weapons so that the people who stole them won't know they have them? It doesn't sound very discredited to me. Josh Marshall on the case: "Okay, now can we say that the NBC Nightly News report that the explosives at al Qaqaa were already gone when the first US troops arrived -- the one Drudge goaded CNN into running with far harder than NBC ever did -- is now officially no longer operative? Earlier we noted that MSNBC had interviewed a member of the NBC news crew that was embedded with the 101st Airborne, Second Brigade, which visited the al Qaqaa facility on the April 10th, 2003. She said they didn't do any search. They were there on a "pit stop" on the way to Baghdad..." Jim Miklaszewski on MSNBC: "Now, Pentagon officials say U.S. troops and members of the Iraq Survey Group did arrive at the Al QaQaa compound on May 27. And when they did, they found no HMX or RDX or any other weapons under seal at the time. Now, the Iraqi government is officially said that the high explosives were stolen by looters." www.talkingpointsmemo.com Tim, Your suggestion that the Malayan Emergency is a useful analogy to the current Iraq occupation is an intriguing one. I think it fails for reasons I will elaborate, but it is a serious and interesting suggestion. I would have responded to your suggestion earlier, but I was unfamiliar with the issue and didn't have the time to check up on it.