U.N. Manipulating U.S. Election?
Townhall ^ | Oct. 28, 2004 | Clifford May
 

On Monday, The New York Times carried a front-page story that could change the outcome of the 2004 elections.

According to the Times, a cache of powerful explosives used to "make missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons" was missing from an installation where Saddam Hussein had conducted nuclear-weapons research, a facility that "was supposed to be under American military control."

The story was soon all over the television news. Melissa Fleming, the spokeswoman of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), went on CNN to add fuel to the spreading fire over U.S. "responsibility" for the "lost" explosives.

There was only one problem with the story: There was not a shred of evidence that it was true.

The Times quoted unnamed White House and Pentagon officials acknowledging that the explosives vanished sometime after the American-led invasion last year. But named White House and Pentagon officials have said the opposite. And a senior government official told me: "It is very important the world understands that the stuff in Iraq was missing as of April 10, 2003 - the day after Baghdad fell."