If the reports that Mohammed El Baradei or someone close to him is behind the leak of the putative documents that caused the new NYTrogate Scandal regarding missing explosive in Irag, the implications are staggering.
Consider this: That means a high official of the United Nations… and not just an ordinary high official but one empowered with preventing nuclear weapons proliferation… is trying to influence a US election. And we thought we had seen everything with the Oil-for-Food scandal!
The blogosphere and the mainstream media must stay on this story. The New York Times ought to get off its high horse and reveal its sources on this one because, if that is the source, our country is in a mighty peculiar situation indeed. El Baradei is the man we are relying on to authenticate weapons cooperation with Iran and North Korea. This is way beyond an election here, ladies and gentlemen. This is about the survival of many human lives. If El Baradei or one of his colleagues did this, he must step down immediately.
Absolutely right. But I’m pessimistic we can connect the dots before election day — the UN is a lot better at coverups than CBS.
I understand why the UN wants Kerry to win. But that must not be allowed.
How long will the US Congressional investigation into Oil-for-food last under a Kerry administration?
I made this point below but after reading your post it deserves repeating:
Just a point about securing Iraq:
I am sick of hearing about how we “protected the Iraqi Oil Ministry but didn’t bother to secure high explosives!”
Just to explain or make this point – As I have said many times before – Could it be that the President and the Army knew more about what our real enemy/objective was in Iraq?
The weapons were not in the ammo dump when the army got there!
But the Documents that prove the UN was corrupt and was actually paid to be our enemy in this endeavor were still in the oil ministry! Got that! Without those we wouldn’t have proof as to why they blocked us – why they stopped our entry through Turkey, which would have freed up our troops to stay behind and guard an empty ammo dump!
We wouldn’t have been able to confront them (which I believe will happen in Bush’s second term) and cause a real alliance against terror!
Folks, our real enemies in this matter are spinning this and Kerry and the Main Stream Media is helping them just so they can take over power. But what kind of power will they have at the end of this? We will be lucky to have the “spitballs” Zell Miller discussed at the RNC!
DKK
Roger,
It sounds like you are giving the NYT a pass or, at least, the benefit of doubt. This looks like collusion – with a foreign power no less – to subvert an election. We used to execute people for such things.
“Absolutely right. But I’m pessimistic we can connect the dots before election day — the UN is a lot better at coverups than CBS.”
Maybe I’m missing something, but I fail to see how this story will or would have had much of an impact on the election, even if it isn’t being descredited.
This isn’t like a sex or drug/drinking or a criminal scandal, which might shock or horrify a significant number of people into changing their votes or staying home. Those who are intending to vote for Bush because they believe he will take the fight to the terrorists as he has been doing are not going to suddenly switch to Mr. Global Test, Terrorism Is Just a Nuisance Kerry just because 380 tons of whatever got looted or went missing in Iraq. And those who are voting for Bush for other reasons aren’t going to care. And that’s even supposing that this story even shows up on the radar screen of anyone who isn’t a political news junky. The 70 percent of the population who don’t know we’re running a deficit, have never heard of the new prescription drug benefit, and can’t name their congressmen, probably read the headline, saw yada, yada, Iraq, yada, yada, at which point their eyes glazed over and they turned to sports page to read about how the Sox just might finally break the Curse of the Bambino.
I agree that the NYT and the United Nations shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it. I just, however, think its impact on the election will be neglibible.
Excellent “Kerry Spot” at NRO on this:
WHAT ODD TIMING BY MR. ELBARADEI!
.
Roger, if this is true, I would not find this surprising one bit. Just look at the recent reports about foreigners wanting to have a say in our election!
The tactics of the left, MSM, and the Oh-We-Are-So-Much-More-Sophisticated-Than-You-Hayseeds-Are/Europeans have been absolutely scurrilous.
If we found a golden egg cracked open with WMD inside in Iraq tomorrow, you could be sure that most of the MSM would backhand the discovery as relatively meaningless.
The UN has been useless for too long a time. The odor emanating from there was more tolerable when the place was a slaughterhouse grounds.
