The military? The CIA? I'm sure they both had offices in Baghdad for the last 10 years. Not.

Was anyone here (or anywhere) surprised to find out that Saddam was a dictator who murdered people? Did the use of torture surprise us? No? Why do you suppose that is?

Do you think that maybe, somewhere, the substance of the truth was leaked even though the details remained unreported? Do you think those notes and reports might be somewhere?

What do you think the world would have "known" had the journalists left? That Saddam oppresses civil liberties? That Iraqi children starved while he was pleasingly plump before the camera? We knew those things already, and we knew them because the reporters were still there, filing their ambiguous reports.

Had they left, I think the world would have stamped its foot for a day and a half and then forgotten. Think about places where there are no reporters and tell me we remember them a whole lot.

CNN has had to admit now that its people know more than they could say, to pave the way for putting those stories in the public record. They no longer have to protect their people, many of whom must have been Iraqi contacts who could not have been "pulled out" with the internationals. News organizations don't exist in a vacuum.

For the past several months, the war party has campaigned on various platforms, one of which has been "freedom for Iraq". We all knew there was no real free press in Iraq, including the foreign press. How did this become a surprise all of a sudden? Or is it because this is CNN and not FOX?

Good morning, Frank!

Regards--
Mary Anne