Did Russia steal Kerry's thunder?

Iraq depot mystery solved

Missing ammo moved to Syria before war

A

Poorly researched CBS-NYT 'surprise'

goes 'kablooie' for gambling Kerry campaign

A

Department of Defense reportedly has satellite photos showing trucks leaving al Qaaqaa facility in brief period before U.S. began invasion. More details tie the removal to Russian special forces and the destination: Syria.

Other evidence suggests that U.N. weapons chief El Baradei lied about the explosives, knew earlier that many had been removed.

Washington Times reporter Bill Gertz is all over it here.

The NY Times isn't holding much in its hand right now and what is left is pretty limp. How desperate is their hour over at the Grey Lady? They're blaming bloggers for their haste to print. Or as Howard Kurtz of the WaPo writes in tomorrow's edition:

On Sunday night, New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller told Jeff Fager, executive producer of CBS's "60 Minutes," that the story they had been jointly pursuing on missing Iraqi ammunition was starting to leak on the Internet.

"You know what? We're going to have to run it Monday," Keller said.

Keller is also quoted as saying that except for last minute fact checking and editing, the story was "basically ready" Monday. Aside from the laughter this is affording us, it does make you wonder if this is the gold-standard review process typical of all NY Times articles.

No word yet on how the Kerry campaign is going to deal with the TOTAL MELTDOWN of the centerpiece of their final week offensive. Kerry was using the NYT ammo theft story at every campaign stop, and his campaign trotted out a couple of TV ads almost instantly, leading savvy observers to suspect that the Democrats were well aware of the breaking story just as they were in August when CBS' 60-Minutes II tried to pawn off the fake Bush Texas ANG documents. That blew up within 48 hours. So has this story.

The worst of it for Kerry is that his pounding of Bush on the al Qaqaa Affair emphasized just how important is the Middle East and the fight against Islamic terrorism, issues that Bush already had a clear advantage. Not only does Kerry NOT neutralize these issues now, but he's reversed his own earlier campaign position that Iraq was not a hard target anyway. He has inadvertently validated the bagging of Baghdad and the sacking of Saddam.

Pessimists will say that the MSM will ignore the truth, but we've got a feeling that this rebuttal has tremendous reach and legs. Already Fox News has more information, and others will follow. Further, the sheer hubris of Kerry mistaking this very thin story as his ticket to electoral success is too delicious to ignore. He quickly traded his serviceable campaign quarterhorse for what he thought was a "fine Arab charger" for the final sprint to the finish next Tuesday. Only that Arabian stallion is made of wood and the wheels just fell off. And Dubya continues to gallop along on ol' Hidalgo, who's suddenly feelin' a mite frisky and anxious to get back home.