Nothing But Politics

[Chris McConnel]

And the embedded reporters say that the explosives were ALREADY missing when our troops arrived at Al Qaqaa, 19 months ago.

That's a neat trick, since the unit commander says they never searched the place.



from Josh Marshall

(October 26, 2004 -- 10:52 PM EDT // link // print)


The lede in tomorrow's Times story about al Qaqaa ...

       White House officials reasserted yesterday that  
        380 tons of powerful explosives may have  
        disappeared from a vast Iraqi military complex  
        while Saddam Hussein controlled Iraq, saying a  
        brigade of American soldiers did not find the  
        explosives when they visited the complex on  
        April 10, 2003, the day after Baghdad fell. 

       But the unit's commander said in an interview  
        yesterday that his troops had not searched the  
        facility and had merely stopped there for the  
        night on their way to Baghdad.  
 

And then there's this ...

       President Bush's aides told reporters that  
        because the soldiers had found no trace of the  
        missing explosives on April 10, the explosives  
        could have been removed before the American  
        invasion. They based their assertions on a  
        report broadcast by NBC News on Monday night  
        that showed video footage of the 101st arriving  
        at Al Qaqaa. 

       By yesterday afternoon, as Mr. Bush made his  
        way through Wisconsin and Iowa, his aides had  
        moderated their view, saying it was a "mystery"  
        when the explosives disappeared. They said that  
        it could have happened before or after the  
        invasion and that Mr. Bush did not want to  
        comment on the matter until the facts were  
        known. 
 

Reduced to hanging their hat on the say-so of the NBC News crew. Splendid.

Much more on this, this evening. But for now, those grafs above pretty much say it all, don't they?

-- Josh Marshall