What It Means

David Kay, U.S. arms inspector, confirmed to Aaron Brown that the Twin Cities video shows that U.S. troops found the sealed, high-powered explosives now missing. He said that the presence of those explosives had been known since 1991, and it was one of the most important sites in Iraq. He finds it incredible that U.S. forces didn't know what they were seeing, but since they knew at least they were seeing explosive powder of some kind, that the facility wasn't secured. Bush has been attacking Kerry for wild charges and not knowing the facts, but this fact is certainly not contradicted by the video: the Bush league team ordered troops to guard the oil ministry, but not huge caches of dangerous explosives.

If that isn't bad enough, the truly frightening comment Kay made was this: the munitions present in Iraq, most in the hands of insurgents, is equal to two-thirds of the non-nuclear munitions possessed by the U.S. armed forces. Not just in Iraq. Everywhere.

On a related issue, the FBI has opened a CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION into favoritism in granting a no-bid contract to a subsidiary of Halliburton for Iraq. According to one report, a Defense Department whistleblower has an email which shows White House involvement, specifically the office of vice president Cheney. The investigation led Thursday's Hardball, with Chris Matthews opining that this has the potential to crystallize the Democratic charges of Bush and Republican favoritism to huge corporations.

Apart from the name of the Iraqi prison, there has been no more potent word this year than Halliburton.

Pundits argue whether there are any undecideds left, or whether they are reachable on issues. But it's hard to see how Bush is helped by headlines clearly demonstrating incompetence that has led to Americans being killed and crippled, and that enriched a partisan corporation in a war that a new Johns Hopkins estimate says killed 100,000 Iraqi civilians, many of them children. Perhaps this won't change minds, but only further sicken hearts. Tonight we mourn those hundred thousands, and our thousands. Tomorrow we resolve to stop these people with our ballots before they do even more harm.