When all else fails, blame the Russians

Bill Gertz at Washington Times is bemoaning the ouster of John A. Shaw from the Pentagon. As the story of the top-of-the-line explosives missing from Al Qaqaa hit the fan in October, Shaw came up with an ingeneous fall-back: blame the Commies. Supposedly, Russians loaded their trucks with explosives and drove them from Iraq just before the war. Of course the Russians will deny it, but who will the public believe: their own macho government or generations-old enemy? Conveniently, the story also plays into "Saddam sent his WMDs to Syria" crap.

But the kicker is here:

Mr. Shaw went public to counter a political "October surprise" campaign designed to "crucify the president" over the missing explosives, he wrote to Mr. Rumsfeld. "The Kerry media-driven October surprise attack on us and the president stopped within hours," Mr. Shaw wrote. [...] "Getting the truth out instantly was more important than process."

The story blew back when a video surfaced with explosives in place after the US was in already. The alleged Russian trucks (shown in grainy sattelite imagery) were parked at the wrong depots, and reports of after-invasion looting from the site came out.

The Moonie Times story does not mention of Al Qaqaa by name; suggests that the Russian truck story has as much credibility as ever; and as much as lionizes Shaw.