2A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, October 28, 2004 NATION/WORLD .4 Miar did not secure explosives NEWS IN BRIEF The Associated Press - A U.S.S[ nilitary unit that reached a muni- dzers had no orders to sarch amtninn e er i eons storage installation after the invasion of Iraq had no orders to Search or secure the site, where offi- clals say nearly 400 tons of explo- sves have vanished. Looters were already through- put the Al-Qaqaa installation south tf Baghdad when troops from the JOlst Airborne Division's 2nd Bri- gade arrived at the site a day or so after other coalition troops seized the capital on April 9, 2003, Lt. Col. ired Wellman, deputy public affairs officer for the unit, told The Associ- ated Press. The soldiers "secured the area they were in and looked in a limited amount of bunkers to ensure chemi- cal weapons were not present in their area," Wellman wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "Bombs were found but not chemical weapons in that immediate area. "Orders were not given from high- er to search or to secure the facility or to search for HE type munitions, as they (high-explosive weapons) were everywhere in Iraq," he wrote. A U.N. official said Al-Qaqaa installation was believed to be the only site in Iraq where high explo- sives such as HMX, RDX and PETN were stored. When Iraq declared the explosives after the 1991 Gulf War, IAEA experts concentrated them at Al-Qaqaa so they could be moni- tored by U.N. nuclear inspectors, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. HMX and RDX are key compo- nents in plastic explosives, which insurgents in Iraq have used in bomb attacks. HMX is also a "dual use" wvr v vv v V ut l/I G l-Lll UU4/l uuuu"l Lt? JGGG substance powerful enough to ignite the fissile material in an atomic bomb and set off a nuclear chain reaction. The disappearance of the explosives - first reported in Monday's New York Times - has raised questions about why the United States didn't do more to secure the facility and failed to allow full international inspections to resume after the invasion. It has also become a heated issue in the U.S. presidential campaign. The Kerry campaign called the dis- appearance the latest in a "tragic series of blunders" by the Bush administration in Iraq. Vice President Dick Cheney raised the possibility the explosives disappeared before U.S. soldiers could secure the site, and he com- plained that Kerry does not mention the "400,000 tons of weapons and explosives that our troops have cap- tured." The 101st Airborne was at least the second military unit to arrive at Al-Qaqaa after the U.S.-led invasion began. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told The Washington Post that the 3rd Infantry Division reached the site around April 3, fought with Iraq forces and occupied the site. It left after two days for Baghdad, the Post reported yesterday. AP Correspondent Chris Tomlin- son, who was embedded with the 3rd Infantry but didn't go to Al-Qaqaa, described the search of Iraqi mili- tary facilities south of Baghdad as brief, cursory missions to seek out hostile troops, not to inventory or Signs point to key showdown in Ira BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - An uptick in airstrikes and other military moves point to an imminent showdown between U.S. forces and Sunni Muslim insurgents west of Baghdad - a deci- sive battle that could determine whether the campaign to bring democracy and stability to Iraq can succeed. American officials have not con- firmed a major assault is near against the insurgent bastions of Fallujah and npighboring Ramadi. But Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has warned Fallujah leaders that force will be used if they do not hand over extrem- ists, including terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. A similar escalation in U.S. military actions and Iraqi government warnings occurred before a major offensive in Najaf forced militiamen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to give up that holy city in late August. And U.S. apd Iraqi troops retook Samarra from insurgents early this month. Now U.S. airstrikes on purported al- Zarqawi positions in three neighborhoods of eastern and northern Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, have, increased. And residents reported this week that Marines appeared to be reinforcing forward posi- tions near key areas of the city. Other mili- tary units are on the move, including 800 British soldiers headed north to the U.S.- cgntrolled zone. , The goal of an attack would be to restore government control in time for national elections by the end of January. However, an all-out assault on the scale of April's siege of Fallujah would carry enormous risk - both political and military - for the Americans and their Iraqi allies. A series of policy mistakes by the U.S. military and the Bush administra- tion have transformed Fallujah from a shabby, dusty backwater known region- ally for mosques and tasty kebabs into a symbol of Arab pride and defiance of the United States throughout the Islamic world. A videotape obtained yesterday by Associated Press Television News fea- tured a warning by masked gunmen that if Fallujah is subjected to an all-out assault, they will strike "with weapons and military tactics" that the Americans and their allies "have not experienced before." Regardless of whether the threat was an empty boast, insurgents elsewhere in Iraq could be expected to step up attacks to try to relieve pressure on fighters in the Fallujah and Ramadi areas. But the main problem an assault would pose for both the U.S. military and Allawi's government is