David Gaubatz, an ex-intelligence officer, and former special investigator for The Pentagon, has been trying for three years to get the American weapons inspectors and the media to listen to his claims that no less than four sealed underground bunkers in southern Iraq are believed to contain stocks of chemical and biological weapons. h/t Antimedia:

According to Gaubatz "fresh" WMD were buried under the Euphrates River near Nasiriyah, in southern Iraq. He and other federal agents (civilians) identified, with the help of some local Iraqis who are now in the US (no doubt for their protection), four separate sites where WMD were buried, and to date no one has even bothered to check them. Charles Duelfer, according to Gaubatz, did a "substandard" job running the Iraqi Survey Group, the group tasked with tracking down Iraq's WMD.

So the question is, why does the Pentagon ignore repeated requests by one of their decorated ex-intelligence officers? The answer is simple: because it has developed a case of 'MSM's Alzheimer's' in the particular department that has the most to lose from this discovery, which would not only undermine their investigations, but have the Administration's wrath for calling off the search whilst still in possession of valuable information. From The New York Sun back in February, who carried out a telephone interview with Gaubatz, and were the only ones to run the story

Mr. Gaubatz's new disclosures shed doubt on the thoroughness of the Iraq Survey Group's search for the weapons of mass destruction that were one of the Bush administration's main reasons for the war. Two chief inspectors from the group, David Kay and Charles Duelfer, concluded that they could not find evidence of the promised stockpiles. Mr. Kay refused to be interviewed for this story and Mr. Duelfer did not return email. The CIA referred these questions to Mr. Duelfer.

The media of course is not interested, as it would not only pulverize their absolute favorite 'Bush Lied People Died' meme, but throw spotlight on a war hero, which is their least favorite of all combinations

David Gaubatz, a former member of the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations, was assigned to the Talill Air Base in Nasiriyah at the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom. His job was to pick up any intelligence on the whereabouts of senior Baathists and weapons of mass destruction and then send the information to the American weapons inspectors gathering in Baghdad that would later become the Iraq Survey Group. For his intelligence work he received accolades and meritorious service medals in 2003 and prior years. Before the war he helped uncover a spy in the Saudi military. He also assisted with the rescue and repatriation to America of the family of Mohammed Rehaief, the Iraqi lawyer who helped save Private Jessica Lynch.

Mr. Gaubatz said he walked the streets of the largely Shiite city of Nasiriyah, interviewing local police, former senior civilian and military leaders in Saddam Hussein's regime, and local civilians.

Between March and July 2003, Mr. Gaubatz was taken by these sources to four locations - three in and around Nasiriyah and one near the port of Umm Qasr, where he was shown underground concrete bunkers with the tunnels leading to them deliberately flooded. In each case, he was told the facilities contained stocks of biological and chemical weapons, along with missiles whose range exceeded that mandated under U.N. sanctions. But because the facilities were sealed off with concrete walls, in some cases up to 5 feet thick, he did not get inside. He filed reports with photographs, exact grid coordinates, and testimony from multiple sources. And then he waited for the Iraq Survey Group to come to the sites. But in all but one case, they never arrived.[...]

"I have no doubts the sites were never exploited by ISG. We agents begged and begged for weeks and months to get ISG to respond to the sites with the proper equipment," Mr. Gaubatz said in a telephone interview. He returned to his wife and daughter in July 2003, and then wrote letters about the sites to more senior officials in military intelligence. But he said he never received any satisfactory response and says that to this day the sites have never been fully checked out.

It is a disgrace that a decorated ex-intelligence officer has to resort to acrobatics for three years to get the Pentagon and the media to listen. I guess it is a good thing that Karl Rove reads NewsBusters, he may get some intelligence he never knew he had.