Late Monday, the mystery took another twist -- NBC News, which had a crew embedded with the U.S. military during the invasion, reported that the material had already vanished by the time American troops arrived there on April 10, 2003, the day after Baghdad fell. (Report: Explosives already gone when U.S. troops arrived) http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/26/iraq.explosives/index.html
The Bush camp wasted little time in firing back, firing off a statement saying that Kerry's criticism of the president over the missing material has "been proven false before the day is over."
"John Kerry's attacks today were baseless," Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said. "He said American troops did not secure the explosives, when the explosives were already missing."
Schmidt also said that Kerry "neglects to mention the 400,000 tons of weapons and explosives that are either destroyed or in the process of being destroyed" in Iraq.
But Kerry senior adviser Joe Lockhart fired back with a statement of his own, accusing the Bush campaign of "distorting" the NBC News report.
"In a shameless attempt to cover up its failure to secure 380 tons of highly explosive material in Iraq, the White House is desperately flailing in an effort to escape blame," Lockhart said. "It is the latest pathetic excuse from an administration that never admits a mistake, no matter how disastrous."...
Lockhart did not elaborate on how the Bush campaign was distorting the NBC report.....
That's odd. Lockhart is usually so talkative.
NYT article by Sanger is still spinning this, saying the Bush camp scrambled to get to the bottom of this and that the Atomic International warned the White house. CNN just said Bush says they MAY have disappeared before invasion. This is unreal...everyone spinning and no one telling the truth.