Media Shamelessly Shilling for Kerry and Kerry Brazenly Lying

On Monday, The New York Times reported that 380 tons of conventional explosives were missing from an Iraqi weapons facility. The Times blamed President George W. Bush for not securing the dangerous explosives immediately after U.S. forces toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime. It was an explosive story timed for maximum political effect. Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry welcomed the news and made it the centerpiece of his campaign speeches, citing the missing explosives as an example of Bush’s failure of leadership. There is only one problem – the story was false. The truth is the explosives were removed before American troops arrived.

Of course, Kerry still pounded the story as if it were true. Even a day after the truth was published in numerous other media sources, Kerry continued to repeat the discredited story and continued to blame Bush for a failure of leadership that simply did not occur. Kerry has been blaming Bush for every conceivable problem. I half expect him to blame Bush for milk spoiling when its left out on the counter too long and to announce that he has a “better plan.”

Here’s the truth the Times did not bother to report and that Kerry chose to ignore. In the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom, American troops raced towards Baghdad through the desert. The 101st Airborne Division was the first to arrive at the Al Qaqaa weapons facility located just 30 miles outside Baghdad. This is where the 380 tons of explosives were supposed to be. But, the NBC News camera crew embedded with the 101st Airborne Division reported that there was no HMX and no RDX, the powerful explosives that were reportedly stored at Al Qaqaa.

Simply stated, the 380 tons of high explosives that the Times says went missing after the Americans arrived, were actually missing before the 101st Airborne Division arrived on April 10, 2003.

It is interesting that neither Kerry nor the Times mention that U.S. forces have secured more than 400,000 tons of explosives in Iraq – making the missing 380 tons less than 1/10th of 1% of the explosives U.S. forces have found and are destroying in Iraq.

Perhaps Saddam moved the explosives shortly after the weapons inspectors identified them. Perhaps they were moved days before the war began. But we know with certainty that the explosives were not there when American troops first rolled into the Al Qaqaa weapons facility as Baghdad was liberated.

John Kerry dishonestly jumped on the false explosives story even after it was discredited because he is losing a close election and needs something to change current trends. Kerry has lied throughout the campaign – falsely claiming to have met with members of the UN Security Council and consistently reciting wildly false employment numbers and absurdly exaggerated costs for the war in Iraq, to name only three examples. The truth has never been particularly important to Kerry. In 1971, Kerry gave perjurious testimony to Congress when he falsely accused American soldiers of widespread war crimes. During his undistinguished Senate career, truth has often been a casualty of political ambition.

The New York Times revealed its rather obvious bias by jumping to a false conclusion that served its political purposes and reinforced its biases. The Times was willing to overlook the lack of factual support for the story. It is reminiscent of Dan Rather’s and CBS News’ recent fraudulent document scandal.

It is interesting that before being “scooped” by the Times, CBS had planned to run with the false “missing explosives” story only two days before Election Day. Apparently, CBS was prepared to launch yet another false and politically motivated story – this one on election eve so that no effective response could be made.

The New York Times, CBS News and many others in the “mainstream” media are shameless. They feign impartiality, pretend to be honest, and become angry at the mere suggestion of bias. Yet there can be no doubt. They are shills for John Kerry. They have repeatedly demonstrated their bias. Both the Times and CBS were once respected news organizations. Today, they survive on past accomplishments. They are no longer reputable news sources. They are little more than special interest groups campaigning for Kerry. Little wonder fewer and fewer people watch or subscribe.

Mr. Landrith is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was Business Editor of the Virginia Journal of Law and Politics. He had a successful law practice in business and litigation. In 1994 and 1996, Mr. Landrith was a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's Fifth Congressional District. He served on the Albemarle County School Board. Mr. Landrith is an adjunct professor at the George Mason School of Law. He is recognized as an authority on constitutional law and jurisprudence, federalism, global warming, and property rights.

They definitely are working together. If you go back to the first debate (Sept. 30, 2004), Kerry said this:

That's exactly where we find ourselves today. There's a sense of American occupation. The only building that was guarded when the troops when into Baghdad was the oil ministry. We didn't guard the nuclear facilities.

Footnote: Al Qaqaa: Iraq Special Weapons Facilities (including nuclear weapons)...Iraq made significant progress in the development of the nuclear weapon implosion package, largely through efforts at the Al Qa Qaa establishment.

And in the 2nd debate (Oct. 8, 2004) he said this:

KERRY: A president's job is to win the peace. The president did not do what was necessary. Didn't bring in enough nation. Didn't deliver the help. Didn't close off the borders. Didn't even guard the ammo dumps. And now our kids are being killed with ammos right out of that dump.

Note the dates of those comments and compare them to the date of the NYT/CBS story about missing explosives at Al Qaqaa.

Yes, they're working together. And thanks to WPtG for this.

101st NOT the first to go in -- 3rd ID on before April 4th, 2003
Here is a CBS article from their archives (how ironic!)

Actual CBS story -- http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/04/04/iraq/printable547667.shtml

INDICATES searched widely.

U.S. Searches 'Suspicious' Iraqi Site
NEAR BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 4, 2003

U.S. troops found thousands of boxes of white powder, nerve agent antidote and Arabic documents on how to engage in chemical warfare at an industrial site south of Baghdad. But a senior U.S. official familiar with initial testing said the materials were believed to be explosives.

Col. John Peabody, engineer brigade commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, said the materials were found Friday at the Latifiyah industrial complex just south of Baghdad.

"It is clearly a suspicious site," Peabody said.

CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports that the hunt for weapons of mass destruction continues at sites where the U.S. thought chemicals weapons might be hidden.

"And although there are no reports of actual weapons being found, there are constant finds of suspicious material," Martin said. "It obviously will take laboratory testing to find out exactly what that powder is."

The senior U.S. official, based in Washington and speaking on condition of anonymity, said the material was under further study. The site is enormous and U.S. troops are still investigating it for potential weapons of mass destruction, the official said.

"Initial reports are that the material is probably just explosives, but we're still going through the place," the official said.

Peabody said troops found thousands of boxes, each of which contained three vials of white powder, together with documents written in Arabic that dealt with how to engage in chemical warfare.

He also said they discovered atropine, used to counter the effects of nerve agents.

The facility had been identified by the International Atomic Energy Agency as a suspected chemical, biological and nuclear weapons site. U.N. inspectors visited the plant at least nine times, including as recently as Feb. 18.

The facility is part of a larger complex known as the Latifiyah Explosives and Ammunition Plant al Qa Qaa.

During the 1991 Gulf War, U.S. jets bombed the plant.

Troops also discovered what they believe is a training center for nuclear, chemical and biological warfare in Iraq's western desert, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said Friday.

One bottle found at the site was labeled "tabun" — a nerve agent that the U.S. government says may have been used during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. The soldiers found only a small amount of the chemical, indicating the site was meant for training, not storing or deploying chemical weapons, Brooks said.

"In that particular site, we believe that was the only sample," Brooks said. "That's why we believe it was a training site. Our conclusion is that this was not a (weapons of mass destruction) site ... it proved to be far less than that."

Photos of the site showed shelves of brown bottles with yellow labels. Brooks said troops did not understand some of the labels and were collecting the bottles for examination by experts.

On April 1, Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, in a statement on Iraqi television, repeated Baghdad's position that it had no weapons of mass destruction. Referring to reports that gas masks and other chemical gear had been found elsewhere in the country, he said the coalition might plant weapons of mass destruction to implicate Iraq.

"Let me say one more time that Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction," he said.

"The aggressors may themselves intend to bring those materials to plant them here and say those are weapons of mass destruction," he said.

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