NBCNEWS: Huge Cache of Explosives Vanished From Site in Iraq -- At Least 18 Months Ago (SIREN)

Drudge Report ^ | 10-25-2004 | Drudge

[Chicos_Bail_Bonds]

NBCNEWS: Huge Cache of Explosives Vanished From Site in Iraq -- At Least 18 Months Ago (SIREN ALERT)

[GOPrincess]

Sounds to me like you play chess very well indeed :).

[The Real Indepman]

NYT HATCHETGATE...

[sierrahome]

I think we need to locate these high explosives and put them in the hands of a French suppository factory. That would put a happy ending on the High explosives story.

[SlowBoat407]

I can see it now: Kerry up to his neck in Al Qaqaa.

[NonValueAdded]

Well Timeout broke it here on FR before Drudge caught up with US!!!

[midftfan]

Expect at least a dozen of these anti-Bush stories to be in the papers these last 7 days.

[bitt]

I e-mailed the nytimes too -- I copied the siren headline from Drudge and asked them nicely to stop trying to throw the election.

[ClaudiusI]

NYT is making Dan Rather look like an even-handed truth-loving
journalist.

[Bogey78O]

gnashing

[truthandlife]

Lockhart said on the conference call today with the media that the missing explosives would be the "central issue for the rest of the campaign."

This is really going to be funny on talk radio tomorrow. The Kerry campaign will be put on the defensive and so will MSM. Another win for Bush and another nail in the coffin for Kerry.

[DaveMSmith]

MSNBC is reporting 'The Pentagon' is reporting the weapons may not have been there when we went in... they need to check their own transcripts.

[Enchante]

Sounds good, I do hope that Rove & co. are so on top of this issue as you suggest (I suspect they are, just want to see the whole thing play out). We all want to see the NY Times, the DNC, and most of all the Kerry campaign humiliated on this issue, but will the MSM follow up on the NBC story or just run along to the next leftist hit-job? The 'Rats jumped on the NY Times story - I received the following mass email today [I subscribed to their email list to keep track of what's coming out of the DNC/Kerry cesspool] railing about supposed Bush 'incompetence':

---

Dear

---

,

This morning, The New York Times published a story that offers further proof of how the Bush administration's incompetence and arrogance has endangered the lives of our troops and the American people.

Even before invading Iraq, the Bush administration knew that a huge facility called Al Qaqaa contained nearly 380 tons of deadly explosives. Despite the fact that they knew exactly where this facility was and what was there, they took no action to secure or protect the site. Due to the stunning incompetence of the Bush administration and their incomprehensible failure to plan, these explosives have disappeared.

Let me put this in perspective -- the bomb that took down Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland used less than one pound of this same explosive. There were 760,000 pounds at Al Qaqaa.

You can read the article by visiting:

http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/news/news_2004_1025.html

Our troops are the best-trained and best-led forces in the world, and they have been doing their job honorably and bravely. The problem is the commander in chief has not being doing his. George Bush refuses to recognize his failures in Iraq, so he can't fix them and is doomed to repeat them.

Thank you,
Joe Lockhart
Senior Advisor

P.S. Use our online media center to talk to your local media outlets about this story:

http://www.democrats.org/media/

[God luvs America]

does anyone know if NBC is actually running this story tomorrow or this is just a piecing together of old stories/reports by Drudge?

If they are running the story tomorrow this is huge for the President: Sadaam moves 350 tons of explosives out of the country before the war, explosives that could be used to ignite a nuclear device!

[tirednvirginia]

Just heard MSNBC newsbreak - they are reporting that the Pentagon says that the weapons may have disapeared before the troops got there. They are not reporting that they positively disapeared before the troops ot there.

[clintonh8r]

Rove, Gillespie, Racicot, et al need to jump on this with both feet. They need to link sKerry to this anti-American, pro-terrorist institution.

