Teacher's Ramblings

A potpourri of education, politics, family matters, and current events.

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

THK Was Wrong on the The October Surprise

James Taranto has the story on the Democrats nasty attempt to steal the election via the NY Times and the UN:

The Times Spoils CBS's SurpriseTo make his case against President Bush, John Kerry has been relying on intelligence from sources that have been proven unreliable--specifically, the New York Times (home of Jayson Blair and Maureen Dowd) and CBS (Dan Rather and Mary Mapes). Yesterday Kerry seized on a story in the Times, "reported in cooperation with the CBS News program '60 Minutes,' " that "nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives . . . are missing from one of Iraq's most sensitive former military installations."
So after arguing for months that Saddam Hussein posed no threat and had no ties to terrorists, Kerry
shifted to claiming that "terrorists could use this material to kill our troops and our people, blow up airplanes and level buildings." The Times, meanwhile, published an article today titled "Iraq Explosives Become Issue in Campaign." They're an issue in the campaign in part because Bush didn't talk about them:
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.
Mr. Bush never mentioned the disappearance of the high explosives during a long campaign speech in Greeley, Colo., about battling terrorism.
It wasn't long, though, before NBC News had raised questions about the Times/CBS October surprise. The Drudge Report summarizes the "NBC Nightly News" story:
The 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives were already missing back in April 10, 2003--when U.S. troops arrived at the installation south of Baghdad!
An NBCNews crew embedded with troops moved in to secure the Al-Qaqaa weapons facility on April 10, 2003, one day after the liberation of Iraq.
According to NBCNews, the HMX and RDX explosives were already missing when the American troops arrived.
The
New York Sun notes that the Times/CBS report was based on a letter from Mohamed ElBaradei, who is seeking a third term as head of the International Atomic Energy Commission. The Bush administration opposes ElBaradei's reappointment, so one suspects that this was a foreign effort to influence the outcome of America's presidential election, aided by our domestic partisan liberal media.
Ironically, the effort might have been undone by the Times' hurry to get the story out. The
Los Angeles Times reports that "60 Minutes" originally planned to air it next Sunday--two nights and one day before the election. Would that have been enough time for the truth to out?

Captain Ed has the definitive post on the logistics involved, if this had been an actual occurance, http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/002869.php (bottom line, not feasible under the circumstances).

INDC Bill has links galore on this new MSM scandal, http://www.indcjournal.com/archives/001212.php

Subscribe with Bloglines