More On New York Times Dishonesty
Dean
The short story: The New York Times (and the Kerry campaign) claim that the Bush administration "lost" a major WMD stockpile. As NBC and others have documented, it ain't so, and the New York Times has once again proven itself to be a partisan shill organization rather than a news organization.
Jeff Goldstein has the rest of the details.
Related Posts (on one page):
I wonder what else the MSM is planning on springing for Bush just before the election day.
Remember the DUI report in 2000?
From yet another Kerry Spot reader with a ".mil" e-mail address:
More from a Kerry Spot reader with a ".mil" e-mail address, stating he was among the soldiers who secured Al QaQaa on April 10th with the 101st:
Both the IAEA and the Iraqi ministry claim that the explosives were there when the 101st took over the compound and then left:
"And because the Al Qaqaa facility is so huge, it's not clear that those troops from the 101st were actually anywhere near the bunkers that reportedly contained the HMX and RDX. Three months earlier, during an inspection of the Al Qaqaa compound, the International Atomic Energy Agency secured and sealed 350 metric tons of HMX and RDX. Then in March, shortly before the war began, the I.A.E.A. conducted another inspection and found that the HMX stockpile was still intact and still under seal. But inspectors were unable to inspect the RDX stockpile and could not verify that the RDX was still at the compound.
Pentagon officials say elements of the 101st Airborne did conduct a thorough search of several facilities around the Al QaQaa compound for several weeks during the month of April in search of WMD. They found no WMD. And Pentagon officials say it's not clear at that time whether those other elements of the 101st actually searched the Al QaQaa compound."
You can belive otherwise, but there is no proof one way or another right now.
The main sticking point to the entire "380 ton" theft is the actual feat of pulling it off. A modern tractor-trailer on good roads pulls about 20 tons of bulk material. So you're looking at 19 or 20 fully loaded tractor trailers, which had to be stealthily moved past surrounding US forces, assuming they had such vehicles and enough people to load what is apparently a bulk powder substance. It's not feasible for that to have happened after our troops arrived, no more than you'd believe someone who told you a guy just took his floor safe by picking his pocket.
Yiu can't steal 380+ tons of explosives all that easily even if it's "unguarded," Jim. And, as John Cole notes, we have secured or destroyed over 400,000 tons (that's right, four hundred thousand TONS) of ordnance. To say that we can't acount for 380 tons is a concern but it's hardly the shrieking crisis of boneheaded incompetence some would like to make out.
I continue to find it astounding that Kerry supporters, rather than tell us why their candidate is the better choice, spend all their time finding anything they can to bash their opponent. You'd almost think their only reason for voting for Kerry was that they hate Bush so much. ;-)
Kay told the Times he visited the site in May 2003 "and it was heavily looted at that time. Sometime between April and May, most of the stuff was carried off. The site was in total disarray, just like a lot of the Iraqi sites."
I think the evidence is very strong that the stuff was taken between April and May, just like David Kay says.
In any case, that visit wasn't the first time US troops went to the facility. That happened a week earlier, on April 4th, as was reported at the time. According to an AP account from the following day, the troops made spot visits to some of the buildings and found chemical warfare antidotes but no WMD.
The same report says they also found "thousands of five-centimetre by 12-centimetre boxes, each containing three vials of white powder" which were initially believed to be chemical agents but were later determined to be "explosives."
RDX: a white crystalline solid
http://www.ordnance.org/rdx.htm
What do you think it was that the 4th ID found and wasn't there six weeks later?
The next most likely on the '380 tons,' considering the sheer amount we're discussing, it's a clerical error and the stuff didn't even exist.
By the way, the box size you're mentioning would be about a pound of material, at most. Two thousand of those boxes (granting a pound of weight) would make one ton of explosives. To confirm that "each" contained three vials of powder, would only be plausible if we were talking a far smaller amount then seven hundred and sixty thousand boxes, for a total of roughly two million, two hundred and eighty thousand vials. What did they cart them in, Sandy Bergers shorts?
Even the White House says it does not know what happened to these missing explosives and when they were taken.
There are some good writers in those papers you know, and one that brings me good thoughts so I'll share this, it's just one of my thoughts.
Well, he found a simple way to reach us and, Oh my did he teach us.
He had submitted his works to many! And so many turned him down! (I can only imagine his frown). And one day while walking down the right side of the street he stopped and talked to a familiar man walking down that same street.
I'm not sure, not exactly anyway, what when on that sunny day, but this I do know. The man took a bit of his time to read, and also to look, thinking perhaps... this might make a great little book.
And this is what the rumor has to say...
"Oh no, I like your work you've got something quite rare, walk with me and we'll put you to work right away, and in a few days you'll get fine pay!"
Oh how I am happy, and you know what I think?
It's really Grand, that he happened to walk down that street with his works in his hand!
He would often write days on end with no sleep or just a little, so they say. He had a pen, some paper and hundreds of words, and found some that rhymed so he would circle a few.
So he pulled them together and found even after writing upwards to a thousand or two words or more, how to chop it and fix it and brought them to life, and would you believe even a lot of the politics of the day?
The simple words with a powerful message so fun. And and they really made you giggle, unlike any ever of the day!
Well our books had been Dick and Jane and oh yes, I can't forget Spot too, but these new beginning readers had such a whimsical view!
Well even I... grew full of wonder and imagination while reading these to my little ones. I could see it brought such joy to one little boy.
Well even his last book stirred many to ponder and to think, what will we down down yander?
Would you believe it was important to him, to talk to our children and open their minds to the whole wide world? To even ask which side to put the butter on the bread. The Cold War? Now just what was in his head?
You must read him to your children too and when you do...give them a tickle or two!
It will bring you closer together so... I will say, Good for you...Hooray for that day!
Get your childs view!
He sure took to colors and funny creative and silly figures, and animals too - a quirky Cat... and much more than that...
...A Great Big Red and White Hat...Imagine That!!
So I've often thought of him and his great childrens books. Well now especially today as I remember, of how he had a hand in a presidents resignation... his words were cleverly devised and they were read by millions.
I wonder who remembers what he said in print to...THE NEW YORK TIMES, and to that president?
(this man is a very interesting man and even made people think maybe he was a racist...nope, he wasn't that) Good and timely story for today!
Asked about the likelihood that such a major movement of material out of an Iraqi military site would have been detected before the invasion, a senior defense official noted that U.S. authorities were attempting to monitor more than 500 "sensitive" sites in Iraq, as well as Iraqi combat formations, which put a strain on reconnaissance assets.
Now, I know for a fact that the NSA does not throw away recon photos. If they were moved during daytime, we should be able to go back and reconstruct this.
The fact that the White House has suddently gotten very mum on the subject implies to me that they have and the results don't look good. But maybe I am reading too much into their current comments, which are "we don't know what happened to the missing explosives."
Perhaps "Richard M. Nixon Will You Please Go Now!"
I don't remember, I just looked it up.
Yours,
Wince
He had a lot of wisdom and thought about little children and how to help them understand things like not being a from the same culture you need to accept people just as they are.
His story is pretty darn amazing how he helped children understand the world and even take care of the enviorment.
Teachers today still enjoy how thought provoking his books were.
I wanted to throw in a simple story of one man and hopefully just make some people remember there are still good writers in the New York Times but it is awful how they have been bought.