Dexter Filkins had the byline on the story. He’s been in Iraq quite a bit since the overthrow of Saddam. But he likely just wrote the wrap on it, and didn’t do any of the reporting. That’s the way the NYT operates, though you wouldn’t know that just to read through a piece. (See “Over There: From The Bronx to Baghdad,” by NYT reporter Alan Feuer, for an excellent description of how this works).

The note on the story says “Kirk Semple in contributed reporting from Ramadi for this article, and Khalid Al-Khassan from Baghdad.” Nobody from the Times, apparently, saw the truck or was within hundreds of miles of the city where it supposedly turned up.

The top of the story attributes all the information about the truck-full of ballots to “an official at Iraq’s Interior Ministry,” and later says he “spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.” Presumably this info came from Al-Khassan. The old anonymous source that bites you in the ass.