Posted on 10/27/2004 11:45:34 AM PDT by Trinity5
EDITORIAL: The missing weapons
Kerry's New York Times 527 committee.
Voters are routinely warned to beware the "October surprise" -- some supposed political outrage or scandal revealed only a few days before the November elections, in hopes of starting a panic.
On Monday, The New York Times reported the Iraqi interim government has warned the United States and international nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tons of conventional explosives are now missing from one of Iraq's former military installations, at Al-Qaqaa.
Grasping eagerly at the story, Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry -- before the Times had even hit the city's streets Monday morning -- began reviling the Bush administration for failure to "guard those stockpiles. ... This is one of the great blunders of Iraq, one of the great blunders of this administration. The incredible incompetence of this president and his administration has put our troops at risk and put our country at greater risk than we ought to be."
In this day of 24-hour cable news channels, CNN and MSNBC each promoted the story dozens of times throughout the day -- clearly implying U.S. forces had carelessly and unforgivably neglected to guard these weapons stockpiles.
Soon the shrill Kerry e-mail machine was in full swing.
The only problem? By Monday night, NBC News was reminding its viewers that it had an embedded reporter with the U.S. forces who first reached the Al-Qaqaa weapons facility (the one in question) on April 10, 2003, one day after the liberation of Iraq, and that the 380 tons of conventional explosives that U.N. inspectors had viewed and tagged at that site before the war were already missing on April 10, 2003 -- a year and a half ago.
Go back and dig to the bottom of the original Associated Press version of the Oct. 25 "expose" about the "lost munitions" and you will find: "Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said U.S.-led forces searched the Al-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, but found no indicators of WMD (weapons of mass destruction).' "
By Monday evening, Nicolle Devenish, spokeswoman for the Bush campaign, noted a section of the Times' own report stated American troops, on the way to Baghdad in April 2003, stopped at the Al-Qaqaa complex and saw no evidence of high explosives.
So U.S. troops and -- by proxy -- the Bush administration are now reviled for not having posted sufficient troops to guard a vacant lot?
The real question here is not whether every pound of munitions in a huge desert nation has yet been rounded up and secured -- or ever can be. The real question is why The New York Times was in such a frenzy to decide the disappearance of 380 tons of munitions in the spring of 2003 merited front page, round-the-clock coverage -- eight days before the presidential election of Nov. 2.
Good post.
Smack Kerry Ping
Allow me to acquaint you with some editors who don't realize what's going on:
http://www.startribune.com/stories/561/5053560.html
WARNING: Please read this editorial before you eat!
The Review Journal has endorsed W.
That's why I just moved from St. Cloud to Las Vegas this past September
Ask me how difficult it is to forge a seal. Ask me how difficult it would be for Iraq under Saddam to forge a seal.
OMG, I'm having bad St Cloud State flashbacks from the late 1980's.
Way too many weekends visiting the Red Carpet, MacRudy's, etc. etc. visiting friends and over-consuming too much alcohol.
But you're right. The StarTribune is truly vomit-inducing. They long ago crossed over the line from liberal to extremely delusional left-wing.
That's good. When the most famous American newspaper gets rightfully knocked by a Nevada newspaper among others, it's almost time to turn out the lights for the NYT.
There was Jason Blair, the college student letter hoaxes, I forget them all. And their endorsement last week of Kerry was laughable because they could have printed a blank endorsement on their editorial page months ago saying, "For whatever Democrat is nominated, and to hell with Bush."
I just can't help but think to remove 380 tons you would need at a minimum 19 big rigs, or more than 40 deuce and a half's, or a whole lotta Chevy pickem-up trucks. The more the media tries to give this story legs the more gopher holes they keep stepping in.
Well put. Here's another way, the US was looking for things and the found 1030 out of 1031...would that be a passing grade? Plus who do you grade, the Army, the DOD, the President?
Oh and while we have destroyed 400,000 tons, we have found and secured a total of 1,000,000 tons...could those 388 have found their way into the 1,000,000? Does the IAEA know what our Army did with the armaments we've confiscated? Has the NYT sent reporters to Al Qa Qaa to confirm this? Has Kerry gone there or sent reprentatives to verify any of this?
Oh and the media and the Dims insist that there are no WMD. Well if 856,000 pounds (a metric ton equals 2205 lbs.) can "disappear" wouldn't it follow that a "few" pounds of WMD could "disappear" more easily?
This story is entirely silly.
Of course as Newt Gingrich said about 10 years ago, our students are graduating without the ability to read their diplomas...so anything will fool most of our 18 - 30 year olds.
It is good to see that there are editorial boards, and a few news shows, who are able to dig out the truth and stand up to the NYSlimes and the other FRAUDcasters.
I believe the military destroyed 400,0OO tons of weapons and explosives combined, not 400,000 tons of just explosives.
Actually this time they got it right. Most of the other times, yes they do lie.
The U.N. knew these explosives existed and left them unsecured.
Gosh, I wonder what the U.N. would have done had they found "real" weapons of mass destruction.
great post....Britt Hume and John Gibson have been taking this apart on Fox.....thank goodness for them too!
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