this is from kerry's site, and they have a transcript of the MSNBC interview with the embedded reporter that destroys the right wing spin machine's attempt to weasel out of this one. See below for full text of interview. This is huge, folks!
We MUST Get on the media to include this in their reporting and discredit the drudge/NRO attempt to weasel out of this story with distortions and quarter truths.
This is a KILLER issue for us. Do NOT let them get away with this. Send this interview transcript to CNN, MSNBC themselves, everybody you can think of, and let's get them back on track on this story. We won the Sinclair issue and that was huge, THIS is the next big battle in the media wars. We win this one, we can turn the election firmly towards Kerry. If you do one thing today, get on the media on this story.
http://blog.johnkerry.com/rapidresponse
/archives/003664.html#003664
MAJOR UPDATE! 5:13 PM
Lester Holt just introduced a piece by Miklaszewski in which Holt SPECIFICALLY said that there were "rumors on the internet" about what Miklaszewski had said last night that they wanted to clarify, then they ran the piece in which Miklaszewski made it VERY VERY clear the 101st airborne was not there to search for WMD, that the facility is gigantic, that they did not search most of it for WMDs, explosives, or anything else, and all in all TOTALLY, 100% DESTROYED the Drudge/NRO/Freeper spin on this story. This is the KILLER piece, we need a transcript of this as soon as possible.
They are DEAD DUCKS on this one. Folks, I have a phone banking obligation for Kerry tonight and won't be back till late - if somebody can get a transcript, I would say Lester Holt is the one to get. Strongest piece yet!
AND ONE MORE FYI - Hannity has been talking about this ALL DAY, ignoring the clarification from today as though it never happened and totally going with last night's spin. He has been going absolutely bonkers, spinning like a gyroscope, ripping the NY Times and everybody else in the media, ranting and raving. He knows two things -- this story is absolutely toxic to them, and Bush is in deep, deep trouble. I can tell when he's freaking, and he is in total freak mode! We've got 'em on the run, let's keep 'em there.
EARLIER UPDATE: Jim Miklaszewski was JUST on MSNBC three minutes ago (around 2:05 PM) and he is tearing the RNC/Drudge spin to pieces. He said the EXACT same thing as the embedded reporter, that they were not there to search but "were on their way to Baghdad", he talked about how huge the facility was -- the whole interview was a BC04 nightmare, and MSNBC is now once again reporting this story in a way that the Bushies won't like AT ALL.
CNN is hanging out to dry on this, if they don't clean up their reporting they are going to look like fools. This is still VERY much alive. We've got 'em by the short hairs, let's keep the pressure on!
ALSO I've been asked about a link for the transcripts. I'll look - anybody else know where these can be?
LATEST BUSH EXCUSE ON WEAPONS DUMP EVAPORATES
George Bush's continuing efforts to avoid responsibility for failing to secure 380 tons of highly dangerous explosives in Iraq just took another blow. The reporter who was actually traveling with the 101st Airborne in the report cited by the Bush campaign has clarified that the unit was not there to secure the massive weapons complex and it was merely a 'pit stop' on their way to Baghdad.
Try as it might, the Bush spin machine can not change the truth: the President is responsible for his catastrophic failures in Iraq and needs to personally address this issue.
MSNBC, 10/26/04 (Transcript):
Amy Robach: And it's still unclear exactly when those explosives disappeared. Here to help shed some light on that question is Lai Ling. She was part of an NBC news crew that traveled to that facility with the 101st Airborne Division back in April of 2003. Lai Ling, can you set the stage for us? What was the situation like when you went into the area?
Lai Ling Jew: When we went into the area, we were actually leaving Karbala and we were initially heading to Baghdad with the 101st Airborne, Second Brigade. The situation in Baghdad, the Third Infantry Division had taken over Baghdad and so they were trying to carve up the area that the 101st Airborne Division would be in charge of. As a result, they had trouble figuring out who was going to take up what piece of Baghdad. They sent us over to this area in Iskanderia. We didn't know it as the Qaqaa facility at that point but when they did bring us over there we stayed there for quite a while. We stayed overnight, almost 24 hours. And we walked around, we saw the bunkers that had been bombed, and that exposed all of the ordinances that just lied dormant on the desert.
AR: Was there a search at all underway or did a search ensue for explosives once you got there during that 24-hour period?
LLJ: No. There wasn't a search. The mission that the brigade had was to get to Baghdad. That was more of a pit stop there for us. And, you know, the searching, I mean certainly some of the soldiers head off on their own, looked through the bunkers just to look at the vast amount of ordnance lying around. But as far as we could tell, there was no move to
secure the weapons, nothing to keep looters away. But there was - at that point the roads were shut off. So it would have been very difficult, I believe, for the looters to get there.
AR: And there was no talk of securing the area after you left. There was no discussion of that?
LLJ: Not for the 101st Airborne, Second Brigade. They were -- once they were in Baghdad, it was all about Baghdad, you know, and then they ended up moving north to Mosul. Once we left the area, that was the last that the brigade had anything to do with the area.
AR: Well, Lai Ling Jew, thank you so much for shedding some light into that situation. We appreciate it.
LLJ: Thank you.