The "Russians did it" story not only collapsed, it did so in a way that shows how utterly stupid and incompetent shrub and his mis-administration are.
John A. "Jack" SHAW, deputy undersecretary for international technology security is quoted as having "reliable information" that Russia is behind the 342 tons of missing explosives from al Qaqaa.
Since trust is an important factor in this campaign season, you should know that John SHAW is not the poster child for trust.
After disguising himself as an employee of Halliburton Co, SHAW urged government officials to fix the alleged problems he found when he got access to a port in southern Iraq, directing multimillion-dollar contracts to companies linked to his friends, without competitive bidding. According to an LA Times story of July 6, 2004, SHAW has also tried to steer a contract to create an emergency phone network for Iraq's security forces to a company whose board of directors included a friend and one of SHAW's employees. The inspector general's office has turned over an inquiry into SHAW's actions to the FBI.
Knowing that SHAW used the rebuilding effort in Iraq to reward associates and/or political allies makes him less than a credible source, especially in the last week of the presidential campaign season. He's lying again while trying to secure a great job for one of his cronies. This time it's George W. Bush.
The Russian embassy in Washington has rejected John SHAW's current claims as "nonsense", saying there were no Russian military in the country at the time.
"I am unaware of any particular information on that point," said Larry Di Rita, Pentagon spokesman.
The Russian Defense ministry calls SHAW's claims "farfetched".
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said he was shocked by the report of the missing explosives, adding: "Looks to me like somehow the multinational force didn't stay on top of this." Mr. Armitage agreed the missing explosives had created a dangerous situation, according to a transcript of his Monday interview with the Arab-language newspaper al-Hayat released by the State Department. |
