2004-10-29
This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English.
On Monday, the United Nations nuclear agency reported that three
hundred fifty metric tons of high explosives in Iraq were missing.
The materials were kept at a storage center at Al Qaqaa near
Baghdad.
United States officials say the explosives may have disappeared
before American forces occupied the capital. The International
Atomic Energy Agency, however, says American forces failed to secure
them after entering Baghdad in early April of last year.
Mohammed ElBaradei is the director general of the U.N. agency. He
reported the disappearance to the Security Council on Monday. The
New York Times newspaper and C.B.S. television had first reported
the story that same day.
Mister ElBaradei said Iraqi officials had informed him in early
October that the explosives were missing. They said the material
disappeared sometime after American-led coalition forces took
control of Baghdad.
U.N. nuclear inspectors had been supervising the explosives
because one possible use is to set off a nuclear bomb. The
inspectors said the explosives were still at Al Qaqaa during their
final visit on March ninth, before they left Iraq. The war began on
March twentieth of last year.
Defense Department officials say
they have evidence of Iraqi military activity at Al Qaqaa before the
war began. On Thursday they released a satellite picture. They said
it showed two Iraqi trucks parked outside a storage area several
days before the war started. American officials say this picture
proves that Iraqis were at Al Qaqaa after U.N. inspectors had left
the country.
The Defense Department says it is investigating what happened to
the missing explosives. American officials have suggested that the
explosives were probably removed by Saddam Hussein's forces before
the invasion. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said any large
effort to steal the material after that would have been discovered.
Officials say more than four hundred thousand tons of ammunition,
explosives and other material in Iraq have been seized or destroyed.
Still, the missing explosives have become an issue in the race for
the presidential election on Tuesday.
Democratic Senator John Kerry says the missing explosives are
more evidence that the administration is doing a bad job in Iraq.
President Bush accused his opponent of making "wild accusations"
before the facts are known.
Adding to the dispute was a report broadcast Thursday by A.B.C.
television. It showed images made by a news crew traveling with the
first American troops to arrive at Al Qaqaa. That was on April
eighteenth of last year, nine days after the fall of Baghdad and
Saddam Hussein.
The pictures showed what appeared to be high explosives in
containers with the markings of the I.A.E.A. There is disagreement,
however, if these were the same containers that held the explosives
that are now missing.
In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk.
This is Steve Ember.