The suspicious photo

That picture of the two soldiers lifing the lid on "the hole" where the dates are hanging on the tree is on CBS' website in an "interactive" link called "The Capture of Saddam". From the pop-up interactive window, click on "Schematics - Ace in the Hole" and click on #5. The caption is:

Ventilation Pipe

Next to a date tree beside the hole was a tin exhaust pipe that served as the hole's ventilation duct. Drying salamis and figs were hung on the pipe to help disguise it.

While the picture still could be something old on file used to stand in for something they didn't have, they certainly imply that this picture represents the events around "the capture" by having it here. See my comments about it and the problematic picture here.

Of course, the CBS interactive bit is bound to be misleading unless its graphics are clearly accurate. Another similar confusing bit is the graphic they created showing "the hole" in cross-section in the compound yard. It shows a body lying face up - as I mentioned on the day of the capture announcement, a Nightly News program on TV had a similar graphic but with a body face down, and the reporter actually said that this was the way he was found. Thus, my "Face Down" post. And in another report I read somewhere (sorry, didn't keep the link), the reporter claimed that Saddam had been found with his feet under the ventilation pipe. I thought that was strange at the time, because I figured in such cramped quarters beneath the ground, I would want my head at the ventilation pipe. At any rate, the CBS graphic makes it appear that the ventilation pipe and hole were such that the pipe was at Saddam's midsection.

These may be trivial pursuits, and in the end unimportant, except for one thing: what is the truth, and who's telling it, if anyone? The trivialities may be nothing but dust. But the dust covering makes it hard to see clearly.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.