Reply #6: Iraq weapons plants looted after invasion [View All]

[seemslikeadream]

Sun Mar 13, 2005 2:50 AM GMT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Looters systematically removed tons of equipment from Iraqi weapons facilities, including some with components capable of making parts of nuclear arms, in the weeks after Baghdad fell in 2003, The New York Times has reported.

Citing Iraq's deputy minister of industry, Sami al-Araji, the Sunday paper reported a highly organised operation apparently pinpointed specific plants in a quest for valuable equipment, some of which had both civilian and military applications.

"They came in with the cranes and the lorries, and they depleted the whole sites," the Times quoted Araji as saying. "They knew what they were doing; they knew what they want; this was sophisticated looting."

...

The facilities, cited by the Bush administration as a reason for invading Iraq, were left largely unguarded by troops in the months after Baghdad fell. Senior U.N. agency officials confirmed that satellite images confirmed that some of the sites said to have been looted did appear to be totally or partially stripped, the Times report said.

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http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-03-13T024937Z_01_HOL309909_RTRUKOC_0_IRAQ-LOOTING-REPORT.xml