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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: upanddown who wrote (32219)	10/27/2004 8:31:33 AM
From: Selectric II	Respond to of 173976

CBS, NY Times Appear to Plan 'October Surprise' Regarding Missing Iraqi Explosives By Bobby Eberle and Jimmy Moore Talon News October 27, 2004 WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Despite being highly criticized last month for running a story using forged memos regarding President George W. Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard, CBS's "60 Minutes," along with the New York Times, is again at the center of an election year scandal regarding missing explosives in Iraq. At the heart of the controversy are reports that both CBS and the New York Times were working on news stories which would focus on the missing explosives in the context that the explosives disappeared due to inadequate security provided by coalition forces following the fall of Baghdad. The segments would thus be critical of President Bush and his handling of post-war Iraq. According to CBS News executive producer Jeff Fager, an announcement by the interim Iraqi government to the International Atomic Energy Agency that a cache of 380 tons of explosives in a storage depot at Al Qaqaa have been missing since former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was ousted from power was going to be revealed on this Sunday's episode of "60 Minutes." "[Ou]r plan was to run the story on October 31, but it became clear that it wouldn't hold," Fager said in a statement. The New York Times beat CBS to the punch by releasing their story on Monday. Under the headline "Huge Cache of Explosives Vanished From Site in Iraq," the New York Times said that Iraqi interim government warned the U.S. and the IAEA that the explosives were missing from "one of Iraq's most sensitive former military installations." In a statement which implies that coalition forces did not provide adequate security, the story reads, "The huge facility, called Al Qaqaa, was supposed to be under American military control but is now a no man's land, still picked over by looters as recently as Sunday. United Nations weapons inspectors had monitored the explosives for many years, but White House and Pentagon officials acknowledge that the explosives vanished sometime after the American-led invasion last year." The news story goes on to credit CBS News and "60 Minutes" by stating, "This article was reported in cooperation with the CBS News program "60 Minutes." "60 Minutes" first obtained information on the missing explosives." Many political observers believe CBS was planning to unveil this as an "October surprise" in an effort to defeat President Bush in the November 2 election by airing the segment on Sunday, October 31. Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John F. Kerry reacted to this story by describing the missing explosives as "one of the great blunders of Iraq and one of the great blunders of this administration," arguing that Bush did not keep enough troops in Iraq to secure these explosives from being removed and falling into the hands of terrorists. "George W. Bush who talks tough and brags about making America safer has once again failed to deliver," Kerry remarked on Tuesday. "After being warned about the danger of major stockpiles of explosives in Iraq, this administration failed to guard those stockpiles -- where nearly 380 tons of highly explosive weapons were kept. Today we learned that these explosives are missing, unaccounted for, and could be in the hands of terrorists." Yet, as reported by Talon News on Monday, a segment by NBC News on Monday directly countered Kerry's claims that the weapons disappeared because of low post-war troop levels, but instead shows that the HMX and RDX explosives were not even present when coalition forces first arrived at Al Qaqaa during Operation Iraqi Freedom. NBC News confirmed that an embedded reporter with the Army's 101st Airborne on April 10, 2003, one day after Iraq was liberated from Saddam Hussein, said the explosives were already gone when coalition forces arrived. "[T]hese troops never found the nearly 380 tons of some of the most powerful conventional explosives, called HMX and RDX, which is now missing," the NBC reporter said at the time. Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said Kerry's attacks against the president have "been proven false" and shown to be "baseless." "[Kerry] said American troops did not secure the explosives, when the explosives were already missing," Schmidt exclaimed in a statement. Schmidt added that Kerry "neglects to mention the 400,000 tons of weapons and explosives [in Iraq] that are either destroyed or in the process of being destroyed." Speaking to supporters, Vice President Dick Cheney added, "If our troops had not gone into Iraq as John Kerry apparently thinks they should not have, that is 400,000 tons of weapons and explosives that would be in the hands of Saddam Hussein, who would still be sitting in his palace instead of jail." Despite clear evidence presented by NBC News that the explosives were already missing from Al Qaqaa, Kerry senior adviser Joe Lockhart said Tuesday that the Bush campaign is "distorting" the information. "In a shameless attempt to cover up its failure to secure 380 tons of highly explosive material in Iraq, the White House is desperately flailing in an effort to escape blame," Lockhart expressed to supporters, although he never explained how the Bush administration was doing this. "It is the latest pathetic excuse from an administration that never admits a mistake, no matter how disastrous." Copyright © 2004 Talon News -- All rights reserved.

To: upanddown who wrote (32219)	10/27/2004 8:36:37 AM
From: Selectric II	Respond to of 173976

Bush Campaign Wants 'Lies, Threats, Distortions' From Democrats To Be Reported By Jimmy Moore Talon News October 27, 2004 SPARTANBURG, SC (Talon News) -- Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman said on Tuesday that he is "appalled" at the last-minute tactics being used by the Democratic Party, liberal 527 groups, and the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John F. Kerry to get him into the White House. Mehlman wants supporters of President George W. Bush to help the Bush campaign track the "lies, threats and distortions from those allied against us." "In these final days, we can only expect more of this filth," Mehlman remarked in an e-mail to supporters. Mehlman gave an example of a flyer in Missouri that features a young African-American being hosed in the 1950s that was distributed to black neighborhoods warning them that the Republicans are going to do this to keep them from voting. Mehlman said voters in Colorado are getting calls from Kerry supporters who tell them their family member serving in the armed forces in Iraq had been killed, only to reveal that it "would be real unless Kerry was elected." In response to these outrageous tactics, Mehlman asks Bush supporters to "turn on your answering machine." "If you get a call from an unknown number, let the machine pick it up," Mehlman instructed. "It may be the latest campaign of smear, fear and lies from our opponents." A toll-free telephone number has been set up by the Bush campaign to call "if you get one of these disgusting calls, or an outrageous flyer or mailing." "[S]ave the message, call our hotline and let us know," Mehlman said, urging Bush supporters to call 1-888-610-8170 to report "suspicious" campaigning. He added, "We need to know immediately if you get one of these calls. We need to know the lies, threats, and distortions those allied against us are spreading." Reminding supporters that the Kerry campaign started this ruthless campaign recently when an internal campaign manual was leaked instructing Kerry supporters to "allege intimidation even if no evidence existed" at the polls. "Now their allies have begun an incredibly dishonest and disgusting campaign of shadowy calls and misleading flyers," Mehlman revealed. Noting that time is short, Mehlman concluded, "We need you to be our eyes and ears on the ground." Copyright © 2004 Talon News -- All rights reserved. ------------------------- Telling people their family member had been killed? Is this the dems' idea of politics? That's sure to backfire.