I was trying to verify Captain Ed's assertion

that NBC News had blown the NY Times explosives theft story out of the water, but I only found an MSNBC story that went along with the IAEA press release. This is as much as they say:

At the Pentagon, an official who monitors developments in Iraq said U.S.-led coalition troops had searched Al-Qaqaa in the immediate aftermath of the March 2003 invasion and confirmed that the explosives, which had been under IAEA seal since 1991, were intact. The site was not secured by U.S. forces, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

I don't find any links by Captain Ed or any of the sources he cited to the NBC story, which was presumably done on the air. Apparently on the Nightly News.

Well, I guess I get to update immediately. A guy who linked to Captain Ed's post has this:

update 5: In the comments, Rob W notes that NBC is now backing away from its critique of the Times story. If this proves to be the case, then upping the bet may not have been such a bad play by the Grey Lady. However, protein wisdom retains his skepticism.

Looks like we don't get to back up our side by pitting stalwarts of the Old Media against each other. I got the story originally from Hugh Hewitt, who seems to be taking it lightly. Taking Drudge's and National Review Online's word for it NBC Nightly News originally said:

NBC News: Miklaszewski: "April 10, 2003, only three weeks into the war, NBC News was embedded with troops from the Army’s 101st Airborne as they temporarily take over the Al Qakaa weapons installation south of Baghdad. But these troops never found the nearly 380 tons of some of the most powerful conventional explosives, called HMX and RDX, which is now missing. The U.S. troops did find large stockpiles of more conventional weapons, but no HMX or RDX, so powerful less than a pound brought down Pan Am 103 in 1988, and can be used to trigger a nuclear weapon. In a letter this month, the Iraqi interim government told the International Atomic Energy Agency the high explosives were lost to theft and looting due to lack of security. Critics claim there were simply not enough U.S. troops to guard hundreds of weapons stockpiles, weapons now being used by insurgents and terrorists to wage a guerrilla war in Iraq." (NBC's "Nightly News," 10/25/04)

So the question is, are they going against the word of their own reporters to back the IAEA? And whatever agenda they might have?

I was hoping to somewhat allay the fears of my moderate friends, but this isn't doing it.

Update: CNN affirms the original NBC story. That is, they confirm that that's how NBC told it originally.