Put a Fork in Him -- He's Done

After tripping over himself to cast his lot with the Times' nytrogate story, it looks as if the jig is up. Bill Gertz is reporting that Russian special forces assisted Hussein's Iraq in evacuating weapons into Syria prior to the start of the U.S. invasion. Gertz reports that, according to John A. "Jack" Shaw (Undersecretary of Defense for International Security Technology) Russia's assistance "almost certainly" extended to the removal of the HMX and RDX featured in the nytrogate story.

DoD confirms that the chances this material was moved post-invasion is "nearly nil," which makes sense to me. I find it hard to believe that 380 tons of anything could have been conveyed across Iraqi highways unnoticed by a legion of Bradley Fighting Vehicles, convoys, checkpoints and troops, let alone a convoy emnating from a high value location. So too does the Pentagon:

The depot is located at the intersection of two major roads. Both are major convoy routes for American supplies going into Iraq, and they were jammed with U.S. vehicles at all times. There is no evidence, Pentagon officials said, that there was
any large-scale movement of explosives – or anything else for that matter – from
the facility.

This, of course, means that neither Bush nor the military were "incompetent" in failing to secure that material. But then, we were 'almost certain' that was the case within 15 hours of the nytrogate story hitting the streets.

Note: Yes, this is the same Jack Shaw who the L.A. Times slimed (L.A. Times original story has been disappeared) with phony allegations of interfering with communications contracts in Iraq. Shaw was completely vindicated (scroll down).