Missing Explosives Were On Site in April 2003
Reported by Marie Therese - October 29, 2004 -
Today, new video appears to confirm John Kerry's position that the missing explosives were, in fact, present after the war began and, even more damning, were actually inspected by American troops. This leads to a delicious moment that doesn't happen often - a chance to catch Newt Gingrich with his foot firmly placed in his mouth!
On yesterday's O'Reilly Factor, Gingrich impugned John Kerry's lack of support for our troops (so what else is new?), in a discussion about the 380 tons of missing explosives. Newt accused Mohammad el Baradei, head of the IAEA, of leaking the story and thereby being complicit in an underhanded attempt to influence the American electoral process.
GINGRICH: We know for sure that when Baradei [mispronounced] issued the report, he said "This will almost certainly be leaked" and then he came back and had a second comment on it. ... (later) ...I think it's fair to say that to jump to a conclusion that American soldiers didn't do their job is an enormous jump for John Kerry or anyone else to make in this case because the truth is we don't know what happened to that equipment.
O'REILLY: Absolutely. And this is the same thing they did with Abu Graib. They played this story up, that it was a failure at the highest levels of the government, when we now know that that didn't happen and that the people who couldn't run the prison are in trouble and getting prosecuted. So, my thesis is that, because many in the media root for a certain candidate, they use all their skills and facilities to advance their cause in a kinda stealth way. Now, I'm not indicting CBS or the New York Times here, because I want to be fair, but you can, (smiles broadly) if you want.
Later:
GINGRICH: But I think every American oughta ask themselves, if we learn something new from a United Nations leak, don't we have an obligation to give American soldiers and the American government the benefit of the doubt and didn't both John Kerry and CBS News fail to give the American soldier and the American government the benefit of the doubt? And I think that's just plain wrong!
O'REILLY: Dick Morris thinks that Kerry jumpin' on this bandwagon and making a couple of advertisements about it are gonna sink Kerry.
GINGRICH: I think it hurts Kerry because it reminds everybody of the last time Kerry went after American soldiers falsely, testified falsely about American soldiers being murderers and rapists and war criminals and, once again, he believes a United Nations official instead of believing American soldiers and I think that makes John Kerry look bad going into the last five days..."
COMMENT
Hey, Newt. Guess who accused American soldiers of not doing their job? None other than "America's Mayor," Republican Rudy Giuliani. "The actual responsibility for it really would be for the troops that were there," Giuliani said on NBC's "Today" show. "Did they search carefully enough? Didn't they search carefully enough?"
And, guess what else? There's now a video tape of an American soldier at Al Qaqaa examining explosives with UN seals on them.
Here's an excerpt from a report released by Bloomberg.com today:
"HMX Explosive
The missing material includes about 195 tons of the explosive HMX, which had been under IAEA seal, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said in its letter to the Security Council.
In the footage, soldiers are shown using bolt-cutters to break a chain. Soldier are also seen pointing at what may be an IAEA seal on another bunker.
The seal in the footage appears to be an IAEA seal, an assistant at the IAEA press office, who declined to be identified, said in a telephone interview from Vienna. The agency can't confirm the origin of the seal from the footage, she said.
``The fact that there's a photo of what looks like an IAEA seal means that what's behind those doors is HMX,'' David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, said on the tape. Only bunkers that had HMX in them were sealed, he said.
A group calling itself the al-Karar Brigade of al-Islam's Army Brigades said it has the explosives and will use them against foreign troops in Iraq, according to a videotape from the group obtained by the Associated Press and shown by broadcasters worldwide.
The group said it got the material through members of ``the American intelligence,'' according to their videotape. The speaker was surrounded by masked, armed men in front of a black banner with the group's name. The claim couldn't be independently verified.
A U.S. military spokesman contacted by telephone in Baghdad today said questions about the ABC footage should be directed to the Pentagon. Lieutenant Colonel Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, didn't immediately return a call seeking comment." (End of excerpt.)
And, Bill, you lied again! On September 15, 2004 during an interview on The Factor Seymour Hersh, author of Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Graib, he told you that the responsibility for Abu Graib went higher up.
Here's a link to my post O'Reilly, Hersh and the Rules of Interrogation.
