Posted on 10/26/2004 5:07:22 PM PDT by focusandclarity
(CNSNews.com) - The New York Times on Tuesday defended its report on a missing cache of explosives in Iraq after Republicans accused the newspaper of ignoring the facts in a rush to attack President Bush.
The Times reported Monday that 380 tons of explosives had gone missing from the Al Qaqaa military facility in Iraq, which triggered a swift and harsh attack on Bush from Sen. John Kerry, who quickly produced an ad citing the article.
The Republican National Committee released a compilation of recent news reports on the missing explosives Tuesday, which it said proved that the Times and Kerry campaign were ignoring the facts to attack Bush.
The NBC Nightly News revealed Monday evening that it had an embedded reporter at Al Qaqaa on April 10, 2003, one day after the fall of Baghdad, and that none of the 380 tons of explosives were present.
"NBC News was embedded with troops from the Army's 101st Airborne as they temporarily take over the Al-Qaqaa weapons installation south of Baghdad," Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski reported Monday. "But these troops never found the nearly 380 tons of some of the most powerful conventional explosives, called HMX and RDX, which is now missing."
The Times' spokeswoman, Catherine Mathis, issued a statement to CNSNews.com on Tuesday afternoon defending the newspaper's report:
"Our front page story of October 25 reported accurately that a senior official at Iraq's Ministry of Science & Technology informed the International Atomic Energy Agency in a letter on October 10 that the materials were lost from the Al-qaqaa site after April 9, 2003, through the theft and looting of the governmental installations due to lack of security.'
"The IAEA took an inventory of the materials in January, 2003. In early March, right before the beginning of the war, the IAEA went to the site and found that the seals on the bunkers were still intact.
"Pentagon and White House officials told the Times, as the story says, that the materials vanished sometime after the U.S.-led invasion.
"The Times story also reported that U.S. forces visited the vast site on their way to Baghdad and saw no materials bearing the IAEA seal.
"We are continuing our reporting on the disappearance."
The New York Times is finally admitting that the WMD's were there and are missing. Chalk one up for Dubya.
Hey, I admire their spunk. ...
My friends would flip out when I said I wanted to be WJCs' understudy...
Can't stand him - however if he's that good - and one must admit - he's good at what he does - :-) - then why not learn and do good things with the talent.
If he and Hill are "that" bad then why does the marketplace still support them?
Obviously the accuracy of the opinion of the Iraq's Ministry of Science & Technology is a secondary issue.
You nailed it.
Did the UN Doofus's put seals on the doors to the tunnels interconnecting the bunkers??
Pay no attention to that old, gray lady behind the curtain.
Anyone catch this on little green footballs?
NYT Missing Explosives: A Fraud
A bombshell from Cliff May at The Corner, who alleges that the New York Times story on missing explosives in Iraq is a complete fraud, deliberately leaked by the IAEA to embarrass the Bush administration. (Hat tip: Ed Moran.)
Sent to me by a source in the government: The Iraqi explosives story is a fraud. These weapons were not there when US troops went to this site in 2003. The IAEA and its head, the anti-American Mohammed El Baradei, leaked a false letter on this issue to the media to embarrass the Bush administration. The US is trying to deny El Baradei a second term and we have been on his case for missing the Libyan nuclear weapons program and for weakness on the Iranian nuclear weapons program.
(For the record, I dont reveal my sources so if that means I end up sharing a cell at Sing-sing with Judy Miller, so be it.)
Good point you're making here. Most of us never read between the lines and just see red. It is a shame that something like truth and integrity has lost all meaning for the fourth estate.
Thank you!
Don't forget the story behind the story: the journalist sleazebags at SeeBS wanted to put that story up on SUNDAY night, on the eve of the election, when the truth would not have time to come out or be disseminated.
"Our front page story of October 25 reported accurately that a senior official at Iraq's Ministry of Science & Technology informed the International Atomic Energy Agency in a letter on October 10 that the materials were lost from the Al-qaqaa site after April 9, 2003, through the theft and looting of the governmental installations due to lack of security."
The IAEA wasn't there and have no idea when the materials were lost, stolen or given to Syria by Saddam.
And waiting to post that report until the week before the election has a particular stench about it, faintly French.....
bttt
Your figuring is exactly what I'm talking about with us being able to add 2 plus 2, the way the Dems, Kerry and Edwards would have it, is for us all to hand over our minds in "blind trust". I've considered that a fate worst then death since I turned 18. Where is the independent minded American thinker now days, only on a few blogs?
"When Al Qaqaa was under Saddam Hussein's control, inventory management was efficient and reliable, and Americans could sleep at night," saYS Kerry." I'd like to see that as a NYTIMES HEADLINE!!
This means insiders would need at most 8 60 foot vans and several front end loaders. Not a big requirement but enough to permit a move in less than 12 hours.
The NYT seldom tells the truth when it comes to politics.
All those years getting a journalism degree and never knowing that it's where Kerry lives!
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