October 28, 2004
About those allies, Sen. Kerry...
The Blog Dads have been pounding the ca-ca (Qa-Qaa?) out of the New York Times' missing weapons story, which is being exposed as an "October surprise" hitpiece on the President. In their most recent post they point out a Washington Times article which reports that not only were the 380 tons of explosives moved before the Iraq war ever started, but the Russian military actually helped them.
Still want to subject our national security to a "global test", Sen. Kerry?
From the Washinton Times's article:
Russian special forces troops moved many of Saddam Hussein's weapons and related goods out of Iraq and into Syria in the weeks before the March 2003 U.S. military operation, The Washington Times has learned.
John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, said in an interview that he believes the Russian troops, working with Iraqi intelligence, "almost certainly" removed the high-explosive material that went missing from the Al-Qaqaa facility, south of Baghdad.
"The Russians brought in, just before the war got started, a whole series of military units," Mr. Shaw said. "Their main job was to shred all evidence of any of the contractual arrangements they had with the Iraqis. The others were transportation units."
Mr. Shaw, who was in charge of cataloging the tons of conventional arms provided to Iraq by foreign suppliers, said he recently obtained reliable information on the arms-dispersal program from two European intelligence services that have detailed knowledge of the Russian-Iraqi weapons collaboration.
This story leads Deacon to wonder:
If Shaw's version, as reported by the Washington Times, holds up and (as importantly) gets heard, the consequences for Kerry could be serious. The Senator will have (a) jumped to a conclusion that wasn't supported by the facts, (b) assumed the incompetence of our troops, (c) confirmed President Bush's position that Iraq had weapons worth worrying about, and (d) unleashed evidence that, as Rocket Man notes, suggests that chemical and biological weapons could easily have been moved out of Iraq just before we invaded. In light of the final point, though, what puzzles me is this: if the Defense Department has evidence that the Russians helped clean out Al Qaqaa, why haven't we heard about this before now (or did I just miss it). Evidence that Iraqi weapons, any weapons, were moved out of the country by the Russians would have been helpful to the administration long before now. Maybe we learned about it recently, as relations with Russia have improved.
(emphasis added)
I cannot help but think that the Beslan school massacre and the twin airliner hijacking/bombings has had a fundamental impact on Vladimir Putin and his perspective on how the US is prosecuting the Global War on Terror. Considering Putin's recent "endorsement" of the President, I think Putin is coming to realize that he has been wrong in joining with France and Germany to undercut the US in diplomatic circles. There is, of course, a more cynical perspective one could take -- Putin may just be playing both sides to make sure that he's seen favorably in a second-term Bush administration, but I'd like to not be cynical for once. |
