It is a time of freedom and fear, of Gaia and of borders, of many paths and the widening of a universal toll road, emptying country and swelling cities, of the public bought into privacy and the privacy of the public sold into invisible data banks and knowing algorithms. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.

These are the times when maps fade and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread.

Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times.


380 Tons of High Explosives Missing From Iraq, thanks to US Government Inattention
Monday, October 25, 2004
 
Does the Bush administration make you safer?

Oh, really?

380 tons (that's 760,000 pounds) of high explosives have been looted from the Iraqi site of Al Qaqaa (sounds like "Deep Shit"), which was supposed to be under U.S. military control but the security of which has been neglected since the war began. The Bush administration has acknowledged that the 380 tons (that's 760,000 pounds) of high explosives disappeared on their watch, after April 2003, as a result of chaotic looting. The U.S. military knew about the site and the existence of the explosives, in no small part because the agency that George W. Bush termed "irrelevant," the IAEA, specifically informed the U.S. about it and told them they needed to guard the site. But looters were still picking over the site of Al Qaqaa as recently as yesterday.

How much is 380 tons (that's 760,000 pounds) of high explosives?
  • it would take 40 large trucks to hold all the explosives;
  • less than one pound of the sort of explosive gone missing was used to take down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland;
  • just five pounds could blow up a dozen jetliners;
  • 760,000 pounds makes one and a half million downed jetliners.

(Sources: New York Times October 25, 2004 and Associated Press October 25, 2004)

Has the Bush administration made you safer?


Posted by James Cook at 10:23 AM. # (permalink)



Comments:
I was just not going to vote on Election Day, because I couldn't stand either Bush or Kerry. But now? Kerry is irritating, but Bush is downright dangerous in his incompetence and the incompetence of those he chooses to put in charge. I'm voting Kerry just to make sure that Bush doesn't lose another 40 truckloads of high explosives.
 



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