OP-ED COLUMNIST
A Culture of Cover-Ups
By PAUL KRUGMAN
 ides to John
Kerry say that if he wins, he'll replace Porter Goss as head of the
C.I.A. Let's hope so: Mr. Goss has already confirmed the fears of those
who worried about his appointment by placing Republican staff members
from Capitol Hill in key positions and raising fears about a partisan
purge.
But the flap over Mr. Goss is only a symptom of
a much broader issue: whether the Bush administration will be able to
maintain its culture of cover-ups. That culture affects every branch of
policy, but it's strongest when it comes to the "war on terror." Although President
Bush's campaign is based almost entirely on his self-proclaimed
leadership in that war, his officials have thrown a shroud of secrecy
over any information that might let voters assess his performance. Yesterday
we got two peeks under that shroud. One was The Times's report about
what the International Atomic Energy Agency calls "the greatest
explosives bonanza in history." Ignoring the agency's warnings,
administration officials failed to secure the weapons site, Al Qaqaa,
in Iraq, allowing 377 tons of deadly high explosives to be looted,
presumably by insurgents. The administration is trying to play
down the importance of this loss, arguing that because Iraq was awash
in munitions, a few hundred more tons don't make much difference. But
aside from their potential use in nuclear weapons - the reason they
were under seal before the war - these particular explosives, unlike
standard munitions, are exactly what a terrorist needs. Informed
sources quoted by the influential Nelson Report say explosives from Al
Qaqaa are the "primary source" of the roadside and car bombs that have
killed and wounded so many U.S. soldiers. And thanks to the huge amount
looted - "in a highly organized operation using heavy equipment" - the
insurgents and whoever else have access to the Qaqaa material have
enough explosives for tens of thousands of future bombs. If the
administration had had its way, the public would never have heard
anything about this. Administration officials have known about the
looting of Al Qaqaa for at least six months, and probably much longer.
But they didn't let the I.A.E.A. inspect the site after the war, and
pressured the Iraqis not to inform the agency about the loss. They now
say that they didn't want our enemies - that is, the people who stole
the stuff - to know it was missing. The real reason, obviously, was
that they wanted the news kept under wraps until after Nov. 2. The
story of the looted explosives has overshadowed another report that
Bush officials tried to suppress - this one about how the Bush
administration let Abu Musab al-Zarqawi get away. An article in
yesterday's Wall Street Journal confirmed and expanded on an "NBC
Nightly News" report from March that asserted that before the Iraq war,
administration officials called off a planned attack that might have
killed Mr. Zarqawi, the terrorist now blamed for much of the mayhem in
that country, in his camp. Citing "military officials," the
original NBC report explained that the failure to go after Mr. Zarqawi
was based on domestic politics: "the administration feared destroying
the terrorist camp in Iraq" - a part of Iraq not controlled by Saddam
Hussein - "could undermine its case for war against Saddam." The
Journal doesn't comment on this explanation, but it does say that when
NBC reported, correctly, that Mr. Zarqawi had been targeted before the
war, administration officials denied it. What other mistakes did
the administration make? If partisan appointees like Mr. Goss continue
to control the intelligence agencies, we may never know. This
isn't speculation: Mr. Goss is already involved in a new cover-up. Last
week Robert Scheer of The Los Angeles Times revealed the existence of a
devastating but suppressed report by the C.I.A.'s inspector general on
9/11 intelligence failures. Newsweek has now confirmed the gist of Mr.
Scheer's column. The report, the magazine says, "identifies a
host of current and former officials who could be candidates for
possible disciplinary procedures." But although the report was
completed in June, Mr. Goss has refused to release it to Congress.
"Everyone feels it will be better if this hits the fan after the
election," an official told the magazine. Better for whom? What really happened on 9/11, or in Iraq? Next week's election may determine whether we ever find out.
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