Ranger from the North

Jack Kelly from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette weighs in on the "explosives may or may not be missing from a munitions depot in Iraq" story, and The NY Times' and CBS's disgraceful tactics and inaccurate reporting of the events in this story.

Also, ealier this week, James Glassman and Bill Kristol reacted to the the U.N., CBS, and The NY Times trying to influence the election with this highly suspect story, and Team Kerry gleefully running with it, even though what actually happened at Al-Qaqaa is not yet known. These paragraphs from Mr. Glassman's column are great:

Last Sunday, the Washington Post buried a remarkable article by Bob Woodward that listed 22 questions that the nation's top investigative reporter wanted to ask Kerry. The questions, Woodward wrote, were "based entirely on Bush's actions leading up to the war and how Kerry might have responded in the same situations."

Woodward began seeking the interview in June. He had already spent three and a half hours with the president. At first, Kerry's aides said the interview would happen, but, after months of stringing Woodward along, Kerry changed his mind. "The senator and his campaign have since decided not to do the interview, though his advisers say Kerry would have strong and compelling answers," wrote Woodward.

We'll just have to take Kerry's word for it.

The truth, however, is that Kerry has never offered an alternative strategy for Iraq, except to say that he would work more closely with France and Germany, countries that were not going to hold Saddam to account under any circumstances.

Now, as a result of his exploitation of the questionable New York Times story, we know a bit more. The clear implication is that, in a Kerry administration, the 380 tons of weapons would not have been lost; they would have been secured -- even without an invasion. A miracle!

As is Mr. Kristol's concluding paragraph,

It also now turns out that CBS 60 Minutes was planning to echo the New York Times story two days before Election Day. So what we have is an attempt by the New York Times, CBS, and a U.N. agency to work together to promote a very likely false story to damage President Bush's reelection prospects. Perhaps no one should be surprised that the liberal media and the United Nations are willing to go to quite extraordinary lengths to promote Kerry's prospects against Bush, but their behavior is not the issue. The issue is Kerry's willingness to advance allegations that his own campaign acknowledges may not be true.