Are they RDX or HMX?

The substance in the bunker is
HMX, at least according to David Kay. In an interview with CNN, Kay analyzes
the material seen in the video. The close up of the white powder stored in
barrels described by David Kay is in this still
from Fox News.

BROWN: I don't know how better to do this than to show you some pictures,
have you explain to me what they are or are not, OK? First, I'll just call it
the seal and tell me if this is an IAEA seal on that bunker at that munitions
dump.

KAY: Aaron, as about as certain as I can be looking at a picture, not
physically holding it, which obviously I would have preferred to have been
there, that's an IAEA seal. I've never seen anything else in Iraq in about 15
years of being in Iraq and around Iraq that was other than an IAEA seal of
that shape.

BROWN: And was there anything else at the facility that would have been
under IAEA seal?

KAY: Absolutely nothing. It was the HMX, RDX, the two high explosives.

BROWN: OK. Now, I want to take a look at the barrels here for a second and
you can tell me what they tell you. They obviously to us just show us a bunch
of barrels. You'll see it somewhat differently.

KAY: Well, it's interesting. There were three foreign suppliers to Iraq of
this explosive in the 1980s. One of them used barrels like this and inside the
barrel is a bag. HMX is in powdered form because you actually use it to shape
a spherical lens that is used to create the triggering device for nuclear
weapons.

And, particularly on the videotape, which is actually better than the still
photos, as the soldier dips into it that's either HMX or RDX. I don't know of
anything else in al Qa Qaa that was in that form.

BROWN: Let me ask you then, David, the question I asked Jamie. In regard to
the dispute about whether that stuff was there when the Americans arrived, is
it game, set, match? Is that part of the argument now over?

KAY: Well, at least with regard to this one bunker and the film shows one
seal, one bunker, one group of soldiers going through and there were others
there that were sealed, with this one, I think it is game, set and match.

There was HMX, RDX in there. The seal was broken and quite frankly to me
the most frightening thing is not only is the seal broken and the lock broken
but the soldiers left after opening it up. I mean to rephrase the so-called
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) rule if you open an arms bunker, you own it. You have to
provide security.

BROWN: That raises a number of questions. Let me throw out one. It suggests
that maybe they just didn't know what they had.

KAY: I think quite likely they didn't know they had HMX, which speaks to
the lack of intelligence given troops moving through that area but they
certainly knew they had explosives.

And to put this in context, I think it's important this loss of 360 tons
but Iraq is awash with tens of thousands of tons of explosives right now in
the hands of insurgents because we did not provide the security when we took
over the country.

The Belmont Club received an email from reader N, who says he is
a retired EOD officer. It is reproduced below.

As a retired Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) officer I have some problems
with the Channel 5 story. It appears to me that they are in a bunker filled
with blasting agents (slower detonation rates for moving rock, see link below
on detonation rates) . First we see boosters, (they would commonly be inserted
into a bag of ANFO(ammonium nitrate fuel oil) or nitro starch for blasting.
Then we see what is described as dynamite but is more likely TNT or wrapped
nitro starch (see GI story below) and lastly those big cardboard barrels which
appear to be a white powder. Note the number beside the 1.1D placard on the
barrel, it says 239. Now 239 may very well be the U. N. number system for
ammunition and explosives (see first link below). The U. S. does not utilize
the U. N. system nor does the former USSR or it's satellites. When I was in
Bosnia we put the Bosnians on the UN system to get some organization
established for safety purposes. Please note the first site below from
Australia and we can see they are most probably on the UN system: (239
NITROSTARCH, dry or wetted with less than 20% water, by mass). Common sense to
me would be that HMX, one of the most powerful and expensive explosives WOULD
NOT BE PACKAGED IN CARDBOARD BARRELS!

The much anticipated testimony from 3ID personnel that they moved explosives
from Al Qa Qaa does not clarify matters much. Fox
News reports that:

WASHINGTON � A U.S. Army officer came forward Friday to say a team from
his 3rd Infantry Division took about 250 tons of munitions and other material
from the Al-Qaqaa (search) arms-storage facility soon after Saddam Hussein's
regime fell in April 2003. Explosives were part of the load taken by the team,
but Major Austin Pearson was unable to say what percentage they accounted for.

The Pentagon believes the disclosure helps explain what happened to 377
tons of high explosives that the International Atomic Energy Agency (search)
said disappeared after the U.S.-led invasion. Pentagon spokesman Larry DiRita
acknowledged the Defense Department did not have all the answers and could not
yet account for all of the missing explosives, but stressed that the major's
disclosure was a significant development in unraveling the mystery.
"We've described what we know, and as we know more we'll describe
that," said DiRita.

The Washington
Post has more:

Maj. Austin Pearson, speaking at a press conference at the Pentagon, said
his team removed 250 tons of TNT, plastic explosives, detonation cords, and
white phosporous rounds on April 13, 2003 -- 10 days after U.S. forces first
reached the Qaqaa site. "I did not see any IAEA seals at any of the
locations we went into. I was not looking for that," Pearson said.

Di Rita sought to point to Pearson's comments as evidence that some RDX,
one of the high-energy explosives, might have been removed from the site. RDX
is also known as plastic explosive. But Di Rita acknowledged: "I can't
say RDX that was on the list of IAEA is what the major pulled out. ... We
believe that some of the things they were pulling out of there were RDX."

This does not bear directly on what was in the 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS video,
because we have no way of knowing whether Major Pearson is talking about the
same bunker. Here's the data so far.

March 17, 2003	DOD overhead showing trucks loading material from the Al Qa Qaa IAEA site
April 4, 2003	A 3ID searches the area, finds thousands of boxes containing 3 vials of white powder and chemical warfare instructions.
April 10, 2003	An NBC news team embedded with 101st Airborne tours through the area. Sees little.
April 13, 2003	Major Austin Pearson removes 250 tons of explosive from the area. Sees no IAEA seal.
April 18, 2003	5 EYEWITNESS NEWS team shoots video showing a bunker with what looks like an intact IAEA seal, plus video of carboard barrels with small bags of material which David Kay identifies as RDX.

The unknowns are:

1. What were in those cardboard barrels? How much HMX could have been in
   them?


2. Did Pearson examine the same bunker the 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS team videotaped?
   How did the seals get back on if so.


3. What bunker was being unloaded in the DOD video? Was this the same bunker
   the 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS team entered?