Since there is no link or date for Deny's report below I had to dig it up separately.

I looked at this columnist's column in the Toronto Sun.  Yes there is an article he wrote regarding this cache.  But the words are all different.

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Toronto/Peter_Worthington/2004/10/24/682903.html

I tried Googling the title: "stuns canucks" but nothing turned up.

BT


Tracy Johnson
MSI Schaevitz Sensors 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
> Behalf Of Denys Beauchemin
> Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 9:15 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [HP3000-L] OT:Weapons cache stuns Canucks
> 
> 
> By PETER WORTHINGTON  Toronto Sun Columnist
> 
> Canadian soldiers attached to the Afghan National Army (ANA) 
> have stirred up a hornet's nest in Kabul by being too efficient.
> 
> They've "discovered" a huge Soviet ammunition dump a few 
> kilometres from Camp Julien with the potential of 
> obliterating the camp, as well as most of Kabul.
> 
> That may sound like hyperbole, but I was with the Canadians 
> who discovered the cache -- soldiers (mostly Princess Pats 
> and combat engineers) who are training and working with the 
> ANA and consider themselves to have the best job in the army.
> 
> In the dusty foothills, 10 minutes drive from Camp Julien 
> (population 2,000), 82 buried bunkers, each 20-
> 
> metres long, housed thousands of Soviet FROG missiles (one 
> step down from Scud missiles), and every variety of rocket 
> and mortar shells.
> 
> Some of the FROG missiles were still in their original cases. 
> Some heaped in the open. Some stacked to the roof in the 
> unlocked, open bunkers. Much of the ordnance had warheads 
> removed to collect the explosive for homemade bombs -- or for 
> blasting at a nearby quarry.
> 
> "Unbelievable!" was Maj. Brian Hynes' reaction when he saw 
> them. "We (troops of the International Security Assistance 
> Force (ISAF)) have been here some two years, and no one knew 
> this was at our back door. Unbelievable."
> 
> In truth, the Soviet bunkers were well-known in an area 
> supposedly under control of the Afghan Militia Force (AMF) -- 
> not to be confused with the ANA. The AMF is paid by various 
> warlords and so their loyalty is to them.
> 
> The hero of the discovery was combat engineer Sgt. Mike 
> Mazerolle of New Brunswick, who has run the observation post 
> for eight days with ANA soldiers. They watch the valleys 
> leading to Kabul.
> 
> He saw people to his rear so he investigated and found the 82 
> bunkers "loaded with ordnance, and here I am sleeping next to a FROG!"
> 
> He informed his boss, Maj. Hynes and -- eureka -- the cache 
> was discovered.
> 
> Many of the rockets, missiles and shells had been pried open 
> for the explosives, which are used peacefully to blast 
> mountain rock into gravel, and by those who want to make 
> bombs that disrupt Kabul.
> 
> "These bunkers have been known for two years but no one 
> bothered to check them," said Maj. Hynes.
> 
> "To me, that's incompetence."
> 
> "To me it's criminal," said Sgt. Power, who works with the 
> major in training the ANA.
> 
> I've never seen anything like it. The feeling is that AMF 
> soldiers were selling access to the dump or permitting 
> friends to enter it.
> 
> Littered with burned out Soviet military vehicles, the whole 
> area is a junk pile strewn with every sort of live 
> ammunition, fuses, unexploded shells, rockets, etc., all 
> supposedly under the authority of Belgian troops (at the 
> moment), who ignored it.
> 
> In the midst of examining the bunkers and taking photos, a 
> Swedish UN guy, a French major and a German colonel arrived 
> to make a fuss and order the Canadians to leave. The French 
> major insisted his government had a deal with the Afghan 
> government for the area, and ISAF had no business being there.
> 
> This cut little ice with Maj. Hynes, who is responsible -- 
> not to the commander of Camp Julien, Col. Jim Ellis -- but to 
> the ANA, which has now moved in to secure the site.
> 
> The French major was clearly bluffing, hadn't checked the 
> bunkers and got a classic Canadian roasting from Maj. Hynes 
> -- who was supported by a German general who was also 
> appalled at the laxity.
> 
> "Now we've stirred up the hornet's nest," grinned Maj. Hynes. 
> "Good. Now we may get some action."
> 
> "I feel foolish that for eight days we've been watching our 
> front, when at our back all this was going on and nobody 
> cared," said Sgt. Mazerolle.
> 
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