Gillespie's Responds to Kerry/Times/Baradei October Surprise

It's October, but it's no surprise. Remember last week, when I highlighted a quote by Newsweek editor Evan Thomas that the media's desire to see John Kerry elected may be worth five-to-twenty million votes, and urged you to be on the look-out for evidence of that desire in articles and news programs?

Well, yesterday the front page of New York Times featured a flawed article asserting, "The Iraqi interim government has warned the United States and international nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives — used to demolish buildings, make missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons — are missing from one of Iraq's most sensitive former military installations. The huge facility, called Al Qaqaa, was supposed to be under American military control but is now a no man's land, still picked over by looters as recently as Sunday."

CBS News' "60 Minutes" admitted today they were saving the same story to air the Sunday before the election.

John Kerry seized on the New York Times headline to launch a political attack on President Bush, saying U.S. troops "failed to guard those stockpiles" and that is "one of the great blunders" of the war.

Senator Kerry and the New York Times leave the impression that these weapons went missing recently and U.S. troops were derilict in their duty to guard the stockpile — neither of which is true.

Network and cable news programs repeated the incomplete report and Sen. Kerry's attacks more than 100 times on Monday.

But last night NBC "Nightly News" reported that on April 10, 2003, one day after Baghdad fell, U.S. troops entered Al Qaqaa, accompanied by an embedded reporter from NBC, and found no such weapons.

It also turns out that our troops have found and destroyed or are destroying 400,000 tons of weapons and explosives.

There was no mention of either one of these facts in today's New York Times front page story, which regurgitated yesterday's charges and Senator Kerry's attacks based on them.

Liberal groups like MoveOn.org have already blasted out e-mails repeating the discredited report and urging people to vote against President Bush based on the flawed coverage.

We can not count on the media to set the story straight. We have to get the truth out to our friends and neighbors ourselves.

We are counting on YOU to set the record straight. Please forward this e-mail and the attached fact sheet to family and friends, call your local network, call talk radio, write letters to the editor, and post facts on blogs.

I suspect you'll be hearing from me again in the course of the next seven days as Mr. Thomas's prediction proves true again.

NEW YORK TIMES' INK BARELY DRY BEFORE KERRY ON ATTACK

Before 1:30 am Monday Morning, Kerry Campaign Advisor Joe Lockhart Alleged Cover Up. "Today, the Bush administration must answer for what may be the most grave and catastrophic mistake in a tragic series of blunders in Iraq. How did they fail to secure nearly 380 tons of known, deadly explosives despite clear warnings from the International Atomic Energy Agency to do so? And why was this information unearthed by reporters - and was it covered up by our national security officials?" (John Kerry For President, "Lockhart Statement On Reports Of Missing Explosives In Iraq," Press Release, 10/25/04; CNN's "The Morning Grind," 10/25/04)

Kerry Said U.S. Troops "Failed To Guard Those Stockpiles." "After being warned about the danger of major stockpiles of explosives in Iraq, this administration failed to guard those stockpiles - where nearly 380 tons of highly explosive weapons were kept." (John Kerry For President, "Kerry Statement On Bush's Failure To Secure Explosives In Iraq," Press Release, 10/25/04)

And Called Supposed Failure To Safeguard Iraqi Explosives Depot "One Of The Great Blunders" Of War. "Kerry, who hopes that appearances by Clinton in at least three battleground states this week will mobilize supporters, seized on news reports that tons of explosives had disappeared from a military installation south of Baghdad after the United States invaded Iraq. 'The incredible incompetence of this president and this administration has put our troops at risk, and put this country at greater risk than we ought to be,' Kerry said, calling the missing explosives 'one of the great blunders' of Bush's war effort." (Michael Finnegan and Mark Z. Barabak, "Sharper Barbs As Nov. 2 Nears," Los Angeles Times, 10/26/04)

NEW YORK TIMES AND KERRY CAMPAIGN AREN'T ONES TO LET FACTS GET IN WAY OF GOOD STORY

NBC Nightly News Reported That On April 10, 2003, One Day After Baghdad Fell, U.S. Troops Entered Al-Qaqaa And Did Not Find Explosives. NBC'S JIM MIKLASZEWSKI: "April 10, 2003, only three weeks into the war, 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. 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 U.S. troops did find large stockpiles of more conventional weapons, but no HMX or RDX, so powerful less than a pound brought down Pan Am 103 in 1988, and can be used to trigger a nuclear weapon. In a letter this month, the Iraqi interim government told the International Atomic Energy Agency the high explosives were lost to theft and looting due to lack of security. Critics claim there were simply not enough U.S. troops to guard hundreds of weapons stockpiles, weapons now being used by insurgents and terrorists to wage a guerrilla war in Iraq." (NBC's "Nightly News," 10/25/04)

