Here’s the New York Times’ November surprise: U.S. Web Archive Is Said to Reveal a Nuclear Guide.

Apparently, in 1991 Saddam Hussein was about a year away from a nuclear bomb, and possessed detailed plans to build one. The Times wouldn’t be publishing this if they thought it would help the GOP, and the angle here is that the Bush administration was sloppy with intelligence secrets, since some of the plans were made publicly available on the Iraq documents web site.

But it’s a weak last-minute play, that could just as easily be interpreted as a positive story for the Bush administration since it lends credence to fears of Iraqi WMD.

UPDATE at 11/2/06 10:17:02 pm:

Note paragraph 14 (hat tip: LGF readers):

Among the dozens of documents in English were Iraqi reports written in the 1990s and in 2002 for United Nations inspectors in charge of making sure Iraq had abandoned its unconventional arms programs after the Persian Gulf war. Experts say that at the time, Mr. Hussein’s scientists were on the verge of building an atom bomb, as little as a year away.

Is the New York Times actually conceding that Saddam was just a year away from having a nuclear weapon in 2002?