Actually, what is becoming more interesting to me now is that the US government was informed by the IAEA of the need to secure Al-qaadaa - a key installation during Iraqs nuclear programme - in
May 2003. But no action was taken, and IIRC the government never actually responded to the warning or even displayed knowledge of it (with regard to the recent questions about the theft)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1026/dailyUpdate.html
Oh, and to follow up on the explosives "were they-weren't they there" aspect of the story, I found this
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/ ... index.html
In the NBC report cited by the Bush campaign, the reporter embedded with American troops when they visited Al Qaqaa on April 10, 2003, the day after Baghdad fell, said she did not see any explosives.
Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said the NBC report showed that Kerry's allegations were "baseless."
But the reporter, Lai Ling Jew, said in an interview Tuesday on the network's cable arm, MSNBC, that the 24-hour visit by elements of the 101st Airborne Division was "more of a pit stop."
U.S. troops did not conduct a detailed search of the compound nor did they try to prevent looting, she said.
The IAEA said Tuesday the last time it can vouch for the presence of the explosives at Al Qaqaa was in March 2003, before the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam.
IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said the agency warned U.S. officials in May 2003 that U.N. inspectors feared the site might have been looted.
On May 27, inspectors with the Iraq Survey Group -- the CIA-Pentagon task force set up to account for Saddam's suspected weapons programs -- arrived to inspect the compound and did not find the stockpile.
there's some serious communications problems there at the very least, I think. You have to be concerned if someone at the White House is ignoring / not getting warnings from the likes of the IAEA if they genuinely want to prevent proliferation of nukes et al.