Looting at Iraq Weapons Plants After Invasion - Large Weapons Cache Not Guarded by US

Looters systematically removed tons of equipment from Iraqi weapons facilities, including some with components capable of making parts of nuclear arms, in the weeks after Baghdad fell in 2003, The New York Times reported in Sunday editions. Citing Iraq's deputy minister of industry, Sami al-Araji, the paper reported a highly organized operation apparently pinpointed specific plants in a quest for valuable equipment, some of which had both civilian and military applications. "They came in with the cranes and the lorries, and they depleted the whole sites," the Times quoted Araji as saying. "They knew what they were doing; they knew what they want; this was sophisticated looting." The official based his account chiefly on observations by government employees and officials who either worked at the sites or lived nearby, the newspaper reported. The facilities, cited by the Bush administration as a reason for invading Iraq, were left largely unguarded by troops in the months after Baghdad fell.  [more]