I then did a second post on the subject which contained information that didn't contradict the original reporting which said that the weapons were left unguarded but did make a good case for why they may have been left unguarded.
But now NBC Nightly News has this reporting which completely flies in the face of everything the New York Times (the source responsible for the original explosives story today) has been reporting.
NBC News: 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 Qakaa 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)
Wow. This directly contradicts the original New York Times story.
Jim Geraghty responds:
If Jill Abramson, managing editor of the New York Times, had a shred of concern over her paper's reputation for getting the facts right never mind objectivity or fairness, she would be running the correction - or at least this blatantly contradictory information - in the giant headline font and above-the-fold location that today's story got. But I guess the interest in echoing the sentiments of Maureen Dowd is more important than getting it right at the Old Gray Lady.
Indeed. It seems very apparent now that this entire story was some sort of attempt at discrediting Bush's position and performance in Iraq shortly before the election.
So, once again, I call this issue about the missing explosives in Iraq a non-story.
Update:
Good lord. Now the Kerry campaign is claiming that the NBC report is a Bush-backed cover up.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 /U.S. Newswire/ -- In response to reports that the Bush campaign is distorting an NBC news report in an effort to cover up the White House's failure to secure 380 tons of explosive material in Iraq, Kerry-Edwards senior advisor Joe Lockhart released the following statement:
"In a shameless attempt to cover up its failure to secure 380 tons of highly explosive material in Iraq, the White House is desperately flailing in an effort to escape blame. Instead of distorting John Kerry's words, the Bush campaign is now falsely and deliberately twisting the reports of journalists. It is the latest pathetic excuse from an administration that never admits a mistake, no matter how disastrous."
NBC Nightly News participating in a cover up for the Bush administration. Not very likely, if you ask me.
The NBC story wasn't about some Bush campaign staffer, or even Bush himself, discrediting the New York Times story. NBC was referencing reporting it had done earlier in the year which directly contradicts the New York Times story. The Bush/Cheney campaign wasn't even involved.
Update 2:
Via the comments, a re-reading of the press release seems to indicate that the Kerry campaign is responding to reports that the Bush campaign is distorting the NBC report.
Frankly, I don't see where there's any room for twisting that NBC report. Its pretty clear.
Update 3:
CNN is now on the story.
Also, in the comments RobW is pointing out that NBC has backed off its story and references an MSNBC article. He provides no link to the article, however, but I'd point out that the text he quotes is from an Associated Press article that has been posted on several websites. The fact that MSNBC had the AP story doesn't mean that NBC has backed off its story.
Update 4:
From The Corner (via Protein Wisdom):
"The Iraqi explosives story is a fraud. These weapons were not there when US troops went to this site in 2003. The IAEA and its head, the anti-American Mohammed El Baradei, leaked a false letter on this issue to the media to embarrass the Bush administration. The US is trying to deny El Baradei a second term and we have been on his case for missing the Libyan nuclear weapons program and for weakness on the Iranian nuclear weapons program."