With most of the day spent away from the computer, I am now catching up and it is amazing not only to read of the rapid and complete destruction of the NYT's missing explosives story but to read it as a story in itself.

As I was reading posts and following links and scrolling up for updates, I thought about Roger Simon and whether he could have written a fictional story as intriguing and surprising as this one and could he have put all the characters - IAEA, secret courier-informant-leaker (take your pick), CBS, NYT, Kerry, Bush, Iraq, Russia, a healthy group of bloggers, and a wide array of supporting cast, and made it work? I'd sure love to read his opinion on this question. And while asking, I wonder whether he would think to start it out as an outrageous tragedy and have it end as a hilarious comedy.

Now I do not know where it will end. I think it might go on a while longer now that the actual NYT story is not really the story anymore. Personally, I think the NYT is out of it now that we have a line in the story where an Executive Editor basically tells his business partner that they will have to rush to print the expose` (which exposes nothing) because a fan has leaked to the public that they are about to expose something major, only to find out their non-expose` leads to a major expose`.

Here is what I am waiting for in this story. Bush made some kind of request to the Putin to see if he could, on the hush-hush, pull any strings in removing the most dangerous materials from Iraq to save our troops and Iraqis alot of problems during the invasion. I do think it is plausible and certainly more plausible than either of the following that I have seen in a few places:
- Saddam wanted to hide them,
- The Russians wanted to hide them so no one would know the Russians had given them to Saddam,
- Saddam and the Russians conspired to hide them,
- Saddam wanted the Russians to hide them.

Now maybe this is hindsight, but, if you were Saddam, would you have let the stuff go or would you have kept them and used them. Me? I would have loaded the stuff up and moved it all into firing range. After all, I was a vicious dictator with no scruples at the end of my rope and with nothing to lose. Hmmm, unless of course I got the wool pulled over my eyes by an erstwhile ally who told me they would save my ass. (Should I have been suspicious when they also wanted to shred all those secret on my dealings with them?) D'oh.

Anyway, the story now is that Kerry is an idiot and Bush is looking good. Thanks NYT.

Keep the story alive.