I’m not holding my breath on *any* of these new-found debunks. They’ll be conveniently revealed after the election (unless Bush wins, then they’ll wither away I suspect).
From Ian, a commenter at The Command Post, “The IAEA confirmed in its 27 January 2003 report that there was 196 tons of HMX at this facility, as per the 2002 Iraqi declarationÖwhich was around 35 tons less than the last time the IAEA had been able to check in the late 90ís. The IAEA were in Iraq until two days before the war started in March, and had their eye on the place.”
http://www.iaea.org/OurWork/SV/Invo/reports/s_2003_95.pdf (page 12)
Kerry’s acussing finger’s pointing in the wrong direction.
Nytro-Gate
It is EXPLOSIVE!
It appears that it has blown up in the face of the bombers.
Sweet justice the for suicide bombers. Enjoy the virgins.
penwil: I mean in time for this revelation to wreck the Kerry campaign and it’s UN-centric views.
Roger,
When one considers the massive amount of dirty pool being played here by the MSM and their international enablers, it is a wonder that the President continues to hold his own in the polls..
T’were it not for The Blogosphere, FOX, and AM radio serving as the administration’s floatation device, these forces would have pushed us under by now.
They must be punished.. I am angrier now than I’ve ever been. Angrier than the days that followed RatherGate. Given that these are dangerous times, it is disgusting to think that someone entrusted by the world to reign in rogue nuclear powers is spending so much time trying to take down the only beneficial nuclear power left in this world.
Since we have no-more good-faith partners in the battle over proliferation, it is now more important than ever to build the biggest baddest missle defense deterent money can buy..
It’s time to step up the pace
Normally, I find basically zero common ground with Michael Badnarik or any of the other Losertarians (as the local talk radio hosts call them,) but I’m starting to think his whole “Blow up the UN building” proposal has some merit…
I’m with StreetGOP.
I am livid. Speechless.
Is it because people are so afraid of the world’s politics shifting – for the better?
I’ve not been able to reconcile the Left so vehemently opposing Bush. Do they know what it would be like to live under radical Islam??? Or, do they think it would take so long for it to errode us that they’d die before it happened – and they’d just want to enjoy the view on the way to our downfall?
What’s the deal?
I can’t believe this is all happening.
I hope others give some thought (or speculation) as to the significance of this story and the willing collaboration of the DNC/MSM/UN in pushing it to the forefront.
From my viewpoint, the story is one bookend to the “vote” that will be cast by Kerry’s al Queada supporters within the next few days. It is a framing story for events yet to unfold and will serve to establish as “fact” a precursor to actions of the terrorists in our malls or schools. Once Kerry’s al Queda supporters have acted, the story will quickly move to the governments “incompetence” in being unable to be everywhere at all times in a nation of 290 million citizens. The “not enough troops” trope will be extended to become the “not enough whatever it takes to keep Achmed from blowing us up” trope.
The stories in support of the trope are already written and waiting in the computers of the MSM scum who will willingly ally themselves with Kerry and his al Queada supporters, all that’s missing are a few facts concerning the location and intensity of the attacks.
That’s the “October surprise” and we don’t know how it will turn out. You might go and donate a pint of blood while we wait.
Joe Scarborough better get his a$$ on this story and not let go.
Insanity!
penwil,
“Maybe I’m missing something, but I fail to see how this story will or would have had much of an impact on the election, even if it isn’t being discredited.”
I would agree with you, except…except that a story, any story, repeated often enough becomes “the truth.”
We saw this in the elevation of Abu-Grabh (sp?) to the equivalent of full scale torture.
I heard on talk radio today, I believe it was Rush, that CNN had run some reference to the Al-Qaqaa story 55 times in the first day alone!
The Republicans are notoriously slow off the mark in countering this kind of thing. They better damn well go into quick response mode this time!
If this cabal is able to get Kerry elected I hope Bush uses his lame duck presidency to turn Iran’s nuclear facilities into a glass sheet. Bush should finish what will never get done under a Kerry administration.
I have another suggestion if Kerry wins:
In response to hightened fears caused by missing explosives, GWB should immediately enter Syria unannounced in a search for all “lost” Iraqi munitions. Any challenge to that search would of course have to be met with overwhelming force.
