Salon: 60 Minutes Blockbuster Sunday Night – al-Qaqaa

[kskiska]

Iraq explosives story detonates under Bush campaign

How team Bush has bungled the al-Qaqaa controversy -- with a new "60 Minutes" blockbuster coming on Sunday.

Eric Boehlert

President Bush has spent his final push toward Election Day on the defensive over allegations of his mismanagement of the war in Iraq, awkwardly trying to fend off charges that the U.S. military failed to protect huge stockpiles of explosives that have disappeared and are presumed to be in the hands of anti-American insurgents. Not even the reappearance of Osama bin Laden in a new videotape has spiked the story. The controversy erupted Monday morning when the New York Times reported that 380 tons of high explosives -- mainly HMX and RDX, which can be easily used by terrorists, even to detonate a nuclear device -- had disappeared from the Al-Qaqaa arms dump 30 miles south of Baghdad. The Times reported that the disappearance occurred after U.S. troops arrived on the site despite the fact that the U.S. government had been urged by the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency to protect it. Administration officials told the Times they were looking into the disappearance.

The Kerry campaign immediately made the news its top issue. And instantly, battle over the facts was joined. The Bush White House questioned the validity of the report and insisted the explosives were likely removed from the dump while Saddam Hussein was still in power. Along with allies in the conservative media, the Bush campaign, perhaps emboldened by its win last month over CBS's "60 Minutes II" story about Bush's National Guard service -- which fell apart after questions were raised about the authenticity of the documents used as evidence -- and convinced they could make any press story they challenged go away, decided to wage an all-out war on the story and the newspapers and broadcast networks that advanced it. But this time, instead of getting the press to back down, conservative media helped keep the story alive for a week -- to the delight of the Kerry campaign -- and ultimately ended up on the wrong side of the facts.

(snip)

On Saturday, CBS News issued a press release about a "60 Minutes" story it will broadcast on Sunday night, perhaps triggering a new cycle of controversy less than 48 hours before Election Day: "In Harm's Way -- Even though roadside explosive devices account for half of all the war's U.S. casualties, soldiers are still getting killed and wounded by them because the Pentagon hasn't provided enough fully-armored vehicles to protect them." The Bush campaign and the conservative media will have precious little time for denials.

more…
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/10/30/al_qaqaa/

[MoonAndSun]

1. this is a great read...

more snips from the article:

During Thursday night's "Fox Special Report With Brit Hume," reporter Carl Cameron, traveling with the Kerry campaign, continued along this line, telling viewers, "The Iraqi explosives may have disappeared before the invasion, undercutting Kerry's attack on the president." Fox's panel of pundits liked what they heard from Cameron and based their subsequent conversation on his incorrect assertion. Earlier in the week, Fox's Tony Snow announced hopefully that the missing explosives story "looks pretty bogus" and is "an embarrassment to the New York Times."

But one hour before O'Reilly's program, ABC News, quoting weapons inspectors, reported that the KSTP video represented "the strongest evidence to date that conventional explosives missing from Iraq's al-Qaqaa installation disappeared after the United States had taken control of Iraq."

Right after Thompson's appearance on "The O'Reilly Factor," David Kay, the former head of the Iraq Survey Group, handpicked by the Bush administration to search for WMD in Iraq, appeared on CNN and confirmed ABC's report: that the KSTP tape represented "game, set, match" in the debate about the story's timeline. Kay said, "And to put this in context, Iraq is awash with tens of thousands of tons of explosives right now in the hands of insurgents because we did not provide the security when we took over the country."

[rndmprsn]

6. haven't heard too much about this...hope it gets "out there"

[treading_water]

2. Really great read.

It looks like 60 minutes has found their missplaced cajones. I bet they are under a lot of pressure to pull the story. Maybe we should write to them in support?

[Lilli]

3. Thanks for the link!

[regnaD kciN]

4. Unfortunately...

...the fallout from the last 60 Minutes controversy has established in the "conventional wisdom" the notion that said program is untrustworthy and full of liberal bias. I suspect anything they air this Sunday will be dismissed as pro-Democrat propaganda.

[Spazito]

5. Only by the kool-aid drinkers...

and they don't matter as they would vote for bush regardless. Good for 60 Minutes, it is a truth that needs to be told BEFORE the public votes!

[JusticeForAll]

7. Bummer....

They should air it anyway. This qualifies as news so much more than any Sinclair, Fallen Honor bullcrap.

There are still undecideds who need to hear the truth, regardless of the source. Years ago, 60 Minutes had huge senior viewership, hopefully it still does. These people vote (this election, though, seems like everyone will be voting!!).

[tedoll78]

15. 60 Minutes is still..

consistently in the top 10 for Neilsen's ratings each week. This is VERY, VERY good news for us.

[FrankBooth]

8. I disagree

I think it is just gasoline being thrown on a fire. The intractable wingnuts who will reflexively dismiss this story as propoganda are already solid for jr. ... they would vote for him if he donned a swastika armband. Just the fact that the White House is now required to deny yet another allegation, means they are on the defensive and neutralized. This is just more bad news for them.

[Old and In the Way]

11. Agree.......it's about the undecideds and the barely pro-Bush

voters. This reinforces the theme that runs through this administration: incompetence. Not only was the underlinig basis for invading Iraq total BS, but the war has been run by Republican politicians (none who have ever been in a war) with disasterous results....to wit-

(1) Misreading popular Iraqi sentiment (Cheney: the Iraqi people will be greeting us as liberators. Wolfiwitz: They'll be singing songs about us.)

(2) Fighting the war on the cheap, under planning the force size needed to secure and maintain order.

(3) Failing to build an international coalition. Bush: "The UN will be irrelevant."

(4) Failing to protect the troops with body armor and reinforced Hummers.

(5) Condoning torture - Abu Grahib

(6) Turning the rebuilding into a Republican patronage contract grab.

(7) Iraqi oil will fund the wat. Natsios: It will cost the US under $3BB dollars.

(8) Leaving nuclear materials unguarded, letting the Iraqi National Museum be looting, while protecting the Oil Ministry building.

(9) Championing Chalabi who turns out to be a common criminal in cahoots with the Iranians.


Now al Qaa Qaa. Just more of the same incompetence that we've come to expect from the boy-king.

And, BTW, the architect of 9/11 is still around and taunting us....

[Quixote1818]

9. The Difference is the other networks wont be attacking this as false

[Mr_Spock]

10. I disagree - 60 minutes has been around a lot longer than these criminals

adn they will be around long after these lying war-mongers are in jail for their war crimes.

[ClassWarrior]

12. That'd be pro-DemocratIC...

In case you didn't know.

24.

[truthisfreedom]

13. un-FREAKING-belieeeeeve-able. what an incredible coup. the freepers have

torn all their hair by the roots over this, in silent horror. what a great halloween present for Kerry... and what a perfect demonstration of bush's absolute and complete incompetence as commander-in-chief... he's a complete bumbling idiot. complete and total. it's no longer an argument... it's proven every which way.

[JCMach1]

14. Rather's revenge... ain't it sweet!

:)