Story didn't disappear

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD

Unfortunately for the Bush camp, the story of the missing explosives of Al Qaqaa won't disappear as easily as the explosives did.

Administration cover stories for the loss of nearly 400 tons of explosives are fading like raindrops in the desert.

The Army's 101st Airborne Division was at Al Qaqaa on April 10, 2003, and found nothing, the White House said, so the munitions could have been moved before the U.S. invasion.

But Col. Joseph Anderson, commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 101st, said his unit didn't search the facility, it merely stopped there overnight. "We did not get involved in any of the bunkers. It was not our mission," Anderson said.

Weapons inspector Charles Duelfer flatly denied a White House claim that the Iraq Survey Group he led in the search for weapons of mass destruction had been ordered to check on the missing explosives.

Yesterday President Bush responded for the first time publicly to the missing munitions issue, saying, "This investigation is important and it's ongoing, and a political candidate who jumps to conclusions without knowing the facts is not a person you want as your commander in chief."

Voters are left to ponder whether they want to retain the commander in chief who lost the cache in the first place.