The Kerry campaign has an ad at the ready (via Drudge) here
Ready to step on the qaqaa, that is.
And here I was getting bored of the campaigns.
And, according to Best of the Web, the Beeb has signed up “George Soros and Clinton consigliere Sidney Blumenthal” along with Michael Moore “to contribute to its coverage of the American election”.
me = Bored no more!
Rick Ballard,
I ‘ve thought for months now that a terrorist attack, or the lack of one, was going to be the tipping point in this election. If there isn’t one, then I’m wondering if the wishy-washy, leaning, and undecided voters–in other words, those that vote with their gut–are going to get in the privacy of the voting booth and opt for the guy who has kept them safe since 9/11 over the guy who might also keep them as safe, but also might not.
On the other hand, if there is an attack . . .? It is so hard to predict. It will of course show that Bush is not infallible in keeping us safe. On the other hand, it would hammer home that terrorism is more than just a “nuisance”, and in the immediatate aftermath, with blood is running hot for nuking the bastards who did it, few are going to have much truck with the global test, nuanced response. I do think that both Kerry and the MSM will have to be very, very careful not to appear to be making political hay out of dead Americans, especially women and children. If they go the least little bit too far and cross a line that will be impossible to judge ahead of time, it could end up backfiring on them big time.
I hear Kerry is already putting together the ads. It is less than a week and we have ads already? It is almost like they knew this was coming…
The UN, CBS, NYT and Kerry within a week of the election resurrect a story that should have been put to rest more than a year ago. But we are not supposed to wonder about this timing?
I dunno, but this just might blow up in their faces.
I hear ElBehradi [sp] is running for a second term in the UN and Bush does not want him. I wonder if Kerry and he cut a deal? And I heard that the letter he said he had is a fraud.
The point is no one really can say for sure what happened, but it is far more likely that Saddam took the stuff away. After all the invasion was not a surprise attack. And besides they let him keep the stuff, if they were all that concerned about it, why did they leave it there? They bitch if there are Amnerican soldiers in Iraq and they bitch if there are not enough American soldiers in Iraq.
God, this is getting old.
I wonder how effective any ads from either side are going to be, especially this late in the game. It seems that in the past the ones that had any measurable impact–the Horton ad, LBJ’s daisy picking girl, Reagan’s bear ad–were all going for a reaction on a very visceral level. They were simple and, yes, fear-mongering ads, meant to appeal to the emotions, not the intellect.
Could the Kerry campaign reduce the HYTrogate story into a cogent 30-second message capable of scaring voters away from Bush?
Roger:
This El Baradei business is very serious — it is the follow-up to Niger-gate. In that case, the idea was to dicredit the US/UK case for war; in this case, it is to discredit President Bush.
See more here:
http://www.dinocrat.com/archives/2004/10/26/the-madrid-bomd-and-the-new-york-times-bomb-are-the-united-nations-and-the-islamic-bloc-seeking-to-tip-the-presidential-election-to-kerry-with-the-aid-and-comfort-of-the-new-york-times/
Thanks, Jack Risko
Uh, the guy at Power and Control (me) had it figured out by 4AM (CDT).
The title of the article:
The UN wants a Kerry Win – badly
You know this (like the Guardian bit) is going to backfire big time. Americans don’t like foreigners telling us what to do (except for Andrew Sullivan and his friends).
Well, the plot thickens.
Kondracke just said the IAEA didn’t tell US until MAY 2003.
I was going to say that RDX is old hat and the Iraqis use HMX for blasting rock for their cement works,then a helpful moonbat pointed out that the explosives are the equivalent of 600 Hiroshimas,so Saddam Hussein did have WMD after all?
…then a helpful moonbat pointed out that the explosives are the equivalent of 600 Hiroshimas,so Saddam Hussein did have WMD after all?
You know, Peter, I’ve heard that number three or four times today. That should go into my “poly sci major” post, but in the mean time — how in the HELL did they get the idea that 350 tonnes is 600 times 20 kilotonnes?
Just in case it comes up, in reality:
(350 tonnes) / (20 kilotonnes)
7/400 (exactly 0.0175)
(Via Frink.)