[DaveMSmith]

Lockhart said on the conference call today with the media that the missing explosives would be the "central issue for the rest of the campaign."

Heh.. wonder if Joe has a plan B ;=)

[TNCMAXQ]

18 months ago, before troops arrived? The war began Mar. 19, 2003, a little over 19 months ago. I'm a bit confused.

Anyway, any suggestion that they might have been mass destruction weapons? I can't believe NBC would bother to report it then.

[rocklobster11]

I can see it now: Kerry up to his neck in Al Qaqaa.

The other gambit is that you know Kerry will jump on any bad news so you put out a story he knows to be false, let him try to use it, then ask how he didn't know the truth when it was well known in the intelligence committee.

Whoops, I forgot Kerry wasn't at any of the intelligence committee meetings.

Personally, I prefer the Iraq had WMD gambit.

[GOPrincess]

I've been pondering -- in trying to smear Bush, didn't the NYT completely backtrack on the liberal canard that THERE WERE NO DANGEROUS WEAPONS IN IRAQ?

[EagleClaw]

Might add to that Kerry indirectly, and unjustly, slamming our commanders and troops for not doing a good job.

[tirednvirginia]

MSNBC is NBC and they are NOT reporting this story yet. Only that the pentagon is disputing it.

[DocRock]

"If I'm Karl Rove, and playing chess..."

I would make sure it became news that these "missing explosives" were close to a known stockpile of 500 tons of Uranium, but weren't in the same facility. (I think some of you may find this interesting.)

In May of this year, U.S. Forces were prohibited from removing 500 tons of Uranium from Tuwaitha.
Reference: San Diego Union Tribune

It seems Al-qa-qaa is only a few kilometers away, but it is closer to Salman Pac.

Here is a good image of Salman Pac. Click on it for High Resolution:

All of these locations are within a few miles of each other and all were known production facilities of WMD. Salman Pac was also use to train terrorist.

[whershey]

This is close to the equivalent of what Dan Rather did.

[shield]

ping

[nuffsenuff]

You know, I don't think NBC realizes that they completely slammed the NYT's story.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6323933/

If you go to this link there is a box with David Kay's picture on it half way down. There's a link to Jim M.'s story. You can get a video feed of it.

He's says it in the beginning of the story that the troops didn't find the high explosives when they got there on April 10, 2003.

[GOPrincess]

Check out Jim Geraghty's The Kerry Spot at NRO for more on this story, an NBC reporter tonight pretty much killed the NYT story, citing NBC's own on-the-ground experience embedded with the troops --

[GOPrincess]

Here's the link to the NBC story as reported on The Kerry Spot:

http://www.nationalreview.com/kerry/kerryspot.asp

[Murph]

Step 1: Get NY times to put out story about Bush administration losing explosives

Step 2: Get real story out that the explosives disappeared prior to coming under U.S. control

Step 3: Remind people that Al Qakaa site was also a known as a WMD site

Step 4: Remind people that trucks were sent to Syria from Iraq

Step 5: Drop the Iraq had WMD October surprise.

Don't Steps 2-5 require the MSM cooperating? .. otherwise Carl Rove may as well be talking to a wall --No?

[NYCslicker]

whats the address over there?

[Archie Bunker on steroids]

I've got to go over to DUng. LAst night they thought this would seal the election.

[Bogey78O]

"contained nearly 380 tons of deadly explosives"

More proof of why adjectives need to be removed from news stories and news discussions.

After all, is there something other than a deadly explosive? Would dynamite be a deadly explosive as opposed to "snakes", which are a boring yet non-deadly explosive? Or maybe we're talking about non-deadly explosives like jiffy pop. Although one could conceivably choke on the popcorn the explosive side of it is safe for the most part.

[darin2risk]

they are freaking out.. trying to debunk it

[hotshu]

This was THE lead item on NPR and CNN and ABC radio all day today. Hmm, wonder if they'll correct their error.

