1115.org

A couple of days ago, we mentioned the story that has caused a firestorm of controversy among media pundits and political figures everywhere—the disappearance of 380 tons of high explosives from an Iraq facility. Not only are the explosives—called HMX and RDX—incredibly lethal, but it is speculated that they are the same explosives used in lethal attacks against US soldiers and Iraqi civilians.

Since the story broke, the administration and its followers have been franticly trying to put some damage control in place. It doesn’t take a political expert to see that this could be a very damaging story to Bush, who just a few days ago said that, knowing what he knows now, he still wouldn’t have changed anything in his Iraq strategy. As has been repeated numerous times, this is a President who will not admit mistakes. And the disappearance of these explosives points to a colossal lapse in postwar planning…

…that is, if the theft happened after Iraq became our responsibility. So the Bushies have been pushing the story that the explosives disappeared before we went into Iraq, and are therefore it can’t be blamed on the people in charge. Anyone claiming otherwise was either a partisan hack or a member of the dreaded “liberal media”.

Too bad the liberal media has cameras, isn’t it?

ABC News on Thursday showed video that appeared to confirm that explosives that went missing in Iraq did not disappear until after the United States had taken control of the facility where they were stored.

(snip)

ABC said the video was shot by an affiliate TV station embedded with the 101st Airborne Division when members of the division passed through the facility on April 18, nine days after the fall of Baghdad.

ABC said experts who have studied the images say the barrels seen in the video contain the high explosive HMX, and U.N. markings on the sealed containers were clear.

The barrels were found inside locked bunkers that had been sealed by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency just before the war began, ABC reported.

Nothing clears up a murky controversy like good ol’ photographic proof. One can only wonder what kind of spin Presidential mouthpiece Scott McClellan will attempt to salvage this one.

Add this onto the pile of Iraq blunders that the President doesn’t see or own up to. But at this point, the blame can’t be shifted away from Bush, Rummy and the rest of the people responsible for wartime decisions. It’s up to us to hold them responsible for it.