Roger -
Before I had a blog I wrote my sermons here. Am I a link whore if I direct people to my opinions relating to the issues that you bring up? I am unclear on the etiquitte here and could use your advice.
Back to the topic at hand:
I swore I wasn’t going to do politics this week, and I’m keeping my word.
This explosives story isn’t about politics. It’s about tactics.
“It is so hard to predict.”
Penwil,
The only ones who know with certainty are the Kerry supporting terrorists who will committ the acts. There is a reason why gold rose to a new high yesterday in India though. It has to do with speculative probabilities and asset protection.
Now, al Queada no more coordinates their strikes with Kerry, the MSM or the UN than they did with Saddam. They simply share an overwhelming commonality of interests primary among which is the defeat of Bush. The Kerry/MSM/UN troika will indeed have to be very careful in how they address a terror strike by an ally of convenience but this is a Hail Mary move at any rate. Putting out a story that is rebuttted before the ink is dry was a risk too. Telling lie after lie after lie about your opponent and basing the lies you’re telling on a debunked story is risky, too. Destroying the reputation of a popular news program by using forged documents to smear a sitting President is risky, too. All the desperate loser’s moves that we’ve seen acted out in the past two months have been risky and they’ve all backfired. Having marched proudly to the edge of the abyss I see no reason think that this group of lying, cheating thieves will not join hands once more and take that bold step into the unknown.
If a strike occurs, Kerry will be there within four hours and he’ll try to get the EMT techs to keep victims on site until he has a bloody shirt to wave. That’s just the kind of guy John is.
Someone, please shoot down my concerns that El-Baradei is from Egypt and I can’t find any reference to it, but I don’t think it is a stretch to assume his religious affiliation. The odds of him being Coptic aren’t real high. Annan is from Ghana and I can find no reference to his religion in his bio. He went to a Methodist school when he was young, but that is not uncommon in West Africa, since the Christian schools were considered better. Does anyone know what religion he was raised in? Does anyone think this has a bearing, or is it strictly a power play by the U.N.? Why would the IAEA refrain from telling us ’til May? What motivation would the U.N. alone have for that kind of withholding of info.?
Roger’s assuming that ElBaradei (or anyone at that U.N., for that matter) actually follows some kind of ethical code. Given the graft and corruption that is SOP at the U.N., that is a most improbable assumption.
I would say that the U.N. is long overdue for a housecleaning.
I had’nt read Tmj when I posted but I wish I had. His detailed analysis seem to support my conclusions. So for more details and better writing, take a look.
Tmj, I’m not Roger (else I wouldn’t be having such trouble getting a novel written) but I’d have to say that the difference between link-whoring and what you’re proposing is that you actually contribute over here. It’s the people who appear as if from nowhere and drop a link to their blog who look to be link whoring.
Charlie,
A difficult choice,swatting a twit with reality or accepting his figures as useful,would you mind if I used the moonbats figures for a week or so?
So Kerry is already preparing a new ad out about this and obviously Bush needs a quick new counter ad. Bear with me here (I’m not an adman by trade):
“Number of missing explosives in Iraq that Kerry is very very concerned about……….380 tons.
Number of explosives already destroyed by coalition forces in Iraq…….243,000 tons.
Number of explosives already secured and awaiting destruction by coalition forces in Iraq….168,000 tons.
Watching Kerry try to explain why 380 tons of missing explosives are a serious threat while 411,000 tons of explosives in Saddam’ hands were not……priceless.
Wrong war, wrong place, wrong time? ”
Well – as I said I’m not an adman – hopefully you get the idea…..
I think the UN might be trying to cover its ass for not getting rid of this stuff in the first place and for not telling the US it was there. They waited until May 2003 to discuss this with the Iraqi Survey Group???
I am sure they want the UN food for oil scandal to go away. I am sure they want discussion of their own incompetence to go away. It was the war in Iraq and not the UN weapons inpectors that brought Kaddafi to disarming and Dr. Kahn’s activities into the open. these guys have accomplished little or nothing for years.
They want Bush out and Kerry in but the timing here is so suspicious that even if I were a Kerry supporter I think I would be wondering about this.
