ABC’s The Note describes an NBC News report that offfers a different perspective on the recent stories about 380 tons of high explosives missing in Iraq:
There is a strong and not always unwarranted suspicion on the right that the press likes to end-load the pre-election news cycle with lots of hard-hitting, negative stories … so with that, we bring you the latest “surprise” stories that have the potential to develop nationally.
Yesterday’s “surprise” — the New York Times story on the missing explosives, ” … gave Kerry an opening on national security” and leads some to say that Monday was “the second day in a row that Bush appeared on the defensive on the issue his advisers believe will lead to Kerry’s defeat: keeping the United States safe,” reports the Washington Post ‘s VandeHei and Allen.
An NBC News report last night suggested that those explosives went missing before April 10, 2003 — before U.S. troops ever got to the site in Iraq, leading to an avalanche of push-back from the Bush campaign last night. If the 101st Airborne Division was indeed there one day after liberation and they could not find any of the high grade explosives, that does cast doubt on the suggestion that the Bush Administration’s alleged failure to plan for post-war eventualities was to blame.
. . . .
The NBC story does not exonerate the president, but it does add context that rebuts, at least to some extent, the most hyperbolic charges that we heard yesterday.
UPDATE: Reader Randy Plemel notes that Josh Marshall has a different take on the different take.
Comments are closed.