October Surprise! They found Iraq's WMD

Only to promptly lose them.

The huge facility, called Al Qaqaa, was supposed to be under American military control but is now a no man's land, still picked over by looters as recently as Sunday. United Nations weapons inspectors had monitored the explosives for many years, but White House and Pentagon officials acknowledge that the explosives vanished sometime after the American-led invasion last year.

The White House said President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, was informed within the past month that the explosives were missing. It is unclear whether President Bush was informed. American officials have never publicly announced the disappearance, but beginning last week they answered questions about it posed by The New York Times and the CBS News program "60 Minutes."

Now we know the source material for all of those roadside and car bombs that have killed so many Iraqis and U.S. soldiers.

The level of incompetence in planning the invasion and occupation of Iraq is quite stunning. Whether things like this provide materiel for attacks within the U.S. is hard to say, but it certainly condemns our occupation of the country to being damn near impossible.

Why was the National Security Advisor informed of this only a month ago? Once again, what is Condi Rice's job? And, of course, bubble boy was not informed.

Josh Marshall has more, and a few questions reporters may want to ask.