CBS eyed '60 Minutes' Bush bombshell

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CBS News apparently had an October surprise of its own for President Bush.

The network, already reeling from accusations of bias over anchorman Dan Rather's use of bogus memos to challenge Mr. Bush's Texas Air National Guard record, acknowledged yesterday in a statement that it had planned to air a story critical of the Bush administration's handling of Iraqi munitions Sunday on "60 Minutes," two days before the presidential election.

CBS opted to allow its "reporting partner," the New York Times, to run the story Monday, citing concerns over competition, and ran it on its network news Monday night.

"This was a timely story that was developing quickly, and we wanted to air it as soon as possible on '60 Minutes,'" spokesman Kevin Tedesco said. "Then it became apparent the story was already breaking elsewhere, so we agreed to run it in the Times, and on our own evening news Monday night."

Both news outlets reported that the Iraqi government has told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that 380 tons of plastic explosives, one pound of which can bring down a jet aircraft, went missing during postwar looting.

The stories now are being challenged by the Pentagon and by an NBC News reporter embedded with the U.S. unit that first took control of the munitions dump.

NBC News revealed Monday night that when one of its reporters embedded with the 101st Airborne Division arrived at the Al-Qaqaa site April 10, 2003, the Iraqi explosives were missing. The network added a slight nuance yesterday, adding that U.S. forces never undertook a thorough search.

The Pentagon stands by its statements that U.S. forces found no IAEA-sealed explosives there and that the site already had been looted by April 10.

Nevertheless, the tale emerged as an instant political weapon for Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry, who called it a Bush administration "blunder" and promptly based a campaign TV spot on the revelation.

"Kerry gins up his attack machine based on a flawed New York Times story," the Republican National Committee stated yesterday.