[Peace-discuss] From today's NY Times

Tue Oct 26 11:00:41 CDT 2004

Al Qaqaa? Could we even make this stuff up??

COLUMNIST  A Culture of Cover-Ups By PAUL KRUGMAN

 Aides to John Kerry say that if he wins, he'll replace Porter Goss as
head
of the C.I.A. Let's hope so: Mr. Goss has already confirmed the fears of
those who worried about his appointment by placing Republican staff
members
from Capitol Hill in key positions and raising fears about a partisan
purge.
But the flap over Mr. Goss is only a symptom of a much broader issue:
whether the Bush administration will be able to maintain its culture of
cover-ups. That culture affects every branch of policy, but it's
strongest
when it comes to the "war on terror." Although President Bush's campaign
is
based almost entirely on his self-proclaimed leadership in that war, his
officials have thrown a shroud of secrecy over any information that
might
let voters assess his performance. Yesterday we got two peeks under that
shroud. One was The Times's report about what the International Atomic
Energy Agency calls "the greatest explosives bonanza in history."
Ignoring
the agency's warnings, administration officials failed to secure the
weapons
site, Al Qaqaa, in Iraq, allowing 377 tons of deadly high explosives to
be
looted, presumably by insurgents. The administration is trying to play
down
the importance of this loss, arguing that because Iraq was awash in
munitions, a few hundred more tons don't make much difference. But aside
from their potential use in nuclear weapons - the reason they were under
seal before the war - these particular explosives, unlike standard
munitions, are exactly what a terrorist needs. Informed sources quoted
by
the influential Nelson Report say explosives from Al Qaqaa are the
"primary
source" of the roadside and car bombs that have killed and wounded so
many
U.S. soldiers. And thanks to the huge amount looted - "in a highly
organized
operation using heavy equipment" - the insurgents and whoever else have
access to the Qaqaa material have enough explosives for tens of
thousands of
future bombs. If the administration had had its way, the public would
never
have heard anything about this. Administration officials have known
about
the looting of Al Qaqaa for at least six months, and probably much
longer.
But they didn't let the I.A.E.A. inspect the site after the war, and
pressured the Iraqis not to inform the agency about the loss. They now
say
that they didn't want our enemies - that is, the people who stole the
stuff - to know it was missing. The real reason, obviously, was that
they
wanted the news kept under wraps until after Nov. 2. The story of the
looted
explosives has overshadowed another report that Bush officials tried to
suppress - this one about how the Bush administration let Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi get away. An article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal
confirmed
and expanded on an "NBC Nightly News" report from March that asserted
that
before the Iraq war, administration officials called off a planned
attack
that might have killed Mr. Zarqawi, the terrorist now blamed for much of
the
mayhem in that country, in his camp. Citing "military officials," the
original NBC report explained that the failure to go after Mr. Zarqawi
was
based on domestic politics: "the administration feared destroying the
terrorist camp in Iraq" - a part of Iraq not controlled by Saddam
Hussein -
"could undermine its case for war against Saddam." The Journal doesn't
comment on this explanation, but it does say that when NBC reported,
correctly, that Mr. Zarqawi had been targeted before the war,
administration
officials denied it. What other mistakes did the administration make? If
partisan appointees like Mr. Goss continue to control the intelligence
agencies, we may never know. This isn't speculation: Mr. Goss is already
involved in a new cover-up. Last week Robert Scheer of The Los Angeles
Times
revealed the existence of a devastating but suppressed report by the
C.I.A.'s inspector general on 9/11 intelligence failures. Newsweek has
now
confirmed the gist of Mr. Scheer's column. The report, the magazine
says,
"identifies a host of current and former officials who could be
candidates
for possible disciplinary procedures." But although the report was
completed
in June, Mr. Goss has refused to release it to Congress. "Everyone feels
it
will be better if this hits the fan after the election," an official
told
the magazine. Better for whom? What really happened on 9/11, or in Iraq?
Next week's election may determine whether we ever find out.  Copyright
2004
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