[Paul Atreides]

I'm way past tired of F'n blathering about restoring America's respect in the world. The last thing I care about is what the French and Germans think of this country. Those two countries aren't even worth wiping our shoes upon. They are a light years behind in earning OUR respect.

[GOPrincess]

"After all, is there something other than a deadly explosive? Would dynamite be a deadly explosive as opposed to "snakes", which are a boring yet non-deadly explosive? Or maybe we're talking about non-deadly explosives like jiffy pop."

Amen!!

[West Coast Conservative]

I love the MSM. They try so hard to bring down Bush with faulty memos, intel, etc. and then it BACKFIRES on them destroying their credibility!

[bella1]

Wrong--it is already on the news. And lets not forget, according to Drudge this is an NBC story. Hardly the Fox News channel.

[Huskr4Bush]

Let's Freep the Kerry WebSite
Here's my smackdown!

Hey Guys & Gals,

I hate to spoil your fun but have you seen Drudge lately? Looks like NBC is reporting that those missing explosives were missing before our troops ever got there. Who's to blame now? Not Bush...Not Cheney (Halliburton)! Better check with the UN because they were in charge of monitoring it.

LOL (4 More Years)

Posted by Huskr4Bush at October 25, 2004 10:36 PM

[Callahan]

Where's that traitor Andrew Sullivan? He was joining the lefties in accusing Bush of "criminal negligence" over NYT's hit piece.

[Raycpa]

Question: If the WMD were faked by Saddam, how do we know that these 350 tons of weapons existed ?

[rocklobster11]

Don't Steps 2-5 require the MSM cooperating? .. otherwise Carl Rove may as well be talking to a wall --No?

I'm pretty sure it's Karl not Carl, but the second step was just accelerated by the NBC embed. The pentagon was already starting to put out information that the explosives might have disappeared prior to troops getting there. It would have just taken a little longer.

As to media cooperation for the rest of the story, talk radio and Fox make that alot more likely. Plus, I think reporters still dream of being like Woodward and Bernstein, but it's alot tougher to get away with creating anonymous sources than it was in the 70s.

[GOPrincess]

"This was THE lead item on NPR and CNN and ABC radio all day today. Hmm, wonder if they'll correct their error."

I doubt it...UNLESS we all put pressure on them warning them they'll end up with the same credibility (or lack thereof!) as CBS. They are all perilously close to losing credibility even with the members of the public who don't pay much attention to politics, because it's become so blatant.

If we can get the message about the NYT lying out around the MSM, as happened with Rathergate, this could end up pushing people to support Bush in reaction...

[tirednvirginia]

Yes, I saw that story on Kerryspot. I did NOT see a story on NBC or MSNBC yet. I think they will sweep it under the rug.

[GOPrincess]

I gave up reading Andrew Sullivan a few months ago...he went off the deep end.

[bubman]

JOHN LOFTUS ON THE JOHN BACHELOR SHOW IS SAYING THIS BOMBSHELL IS NOT GOOD NEWS FOR BUSH!
The military should have been guarding this stuff. But the question is how can the US safeguard these stockpiles when they were allegedly moved prior to the US invasion. Go figure.

[toupsie]

When the NY Times endorses a candidate, they REALLY endorse a candidate -- even if it means their credibility goes out the window. NY Times, the PR wing of the Democratic Party...

[West Coast Conservative]

Question is, where did the cache go? And maybe they are in the same place the WMDs are. Syria, Iran...who knows?

[rocklobster11]

Because the I.A.E.A actually inspected the explosives and allowed Saddam to keep them for "civilian construction" purposes. U.N. food for oil scandal part deaux?

[Irish Eyes]

Let the fish run awhile, the SET the hook.

That is exactly what the Bush Team did.

[GOPrincess]

"But the question is how can the US safeguard these stockpiles when they were allegedly moved prior to the US invasion"

Uhh...maybe a few people need to call and say this to him? And email him?