No Materials Under IAEA Seals Were Discovered When Coalition Troops Searched Site In April 2003. "Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said U.S.-led forces searched the Qaqaa facility after the invasion. 'Coalition forces were present in the vicinity at various times during and after major combat operations,' he said. 'The forces searched 32 bunkers and 87 other buildings at the facility. While some explosive material was discovered, none of it carried IAEA seals.'" (Colum Lynch and Bradley Graham, "Iraqi Explosives Missing, U.N. Is Told," The Washington Post, 10/26/04)

IAEA Head Told U.N. Security Council Explosives Were Unaccounted For One Month Before Invasion. "IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei told the U.N. Security Council one month before the allied invasion that Iraq had moved some of its highly explosive HMX from the Al Qaqaa site. The United Nations could not verify Iraqi claims that it used the explosives for commercial uses. The missing explosives include HMX as well as RDX, two highly explosive substances used to make C-5 plastic devices that can be used for legitimate commercial purposes, or by terrorists to bring down an airplane." (Rowan Scarborough, "Pentagon Responds To Missing-Explosives Report," The Washington Times, 10/26/04)

"The Pentagon Also Said Allies Have Cleared More Than 10,000 Arms Caches Since April 2003, Destroying More Than 240,000 Tons Of Arms And Explosives. Another 162,000 Tons Are Awaiting Destruction." (Rowan Scarborough, "Pentagon Responds To Missing-Explosives Report," The Washington Times, 10/26/04)

Site In Question Was "Medium Priority" On List Of "More Than 500 Sites" With Iraqi Weapons Caches. "One senior official noted that the Qaqaa complex where the explosives HMX and RDX were stored was listed as a 'medium priority' site on the CIA's list of more than 500 sites that needed to be searched and secured during the invasion." (James Glanz, William J. Broad And David E. Sanger, "Huge Cache Of Explosives Vanished From Site In Iraq," The New York Times, 10/25/04)

KERRY AND NEW YORK TIMES IGNORE FACTS, STAY ON ATTACK

Kerry Still Falsely Claims "Explosives Vanished" Because Of Bush Administration Failures. "Yesterday, we learned that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives vanished from one of Iraq's most sensitive military installations, after the invasion. Just as the Bush Administration's failure to secure Iraq's borders has led to thousands of terrorists flooding into the country, their failure to secure those explosives threatens American troops and the American people. Before the war, the explosives were monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which warned the Bush Administration that they could fall into the wrong hands. And it urged the Bush Administration to secure them. But we rushed to war in Iraq without a plan to safeguard sensitive sites like this one. And now, the explosives are missing, unaccounted for, and could be in the hands of terrorists - used to attack our troops or our people." (Sen. John Kerry, Remarks In Green Bay, WI, 10/26/04)

New York Times Ignores NBC News Report. "The White House sought on Monday to explain the disappearance of 380 tons of high explosives in Iraq that American forces were supposed to secure, as Senator John Kerry seized on the missing cache as ;one of the great blunders of Iraq; and said President Bush's 'incredible incompetence' had put American troops at risk. ... [E]ven as Mr. Bush pressed his case [against Kerry], his aides tried to explain why American forces had ignored warnings from the International Atomic Energy Agency about the vulnerability of the huge stockpile of high explosives, whose disappearance was first reported on Monday by CBS and The New York Times." (David E. Sanger, "Iraq Explosives Become Issue In Campaign," The New York Times, 10/26/04)

This was obviously a coordinated attack between the Kerry camp/DNC, the NYT, CBS and the UN. Perhaps it's possible Kerry's people could be ready to jump on this news from the stump, but to have this polished tv ad ready to roll in less than 24 hours is ludicrous. I'm a television producer and you don't crank out high-quality stuff, dub and distribute to every major network and battleground affiliate in that amout of time!!!!!! If we are to believe the DNC found out when we found out, they would have had to discuss how to attack (and we know how many chefs are involved with the decision making process for this guy), write a script (a painstaking process involving legal eagles who need to sign off), coordinate a sudio shoot with a candidate that's flying around the country, shoot the material, edit (not a short process), then review and have it pass approval of all the chefs, then get dubbed for however many networks and markets it's airing in, then shipped (and that's usually a 24 hour process in itself). Somehow this all happened from NYT press time to when this polished ad (specifically mentioning this story) showed up at all these networks to turn my stomach this evening.

Now, you tell me the dems were not only well aware of this story and but also a willing participant in a grand scheme to smear a sitting, war-time president and influence the outcome of a free election.

I'm usually not a conspiracy guy but this is something I know about...and it stinks like James Carville's jockies!

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.