Update, updated

Updated More on the explosive explosives story via two stories from ABC News. Again, this may be info you already have - it's certainly been all over the blogs - but just in case you haven't.

First, from Wednesday, comes word that there might not be as much missing as was thought:

The information on which the Iraqi Science Ministry based an Oct. 10 memo in which it reported that 377 tons of RDX explosives were missing - presumably stolen due to a lack of security - was based on "declaration" from July 15, 2002. At that time, the Iraqis said there were 141 tons of RDX explosives at the facility.

But the confidential IAEA documents obtained by ABC News show that on Jan. 14, 2003, the agency's inspectors recorded that just over three tons of RDX were stored at the facility - a considerable discrepancy from what the Iraqis reported. ...

The IAEA documents from January 2003 found no discrepancy in the amount of the more dangerous HMX explosives thought to be stored at Al-Qaqaa, but they do raise another disturbing possibility.

The documents show IAEA inspectors looked at nine bunkers containing more than 194 tons of HMX at the facility. Although these bunkers were still under IAEA seal, the inspectors said the seals may be potentially ineffective because they had ventilation slats on the sides. These slats could be easily removed to remove the materials inside the bunkers without breaking the seals, the inspectors noted.

So there might have been 138 tons less there than thought, so "only" 239 tons are missing - and there was potentially a way to evade the IAEA seal on the remainder! Does this let the White House off the hook, at least theoretically?

Not quite.

The next night, ABC reported that

[b]arrels inside the Al-Qaqaa facility appear on videotape shot by ABC television affiliate KSTP of St. Paul, Minn., which had a crew embedded with the 101st Airborne Division when it passed through Al-Qaqaa on April 18, 2003 - nine days after Baghdad fell.

Experts who have studied the images say the barrels on the tape contain the high explosive HMX, and the U.N. markings on the barrels are clear. ...

The barrels were found inside sealed bunkers, which American soldiers are seen on the videotape cutting through. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency sealed the bunkers where the explosives were kept just before the war began.

"The seal's critical," [David] Albright[, president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington] said. "The fact that there's a photo of what looks like an IAEA seal means that what's behind those doors is HMX. They only sealed bunkers that had HMX in them."

That is, there is clear evidence that the explosives were still there on April 18 and so must have disappeared after that. ABC concludes

[i]t remains unclear how much HMX was at the facility, but what does seem clear is that the U.S. military opened the bunkers at Al-Qaqaa and left them unguarded.

Which, to hear the GOPpers tell it now, was the soldiers' fault - like they were supposed to ignore their orders and instead do something which they had not been ordered to do. Right.

Now, frankly, if they had disregarded their orders and said "this is too important, too dangerous, to leave unguarded so we're staying here until some arrangement can be made," I would have applauded them and supported them in their disobedience, so this is not just a matter of saying "they had to follow orders." But to hear the very same people who present the essence of patriotism as shouting "we love our soldiers!" louder than anyone else now blaming the stupidity and failures of DC higher-ups on those same soldiers is one measure of how low they will go.

Updated to identify Albright.