So. The Russians took it. Sometime between April 3rd and April 6th, the Russians got 377 tons of "stuff" out of the IAEA sealed areas at the al-Qa'qa' Governmental Enterprise in Yousefiya 30-38 km South of Baghdad, near Iskandariya onto trains of camels, and snuck quietly across the desert, disapearing in the direction of Syria. Or Iran. It would require 40 loads of the Army's 10-ton, heavy expanded mobility tactical truck (HEMTT), or load-equivalent tractor-trailors.
Meanwhile, the Russian embassy in Baghdad was bombed, and the Russian mission to Baghdad ambushed on a highway as it attempted to get out of Iraq, in a couple of staff cars, both by US forces.
Click here to see a large (800 x 680) sat photo of the complex.
I almost expect to see Baghdad Bob, in mufti drag, on today's news shows, shoulder to shoulder with Rumsfeld and whoever else is doing the public face of this misdirection op, pointing in the direction of Damascus (stage left) and Tehran (stage right), and gobbling on about crafty Russians and diabolical Arabo-Persians and/or flying carpets and/or 40 invisible heavy trucks "convoyed" by jubulant Smoky-and-the-Bandit fans (turbans vs Stars and Stripes verison, with subtitles).
For my own research I have copied the Ramzaj group's work product which appeared at the iraqwar.ru website from March 17 to April 8, 2003, and I'm making it available here. I've copied over the Venik Aviation gif, and commented out the webcounterish cruft that delays loading. These are located in the iraqwar.ru directory, and the naming convention is iraqwar_ru_0xx.htm, where "xx" takes on values between "01" (start date) and "28" (end date). They are linked, and starting at the end and working backwards is probably as useful as any approach to work with the best contemporanious data available on the disposition of forces for the dates of interest. Here is the endpoint: link. Enjoy.
Update: Golly Gee! A repeat reader from ...
iaea.org - - [28/Oct/2004:10:19:29 -0400] "GET /iraqwar.ru/iraqwar_ru_028.htm HTTP/1.0" 200 9842
Glad to be of help. Lackland AFB (Associated Command(s)) readers, you already have this stuff. Get back to work.
See archives/001263.html for some other tracking.
Posted by EBW at October 28, 2004 06:53 AM | TrackBackAccording to Kos, the Pentagon already knows when and who took the stuff; it's just a matter of time before the rest of us find out:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/10/28/1378/0488
Posted by: laservisor at October 28, 2004 09:40 AMI've already seen Wathiq al-Dulaimi's account, about 12 hours ago in the NYTimes. He was a regional security chief, who was based in Latifiya, which is actually part of the al Qa'qa' complex.
The reference photo is the same one I have a link to, and the rest of the trucks-and-cranes, well, they are of dubious value.
I don't buy the eyes-on-all-the-time theory.
I can't imagine the Blue player diverting NRO assets away from Red player forward echelons to any non-C4I/Air targets in metro-Baghdad, and after the roll-up to 1 April, the site was within the FEBA and relevant only for its defensive capabilities.
If its not a target, don't look at it.
Posted by: Eric at October 28, 2004 10:02 AM