Russian special forces troops moved many of Saddam Hussein’s weapons and related goods out of Iraq and into Syria in the weeks before the March 2003 U.S. military operation, The Washington Times has learned.John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, said in an interview that he believes the Russian troops, working with Iraqi intelligence, “almost certainly” removed the high-explosive material that went missing from the Al-Qaqaa facility, south of Baghdad.

I had been avoiding politics for the last two weeks since the passions are great and the news appeared to be tainted by the election. However, the story about the missing explosives I found to be pretty interesting. I was particularly interested in how over 300 tons of high explosive was moved. I am not an expert but I consider it highly unlikely that 300 tons of high explosive could be pilfered gradually in a war zone without an incident. It is much more likely that it was moved at one time by an organized and well trained team before the war started. Since we did not hear or see an explosion all of the men were probably well trained to handle explosives. This limits the list of suspects. Russian special forces are a logical choice. Before the war started Russia would have had the opportunity, trained personnel who could complete the task, and the motive of protecting/hiding Russian military contributions and political interests.