But then I can not imagine being a Kerry supporter so who knows.
“Am I a link whore if I direct people to my opinions relating to the issues that you bring up? I am unclear on the etiquitte here and could use your advice.”
I do it. I don’t know if being a link whore is a bad thing. I love following links from comment threads.
Caroline, that’s brilliant!
Might run into copyright problems, though…
Is this the new UN theme song? (To the tune of “Bad to the Bone”)
“I cheated a hundred times, that’s nothing new
I’ll cheat a thousand more baby, before I am through
I wanna change your president, yours and yours alone
I’m here to tell ya honey, that I’m corrupt to the bone
Corrupt to the bone
C-C-C-Corrupt
C-C-C-Corrupt
C-C-C-Corrupt
Corrupt to the bone”
(with apologies to George Thorogood)
Mohammed El Barade must go. It seems he’s…corrupt to the bone!
I am far more worried that El Baradei is a Blixian than that he happens to be a Muslim.
Speaking of which I finally got to see Team America – god was that funny. I could watch Jeannene Garafolo die all day. One question – why Liv Tyler and Samuel L. Jackson? I’ve never seen anything overly political from them. Jackson actually tends to make some good conservative points in his movies.
TMJ and Rick: Maybe i’m being dense, but are you suggesting that AlQaeda is seeking to engineer an October surprise by using ElBaradei and the MSM to ensure that a bombing this coming weekend will inure to Kerry’s benefit rather than W’s (as people will say “this wouldn’t have happened if GW hadn’t let them loot those explosives!”) ?
Caroline,
Nice point but I’m betting the ads were made before or in co-ordination with the article,if this could be proved it would be Grey Lady Down.
ex-democrat -
That’s a damn good question, and I am going to update my blog accordingly just as soon as I answer you directly:
NO, I don’t think al Qaeda is directing any of the actors in this story.
I think that the classic crime writer’s formula is in play to the hilt: means, motive, and opportunity.
After Spain there has been no end to the debate wheather this November would bring our turn for another domestic terror attack. I know, you know, God knows that all our DHS, FBI, CIA, and buckets-full of other acronym intell/ security/ defense agencies are running at redline to prevent any attacks. We were attacked in September of 2001 because al Qaeda assumed that with our horrible leadership, domestic fear, and collapsing economy we’d just fall to pieces and the caliphate would rise again.
See what watching CNN and reading the NY Times gets you?
Anyone in a position of responsibility who doubts we are likely to be hit is a fool – and for that reason the high profile people aren’t saying a thing. Naming calls, you know.
Short of assassinating Bush, the enemy (all of them, to include al Q, the U.N., and yes, our pre-9/11 moonbats) have only one other option to removing him from power, and that happens on November 2d. Our election, in military terms, is become a strategic target critical to the interests of multiple agendas.
But…if you are the U.N. and are out of options toward acheiving your goals, and not particualarly considerate of…o.k., f*cking devoid of principle, and were in a position that would make claims about weapon stockpiles sound credible enpough to sell a story like this to an organization as willing to believe as our MSM, and you run with it it becomes quite an elegant coup if the remnants of al Qaeda do show up to punch the clock.
The Dems? They have to have considered the sources and the motives in play, too. It’s a winner for them. They intend to blame Bush for people being too stupid to vote already. They have armies of lawyers and prescripted phonebanks set up NOW to question the legitimacy of balloting that hasn’t happened yet, and ANYWHERE the margin is close enough to make it worth getting in front of a judge.
And as surely as Hell has a chapter of the ABA, the Democrats have already preplanned a crucifiction press release just in case a propane tank in a Brooklyn deli accidentally explodes on election day. With this RDX story out on every MSM outlet, they have been released from having to restrain their rhetoric at all.
We may even here “Bush kills our babies” from Kerry’s lips before this week is out. Why not? They’ve been given a blank check by the publication of this story.
You don’t see ANY coverage of the questioning of the original Times piece outside of blogs. NONE…and NBC has quietly nuanced (see my original post) their original contradicting account.
