A Brilliant pro-Kerry October Surprise - Turns out to be False

[GWB]

Once again, the pro-Kerry camp in the media tried to play gotcha on me. Kerry went out in mock outrage about the story. But like the phony CBS documents, this story turned out to be a set-up.

The explosives were gone before the US got there. The media falsely accused the US of losing them. Kerry bought it hook line and sinker.

Kerry and the pro-Kerry media will stoop to anything to steal this election. Honesty and objectivity mean nothing to these people.

Lost Iraqi explosives gone before U.S. arrived (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002072849_iraqexplosives26.html)

[adios]

Back from my trip to the Northwest. I spent most of my time in Olympia, WA area but did get into Seattle and north of Seattle as well. I know there are several posters from Seattle area but I had little time to visit in casinos. Took a day trip to the Mt. St. Helens area. Beautiful place as always. SeaTac was surprisingly deadsville.

As far as this story, my take was that the explosives were gone before the U.S. arrived. Hussein got rid of them before the U.S. liberation efforts much like any WMD evidence.

[Matty]

This sounds like a pathetic coverup. They said it happened after the invasion, now they're saying it might have happened before the invasion.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,136486,00.html

"At the Pentagon, an official who monitors developments in Iraq said U.S.-led coalition troops had searched the Al Qaqaa (search) military base in the immediate aftermath of the March 2003 invasion and confirmed that the explosives were intact. Afterward, the site was not secured by U.S. forces, the official said."

McClellan (White House Spokesperson) has made similar comments. Condi Rice and the President only found out less than a month ago. If the weapons were lost 2 years ago, and they're only now finding out, that's a pretty big problem too.

[GWB]

The liberal CNN is reporting this too. Report: Explosives already gone when U.S. troops arrived (http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/26/iraq.explosives/)

An NBC crew was imbedded with the US troops that first arrived there.

The phony story was shopped to 60 minutes for broadcast on October 31st (Sunday), but the NYT decided to run with the story yesterday instead.

MSM is in a circular firing squad now, more to come....

[Matty]

Uh, reporting what Pentagon officials and the White House spokesperson are saying is not "phony" in any way.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/10/26/0339/6357

[Nicholasp27]

turns out to be false?
why, cause the white house says so?
the same white house that said Iraq had WMD?

so u either believe that it was 'removed' the week before the war and condi/bush are lying about just finding out 10 days ago

OR

u believe that they were still there in april (as a pentagon official says) and US didn't secure them and so they were looted and condi/bush are correct in saying they just found out 10 days ago


so which is it?

not our fault and condi is lying

or

our fault and condi is telling the truth

[GWB]

Kerry and his supporters just can't handle apologizing for being wrong. Now you are making up elaborate cover stories.

Just come clean, the October Surprise was a flop. The Mary Cheney comment was politically motivated. And the others...

Why can't Kerry just be honest about his political gamesmanship?

[Nicholasp27]

lol
look in the mirror re: your first sentence

and what elaborate cover story?

right now it's word vs word...pentagon word vs white house word

the problem is, the white house is also claiming to not have known about this until 10 days ago, which kinda hurts their claim that they discovered them missing back in april 03...


but just keep on thinking the administration is perfect and keep on not admitting any mistakes, just like W...

[Nate tha' Great]

lol

The objective thing to do would have been to use the headline as it appeared in the article, which includes the questionmark at the end:

Lost Iraqi explosives gone before U.S. arrived?

Also, how did you expect the White House to respond?

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said, "Duh, yup. Duh, we lost da ammo!".

[vulturesrow]

[ QUOTE ]
right now it's word vs word...pentagon word vs white house word


[/ QUOTE ]

Embedded reporters who were with the 101st Airborne said that those explosives were not there when they arrived.

[MtSmalls]

Two very cogent points in this story:

The IAEA KNEW exactly what was in this stockpile and where the stockpile was. They had it under inspection, basically under lock and key in March of 2003. As a result of the war, regardless if they disappeared before or after the U.S. troops arrived, they are likely (I say likely, because being honest, no one appears to know) in terrorist hands. AS A RESULT OF THE INVASION.

2. The 101 was not the first U.S. presence in the area. The 3rd Infantry Brigade was.

Given that the amount and composition of the stockpile was known prior to the war, why isn't this one of the SECURE places in the first days of the war?

Exactly how does 760,000 pounds of high explosive get carted off in less than a month, from a known ammo dump? I have to believe that the U.S. was watching very carefully via air support and satellite. It would take a convoy of more than 40 trucks to move this material.

Why can't we get a straight story out of the Pentagon, the White House and our "allies" in Iraq??

This isn't about a Kerry "cover story", its about the ineptness of the current administration.

[rigoletto]

[ QUOTE ]
Honesty and objectivity mean nothing to these people

[/ QUOTE ]

Funniest argument from a Bush supporter yet /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[GWB]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
right now it's word vs word...pentagon word vs white house word


[/ QUOTE ]

Embedded reporters who were with the 101st Airborne said that those explosives were not there when they arrived.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you guys realize that Kerry has attacked the US servicemen in Iraq for not doing their job, when they couldn't possibly protect explosives that were no there when they arrived?

Kerry attacks servicemen in 1971.
Kerry attacks servicemen in 2004.

[MtSmalls]

As I replied to another thread, you are clearly getting desperate. Kerry did NOT attack any soldiers for failing to secure the explosives. He clearly, articulately and definitively blamed the adminstration and its poor planning and execution.

[GWB]

http://cagle.slate.msn.com/working/041025/nick.jpg