WHAT DID THE PRESIDENT KNOW, AND WHEN DID HE KNOW IT?

[RichV]

With the revelation about the missing 380 tons of explosives, it's time to ask that question. I'm glad to see this is actually getting news coverage, but the news is shocking. Shocking and scary, for our soldiers and the future of the region. The administration says they've known for 10 days. They're lying. We all know they are.

So who'll have the balls to ask the question in those words? It's time. And it better not be Jon Stewart first!

[DenverDem]

1. He doesn't know shit and he never will.

He's a MORAN tool.

Now, Cheney. . . .

[mountainvue]

6. Yep. Ask Dick. n/t

[TheDebbieDee]

2. Don't be silly. He's never known anything. :^D

[papau]

12. some source/links

Nelson Report newsletter is main source - links below


http://www.nytimes.com/pages/pageone/scan/index.html
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_10_...

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_10_...

Nelson Report newsletter is a private NEWSLETTER widely read in DC



http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2004/oct...

By WILLIAM J. KOLE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
VIENNA, Austria (AP)
<snip>
At the Pentagon, an official who monitors developments in Iraq said U.S.-led coalition troops had searched Al-Qaqaa in the immediate aftermath of the March 2003 invasion and confirmed that the explosives, under IAEA seal since 1991, were intact. Thereafter, the site was not secured by U.S. forces, the official said, also speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Iraqis told the nuclear agency the materials were stolen and looted because of a lack of security at governmental installations, Fleming said.
"We do not know what happened to the explosives or when they were looted," she told AP.

[papau]

14. Will US Media dare to report this AP Wire conjecture? Insurgents got 400T!

Will US Media dare to report this AP Wire conjecture? Insurgents got 400T!

Insurgents could possess up to 400 tons of the deadly materials often used in bombs

By William J. Kole, Associated Press

VIENNA, Austria -- The U.N. nuclear agency warned Monday that insurgents in Iraq may have obtained nearly 400 tons of missing explosives that can be used in the kind of car bomb attacks that have targeted U.S.-led coalition forces for months.
<snip>

The disappearance raised questions about why the United States didn't do more to secure the Al-Qaqaa facility 30 miles south of Baghdad and failed to allow full international inspections to resume after the March 2003 invasion.
<snip>

Al-Qaqaa is near Youssifiyah, an area rife with ambush attacks. An Associated Press Television News crew that drove past the compound Monday saw no visible security at the gates of the site, a jumble of low-slung, yellow-colored storage buildings that appeared deserted.
<snip>

Insurgents targeting coalition forces in Iraq have made widespread use of plastic explosives in a bloody spate of car bomb attacks. Officials were unable to link the missing explosives directly to the recent car bombings, but the revelations that they could have fallen into enemy hands caused a stir in the last week of the U.S. presidential campaign.
<snip>
http://www.trivalleyherald.com/Stories/0,1413,86~10669~2492592,00.html

[papau]

16. Josh Marshall posts interview NBC Producer embed - No Search

Josh Marshall posts interview NBC Producer embed - No Search


http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com /

Lai Ling Jew: When we went into the area, we were actually leaving Karbala and we were initially heading to Baghdad with the 101st Airborne, Second Brigade. The situation in Baghdad, the Third Infantry Division had taken over Baghdad and so they were trying to carve up the area that the 101st Airborne Division would be in charge of. Um, as a result, they had trouble figuring out who was going to take up what piece of Baghdad. They sent us over to this area in Iskanderia. We didn't know it as the Qaqaa facility at that point but when they did bring us over there we stayed there for quite a while. Almost, we stayed overnight, almost 24 hours. And we walked around, we saw the bunkers that had been bombed, and that exposed all of the ordinances that just lied dormant on the desert.

AR: Was there a search at all underway or was, did a search ensue for explosives once you got there during that 24-hour period?

LLJ: No. There wasn't a search. The mission that the brigade had was to get to Baghdad. That was more of a pit stop there for us. And, you know, the searching, I mean certainly some of the soldiers head off on their own, looked through the bunkers just to look at the vast amount of ordnance lying around. But as far as we could tell, there was no move to secure the weapons, nothing to keep looters away. But there was – at that point the roads were shut off. So it would have been very difficult, I believe, for the looters to get there.

AR: And there was no talk of securing the area after you left. There was no discussion of that?

LLJ: Not for the 101st Airborne, Second Brigade. They were -- once they were in Baghdad, it was all about Baghdad, you know, and then they ended up moving north to Mosul. Once we left the area, that was the last that the brigade had anything to do with the area.

AR: Well, Lai Ling Jew, thank you so much for shedding some light into that situation. We appreciate it.

[GainesT1958]

3. I'd think it fitting..

If John Dean asked that question!:D

B-)

[RichV]

4. Oooohhh... Woodward?

That really would be nice. Not sure what the setting would be, but it would be appropriate.

[LizW]

5. When will Bremer make a statement?

The NYT says he knew in, what, May of 2004? Hmmmmm. Maybe that's why he dumped the country early and beat it out of there. It was bad enough that the CPA had "lost" fortunes in Iraqi oil money, but what if the news had come out that the explosives we should have been guarding were looted, too?

There's no way he knew of this and didn't tell the higher-ups. He would have HAD to let the military know so they would be warned of the danger of these explosives being used against them.

My prediction is that Bremer will take the fall for this. He's already off the scene, and Bush can say, "Well, you know, I would have done something if I had known, but I wasn't told."

[NightOwwl]

7. Bush says, I woulda if I coulda,

Had I had any inkling whatsoever that people were going to fly airplanes into buildings, we would have moved heaven and earth to protect the country. Just like we’re working to prevent further attacks.”

[Benji]

8. Why was Bush

allowed to take Wmds into Iraq? He was going to spring them on us now and lost them, what an idiot!

[bobbieinok]

9. who was the congressman who kept saying this in the Watergate hearings??

[RichV]

10. Sen. Howard Baker (R-TN)

And he was Minority Leader in the Senate at the time too. Amazing to think that GOPers once showed such independence.

(BTW... Lincoln Chafee -- SWITCH PARTIES!)

[shraby]

11. Bush knew when we invaded Iraq that

those explosives were there and were supposed to be guarded. Someone must have given an order to NOT guard them.

[grace0418]

13. It was probably on some memo or something

but it's HARD WORK presidenting and he took a vacation before he got a chance to read it. And then he spilled his drink and he had to mop it up with *something* so there went that memo.

[tomfodw]

15. Nothing, and never

This is a trick question, right?