If we get bombed by ANYONE…the public who doesn’t follow the news like we on the ‘sphere do will think, “Well, damn, they used that stuff from Iraq here!”…
Back to the crime analogy:
You know that the cross town Mob has a big hit planned. Forty sticks of dynamite under the stage at the Copacabana Club are going to retire the aging capo of one of your associate organizations. The conflict over there isn’t anything to do with you…but you do have some serious problems with competition in your own organization.
You send your ambitious Billy Fingers and two his lieutenants tickets to the second show at the Copacabana… footlight seats…and start writing plans for how to use their replacements.
That’s what I see happening here. And it’s all opinion – nothing more. I used Occam’s razor because I couldn’t figure out “why now?” and this is what I came up with.
Roger,
Since Kerry and Edwards are going to run an ad about the prodigal explosives,it would be interesting to have a time line from leak to NYT article to production of the ad.In your professional opinion how long would it take?
I ask because it looks like the egg came before the chicken here.
The fact that the UN is against George Bush should be no surprise. It’s no different than Yasir Arafat endorsing John Kerry. Both are dirty, corrupt and know that Bush will not cave into their schemes. In fact, they fear what Bush may actually do to them in a second term.
What is so troubling is the behavior of the Fourth Estate. The mainstream media has largely abdicated its role as the protector of the facts and truth. The New York Times and CBS just happen to be the poster children for this sad fact. If the press can be “bought”, is tyranny not be far around the corner? We live in a scary, dangerous time.
The blogoshpere can clearly have an impact as Rathergate shows. The question is do the blogs, Fox and what is left of the Fourth Estate have the reach and persuasiveness to be heard above the “noise”?
If elected, Kerry will be in bed with the crooks at the UN, sucking up to the French to “prove” the righteousness of any action under his Global Test policy and facing a reinvigorated enemy who knows he doesn’t have the guts to stand and fight when necessary.
God help us!
“God protects drunks, fools and the United States of America.”
Let’s hope and pray, we’re going to need him.
TMJ: thanks for the response. I had just about settled on the belief that AlQ would not launch a Madrid-style attack here for fear of triggering pro-W fury rather than pro-Kerry appeasement.
These latest events may have upset that calculation (if it was ever made).
Btw, a commenter on another thread suggested that this kind of explosive has not been used to date in post-war Iraq, and, if so, that this is a pretty good argument against the “looted by terrorists” canard.
Occam works for me too.
Oh, yippee, Drudge links to a winter storm in the Bible Belt on Election Day.
Anyone remember NM in 2000?
I totally disagree that this was thought through beforehand. Baradei wanted to sling some dirt and all the usual suspects simply picked up on it with glee. None of these actors are looking beyond their noses because at this point they’re desparate for votes for Kerry. If they weighed any risks, expedience dismissed them.
That’s enough razor for me.
Why did the IAEA not tell the US that they had sealed these explosives and LEFT them there until May ’03? I get the motivation for releasing this letter now to try to unseat Bush, but I don’t understand the motivation for withholding the information then. We went into Iraq in Mar. ’03, we were at the site in April ’03, our official inspection team was at the site in May ’03 – and it was in May ’03 that the IAEA told us of the existence of these explosives. (As per Sandy P’s post referencing the Mort Kondracke comment from Special Report with Brit Hume.) Why did they wait to tell us until after the war? Why didn’t they inform the US when the inspectors left Iraq – before we went in? El Baradei’s lust to keep his job doesn’t explain this. There is something more here.
BAGHDAD ÔøΩ Leaders and supporters of the anti-U.S. insurgency say their attacks in recent weeks have a clear objective: The greater the violence, the greater the chances that President Bush will be defeated on Tuesday and the Americans will go home.
“If the U.S. Army suffered numerous humiliating losses, [Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John] Kerry would emerge as the superman of the American people,” said Mohammad Amin Bashar, a leader of the Muslim Scholars Association, a hard-line clerical group that vocally supports the resistance.
syl:
i’m not big on conspiracy theories either, but i note that this thread over on the Belmobt Club has explored the same idea: http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/2004/10/rdx-part-2-michael-totten-at.html
my best guess is that the Kerry campaign thought about what a madrid surprise might mean for their chances and figured out this little ruse as a hedge.