JOURNALISTS, MUNITION DUMPS & FREDO

AP reports that ABC News co-anchor Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt were seriously injured by an IED:

Jan 29, 12:18 PM EST
ABC's Woodruff, cameraman injured in Iraq
By DAVID BAUDER
AP Television Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- ABC News co-anchor Bob Woodruff and a cameraman were seriously injured Sunday when the Iraqi Army vehicle they were traveling in was attacked and an explosive device went off.
The two journalists were with U.S. and Iraqi troops near Taji, about 12 miles north of Baghdad, ABC News President David Westin said. Both suffered serious head injuries and underwent surgery at a U.S. military hospital in the area, the network said.

Although just one of many journalist casualties to date, perhaps this will raise the public's consciousness about just how dangerous Iraq is and maybe put a damper on the wingnuts who complain that the media isn't reporting all the good news from Iraq. As of now, 61 journalists have died in not quite 3 years, a total approaching the 71 killed in Vietnam from 1962-1975.

Aother angle on this story is the munition dumps that were left unguarded because we didn't have enough troops. From the same AP story:

Lara Logan, a CBS News correspondent who has covered Iraq, said the Taji area is considered particularly dangerous because it was the site of one of Saddam Hussein's munitions dumps. Many of the explosives are believed to have gotten into the hands of insurgents, she said.

In the summer of '04, when the al Qaaqa site was discovered to have been left unguarded and as a result looted, news broke that this was a common occurrence in Iraq:

Vast amounts of weapons-related material missing, official says
By Jonathan S. Landay
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The more than 320 tons of missing Iraqi high explosives at center stage in the U.S. presidential election are only a fraction of the weapons-related material that's disappeared in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion last year.

Huge amounts of arms and ammunition were stolen from military sites, and there's "ample evidence" that Iraqi insurgents are firing looted weapons at U.S. troops and using some of them in car bombs and improvised explosive devices, said a senior U.S. intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"That was one of numerous times when Iraqis warned us that ammo dumps and other places were being looted and we weren't able to respond because we didn't have anyone to send," said a senior U.S. military officer who served in Iraq.

Al Qaqaa was one of some 900 known weapons sites in Iraq that U.S. experts estimated held more than 650,000 tons of munitions.

The Defense Department contends that the U.S.-led military coalition has destroyed or secured 402,000 tons of munitions. That leaves at least 248,000 tons still unaccounted for.