NBC appears to be cleaning up the al QaaQaa story (2pm)

[troublemaker]

MSNBC - Jim Miklishevski (sp?) is on air at 2pm correcting the record saying that the 101st was NOT searching for the explosives and wouldn't have nessecarily seen them... that it was a stop-over and there is no reason to think they would have been anywhere near where the explosives were stored.

Bottom line on NBC as of now -- 1) the Drudge 'smoking gun' visit means nothing and 2) the explosives were for-sure gone by April 27, 2003.

NBC Evening News should clear up the state of the story tonight. Bad news for Drudge/Freeps/Cnn so far. ON EDIT: From what I've seen (which isn't everything) NBC is a victim here, not the bad guy. It looks like NBC is going to try to clean up the many invocations of their name in distorting this story.

________________________________________

adding on EDIT: Before this slips down the memory hole, here is what a government source has been feeding the RW troops to rally them. (govt. dispatch via Clifford May)

Sent to me by a source in the government: “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.” (For the record, I don’t reveal my sources so if that means I end up sharing a cell at Sing-sing with Judy Miller, so be it.)

http://www.nationalreview.com/thecorner/corner.asp

[papau]

1. Misleader notes today that NBC/GOP do not have their facts correct!

www.Misleader.org

ADMINISTRATION MISLEADS ON MISSING EXPLOSIVES

In Iraq, 380 tons of powerful explosives have been looted and may have fallen into the hands of insurgents. In an effort to deflect blame, administration officials are pushing the theory that when "U.S. forces...reached the Al Qaqaa military facility in early April 2003, the weapons cache was already gone."<1> This theory is not credible.

According to an AP report, U.S. solders visited the Al Qaqaa in April 2003 and "found thousands of five-centimetre by 12-centimetre boxes, each containing three vials of white powder."<2> Officials who tested the powder said it was "believed to be explosives."<3> Yesterday, "an official who monitors developments in Iraq" confirmed that "US-led coalition troops had searched Al Qaqaa in the immediate aftermath of the March 2003 invasion and confirmed that the explosives, which had been under IAEA seal since 1991, were intact."<4> Thereafter, according to the official, "the site was not secured by U.S. forces."<5>

It makes sense that the explosives were there when the U.S. solders arrived because, as the LA Times notes, "given the size of the missing cache, it would have been difficult to relocate undetected before the invasion, when U.S. spy satellites were monitoring activity."<6>

Sources:

1. "White House Downplays Missing Iraq Explosives," Los Angeles Times, 10/26/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1338421&l=64882.
2. "U.S. troops find signs of chemical readiness," Associated Press, 4/05/03, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1338421&l=64883.
3. Ibid, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1338421&l=64883.
4. "380 tons of explosives missing in Iraq," Associated Press, 10/25/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1338421&l=64884.
5. Ibid, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1338421&l=64884.
6. "White House Downplays Missing Iraq Explosives," Los Angeles Times, 10/26/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1338421&l=64882

[Atman]

2. Remember, NBC is owned by Defense Contractor, GE

Bad news for BushCo hurts the bottom line.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

3. This is a great win for us! eom

[LynnTheDem]

4. THANK YOU!!!

And the NBC reports DID NOT EVER DISAGREE OR DISPUTE the NYT report.

DRUDGE and CNN SAY the NBC disputed the NYT report, but THEY ARE LYING TWISTING AND DISTORTING the NBC report.

IN FACT if you actually READ the NBC reports and listen to the NBC video, they AGREE with what the NYT report says which agrees with the US military which agrees with Kerry.

But EVEN THE LEFTYS on this board keep saying the NBC reports are wrong and debunked.

NO NO NOOOOO!!!

The NBC reports NEVER DISPUTED the NYT; Drudge & CNN just SAID they did.

[troublemaker]

8. Yes. In fact NBC is doing a good job so far.

[Fluffdaddy]

5. why Iraq missing weapons knockdown is a fraud .....Facts Friends

And these are the facts.............STOP THE RIGHT SPIN
Pass these links on

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com /


October 25, 2004
Toxic Drudge -- why Iraq missing weapons knockdown is a fraud

http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/extra /

[IChing]

6. clean up al qa qaa

this title says it all, my child said this for poo poo.

[troublemaker]

16. It's a riot listening to the talking heads try to find inoffensive ways to

pronounce the name. al koqua. al kakuwa. al kakaaaa.

[Beetwasher]

7. Bwahahahaha! IOW, They SUCK ASS and Were DUPED!

Fucking bozos...

[HFishbine]

9. CNN: "MSNBC is now reporting..."

Will that be next?

[Sparkly]

10. Wait, now I'm confused

I though Lai Ling Jew said that she was with the 101st, and that while they weren't searching for weapons, they did see them exposed as the result of bombing.

Where am I wrong?

[troublemaker]

13. weapons yes. The explosives cache, no.

There were all sorts of munitions all over the place.

Of course they didn't see the explosives because they were in locked bunkers under seal--probably on the other end of the vast complex. The 101 wasn't there to open locked bunkers. They were just re-grouping in a sprint to Baghdad

[milkyway]

11. thanks. Drudge has already set his sights on CBS.

[dicknbush]

12. Hmmmmm Nothing on Sludge yet???

Do you think it will be a below the headline story? NAhhhhh He'll surley give this the blairing blinking light treatment won't he????

[juliagoolia]

14. msnbc transcript from Lai Ling Jew NBC reporter

MSNBC, 10/26/04 (Transcript):

Amy Robach: And it's still unclear exactly when those explosives disappeared. Here to help shed some light on that question is Lai Ling. She was part of an NBC news crew that traveled to that facility with the 101st Airborne Division back in April of 2003. Lai Ling, can you set the stage for us? What was the situation like when you went into the area?

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. 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. 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 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.

LLJ: Thank you.

[troublemaker]

15. Yes. Comports perfectly with what NBC is reporting.

Also, there won't be a 60 minutes story but I'm sure the material will be aired on CBS evenening news throughout the week. They had Ed Bradley on last night reporting, and it was plainly the 60 Minutes story cut-down.