Qaqaagate Continues to Unravel
By streiff Posted in User Blogs — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
The AP bites its tongue and runs an interview with COL Dave Perkins, the brigade commander of 2d Brigade Combat Team (BCT), 3d Infantry Division.
At this point, I'd like to immodestly note that the first web identification of 2BCT/3ID as being the initial unit into al Qaqaa is here.
The infantry commander whose troops first captured the Iraqi weapons depot where 377 tons of explosives disappeared said Wednesday it is "very highly improbable" that someone could have trucked out so much material once U.S. forces arrived in the area.
Two major roads that pass near the Al-Qaqaa installation were filled with U.S. military traffic in the weeks after April 3, 2003, when U.S. troops first reached the area, said Col. David Perkins. He commanded the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, the division that led the charge into Baghdad.
A map of the al Qa Qaa facility demonstrates accuracy of Perkins' statement.
The idea that 30+ rogue 10-ton trucks could move unhindered through the rear echelon of a mechanized infantry division is just beyond contemplation. If military people weren't so stupid we'd have to say that it verged on impossible.
It's also amusing to watch Mike McCurry whip out his cane and white straw hat and begin to tap dance away from the story:
Mike McCurry, an adviser to Kerry, said, "From some of the Pentagon reporting today, there is a window that's available there where either just prior to or just after the invasion, there could have been an opportunity for either Saddam to move the weapons or for something happening after that facility had been abandoned.
"And that is up to the administration to best determine how to answer that question when that happened. But they don't have an answer, and that's what we're asking for," McCurry said.
Really, Michael? You only want an answer? It seems to me that Kerry has spent two days calling Buford Blount and Dave Perkins buffoons and cretins.
Within a day or so, the G-2 or G-3 journal from 3ID will demonstrate that someone looked for the IAEA seals. And Qaqaagate will join Rathergate in the annals of fair and unbiased journalism.
I checked Ebay, and the explosives are not there. I am getting the impression that the Kerry campaign did not even do that much to vet this story.