October Surprise?
This al Qa Qaa munitions issue stinks. I’m quickly becoming convinced that we’re not getting the full story here from anyone involved.
CNN/NBC/Drudge are reporting today that the munitions were already gone by the time that the troops arrived on-site. CNN is running with this information based on reports from an embedded NBC news crew—a news crew without training in weapons inspection. Also, as Josh Marshall notes, how did the Iraqis managed to sneak out this quantity of material while the US had the area under a blanket of surveillance leading up to the first strikes of the war? How did a convoy of trucks (which this amount of material would have required) sneak past our intelligence? To be perfectly honest, even if the administration’s/NBC’s story is correct and the munitions were already gone from the site before we headed in, I consider that a big enough intelligence failure to vote this administration out of office. When paired with the conflicting responses to the issue from various administration sources on Monday, the issue doesn’t seem so easily wrapped up with a convenient dismissive bow.
Nonetheless, the conservatives have their share of valid points. Rush Limbaugh played an intriguing Kerry clip from the debates. Kerry rather interestingly says that the administration didn’t do an adequate job protecting munitions dumps. With just a cursory glance, it sure seems that Kerry could have known this story was coming down the pipeline. The timing on this issue hitting the major media is curious in and of itself. With just a week before the election, this story could have a major impact. Could this possibly be the “October surprise” from the Kerry camp? Or could this even be a Karl Rove dirty trick to make it look like the Democrats and the “liberal media” are after them?
I’m convinced that there’s more to this story than we’re currently getting. I’m particularly wary of attempts to rapidly explain the issue and get it out of the public discourse. If the administration truly isn’t culpable in this matter, then surely it won’t hurt to dig a little deeper into the issue.