosives that were there and left unguarded at
the end of the war and that the insurgents took [away],"
Kay said.
In el-Baradei's first report to the
Security Council this month, he reminded states of their
obligation to inform the IAEA about changes at sensitive
sites under agency review. The letter to the IAEA by
Muhammad Abbas of Iraq's Ministry of Science and
Technology said: "We feel an urgent updating of the
registered materials is required."
The report of
the missing explosives comes just one week ahead of the
US presidential election. The main challenger to US
President George W Bush is Democrat John Kerry, who used
the report to portray the administration as dangerously
unprepared to cope with the challenges in Iraq.
"In May of this year, the administration was
warned that terrorists may be helping themselves to,
quote - this was the warning - 'the greatest explosives
bonanza in history'. And now we know that our country
and our troops are less safe because this president
failed to do the basics. This is one of the great
additional blunders of Iraq," Kerry said.
The
IAEA left Iraq ahead of the US-led war to oust Iraqi
leader Saddam Hussein and has returned for two limited
visits. The UN body responsible for monitoring Iraq's
other WMD efforts - the United Nations Monitoring,
Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) - has
not returned to Iraq since the war, although it
continues to conduct surveillance of the country. The UN
Security Council is due to decide on the future role of
the two organizations in Iraq but has no immediate plans
to do so.
Meanwhile, criticism of the US's
handling of Iraq has come from an unlikely source, Iraqi
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
Allawi is blaming
US-led coalition forces for negligence in their handling
of security for 49 Iraqi National Guardsmen killed
recently in an ambush after leaving a training center.
Allawi called the killings of the unarmed soldiers "a
heinous crime" and accused coalition forces of "great
negligence". He did not elaborate.
Islamic
militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group claimed
responsibility for the attack, which took place on a
remote highway in eastern Iraq when the US-trained
soldiers were returning home on leave last Sunday. The
buses had no armed escort and the soldiers were not
carrying weapons.
Allawi told the Iraqi National
Council that the government expects an escalation in
terrorist acts ahead of January's scheduled elections.
Interior Minister Falah Hassan al-Naqib said Tuesday
that more than 560 people have been killed in 92 suicide
attacks in Iraq in the past four months.
Separately, an aide to al-Zarqawi was reportedly
killed on Tuesday in a US air strike in Fallujah, but
the military has yet to identify the person.
The
US has carried out almost-daily raids and air strikes on
Fallujah since stepping up an operation in the city on
October 14, with the aim of tracking down al-Zarqawi's
network and taking back the city from rebel control
before the elections scheduled for January.
In
related news, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi
said Japan won't yield to terrorism or withdraw its
troops from Iraq, in response to reports a group led by
al-Zarqawi have kidnapped a Japanese man. The group
claims to have abducted the Japanese national and will
behead him unless Japan's Self-Defense Force troops
leave Iraq, Arab television network al-Jazeera reported
on its website.
Japan has about 600 soldiers
based in Iraq, in what is the first Japanese overseas
military deployment under its own flag since World War
II. The troops are distributing aid and rebuilding roads
and other infrastructure.
(RFE/RL's Ryan
Gallagher contributed to this report.)
Copyright (c) 2004, RFE/RL Inc. Reprinted
with the permission of Radio
Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut
Ave NW, Washington DC 20036
