So much for the October surprise, the Bush administration was apparently to pull out of the hat just before the election.

DAVENPORT, Iowa, Oct. 25 - The White House sought on Monday to explain the disappearance of 380 tons of high explosives in Iraq that American forces were supposed to secure, as Senator John Kerry seized on the missing cache as "one of the great blunders of Iraq" and said President Bush's "incredible incompetence" had put American troops at risk.

Mr. Bush never mentioned the disappearance of the high explosives during a long campaign speech in Greeley, Colo., about battling terrorism.

That was from the NYT. Here it is at the BBC which states:

The explosives mostly consist of 195 metric tons of HMX and 141 metric tons of RDX - key components in plastic explosives, which have been widely used in car bombings in Iraq...Half a kilogram (1lb) of a explosive related to HMX was enough to bring down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, killing 170 people.

The CBC reports:

Before the U.S. invasion last year, the IAEA had been keeping tabs on stockpiles of HMX and RDX, which are so-called "dual-use" explosives because they can be used in nuclear weapons. The Al Qaqaa facility, a large military installation located 45 kilometres south of Baghdad, has been under U.S. military control since the war, but has repeatedly been looted. Some wonder whether the missing explosives are now being used in insurgent attacks against the forces of the U.S.-led coalition.

There were earlier stories that might have served as warnings...but how many soldiers does it take to guard 350 tons of explosives? You would think the people whose decision it was to understaff the invasion and hold back on the civic stability work (you know, the administration's neo-cons) would be held responsible. I wonder. Someone over there will find a way to blame Kerry.