political, such as a widespread public backlash. A nationwide association of Sunni cler- ics also has threatened to urge a boycott of the January elections if U.S. forces storm Fallujah. So Iraqi officials appear anxious to convince the public that they have made every effort to solve the Fallujah crisis peacefully. The government spin is that VIENNA, Austria Iran rejects Halt on nuclear program Iran ruled out a total suspension of uranium enrichment yesterday as a second round of talks with European negotiators failed to produce an agreement aimed at avoiding a showdown and the possible threat of U.N. sanctions. Britain, France and Germany have offered Iran incentives in return for assuranc- es that Iran will stop enrichment, which can produce fuel for both nuclear energy and atomic weaponry. "Total suspension will not be accepted under any circumstances," said Sirus Naseri, a member of the Iranian delegation that met in Vienna with the Euro- pean envoys. Naseri said Iran was still trying to work out a compromise with the Europeans. "We're negotiating," he said. "We're trying to come to an agreement. The next meeting will be soon." The British Foreign Office said a third round of talks would be held "shortly." "Some progress was made towards identifying the elements of a common approach towards the issues," a Foreign Office spokesman in London said. The deal aims at easing fears in the United States and Europe that Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons. RAMALLAH, West Bank Arafat collapses as health declines Yasser Arafat collapsed yesterday evening, was unconscious for about 10 minutes and remained in a "very difficult situation," Palestinian officials said. A team of Jorda- nian doctors was urgently summoned to treat the ailing Palestinian leader. Within hours, three senior Palestinian officials formed a special committee to run Palestinian affairs during Arafat's illness, according to a Palestinian official in Arafat's office. The committee includes Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, his prede- cessor, Mahmoud Abbas, and Salim Zaanoun, head of the Palestinian National Council. The committee was to run the PLO and the Palestinian Authority until Arafat recovers, the official said on condition of anonymity. Arafat was eating soup during a meeting with Qureia, Abbas and another offi- cial between 8 and 9 p.m. local time when he vomited, according to a bodyguard who was in the compound at the time. The 75-year-old Arafat was brought to the clinic inside the compound, where he collapsed and was unconscious for about 10 minutes, the guard said. His doctors were urgently summoned. MOSCOW Kyoto Protocol one step away from law The Kyoto Protocol overcame its final legislative hurdle in Russia when the upper house of parliament ratified the global climate pact yesterday and sent it on to President Vladimir Putin for his signature - setting the stage for the treaty to come into force next year. Putin's stamp of approval is considered a formality, but the Kremlin has given no indication of when he will sign the pact, which seeks to slow global warming by reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. Russia's adoption is the final step needed among major industrial countries after the treaty was rejected by the United States, which alone accounted for 36 percent of carbon dioxide emissions in 1990. The proto- col requires ratification by 55 industrialized nations, accounting for at least 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions in 1990, to go into effect. STRASBOURG, France EU president withdraws exec. team proposal Incoming European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso withdrew his proposed 24-member executive team from consideration by the European Parliament yesterday, realizing he faced an unprecedented rejection. Barroso's team faced almost certain defeat because of strong opposition to Italy's Rocco Buttiglione, the proposed justice commissioner, who called homosexuality a sin and has been criticized for his conservative views on women and marriage. "The outcome would not be positive," Barroso said of the aborted vote by the 732- member legislature. 44 U.S Army Sgt. Jessie Jackson screams in pain from shrapnel wounds while being evacuated in a helicopter with Spc. Dustin Hughes from a base north of Baghdad, Iraq, yesterday. 0 0 the people of Fallujah are held as virtual hostages of armed foreign terrorists. Although Fallujah leaders insist there are no more than a few foreign fighters in the city, Arab journalists who have visited say they heard non-Iraqi accents at some checkpoints. U.S. and Iraqi officials hope the Iraqi people are so fed up with suicide attacks, assassinations and kidnappings - many of them believed orchestrated from Fallujah and Ramadi - that they will acquiesce to the use of force. "There are terror groups in this city who are taking human shields," Iraq's deputy prime minister for national securi- ty, Barham Saleh, said yesterday, referring to Fallujah. "We are working hard to rid the people of Fallujah of them and to let security and stability prevail across Iraq." _A - Compiled from Daily wire reports MARKET UPDATE WED. CLOSE CHANGE www.michigandaily.com The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Mondays during the spring and summer terms by students at the University of Michigan. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in September, via U.S. mail are $110. Winter term (January through April) is $115, yearlong (September through April) is $195. University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription rate. 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