Cache of explosives 145;missing146; from Iraq

The Iraqi interim government has warned the US and international nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tonnes of powerful conventional explosiv...

The Iraqi interim government has warned the US and international nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tonnes of powerful conventional explosives8212;used to demolish buildings, produce missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons8212; are missing from one of Iraq8217;s most sensitive former military installations.

The huge facility, called Al Qaqaa, was supposed to be under US Military control but is now a no-man8217;s land, still picked over by looters as recently as Sunday.

UN weapons inspectors had monitored the explosives for many years, but White House and Pentagon officials acknowledge that the explosives vanished after the US invasion last year.

The White House said President Bush8217;s National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, was informed last month that the explosives were missing. It is unclear whether Bush was informed.

US officials have never publicly announced the disappearance, but beginning last week they answered questions about it posed by the New York Times and the CBS News program 60 Minutes.

Administration officials said yesterday that the Iraq Survey Group, the CIA task force that searched for unconventional weapons, has been ordered to investigate the disappearance of the explosives.

US weapons experts say their immediate concern is that the explosives could be used in major bombing attacks against US or Iraqi forces: The explosives, mainly HMX and RDX, could be used to produce bombs strong enough to shatter airplanes or tear apart buildings.

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The explosives could also be used to trigger a nuclear weapon, which was why international nuclear inspectors had kept a watch on the material, and even sealed and locked some of it.

The International Atomic Energy Agency publicly warned about the danger of these explosives and specifically told US officials about the need to keep the explosives secured, European diplomats said in interviews last week.

Administration officials say that they cannot explain why the explosives were not being safeguarded.

The Qaqaa facility, about 30 miles south of Baghdad, was well known to US intelligence officials: Saddam Hussein made conventional warheads at the site, and the IAEA dismantled parts of his nuclear program there in the early 1990s after the Gulf War in 1991. 8212;NYT