Turkey waggin'

That concern I had about the 40-minute flight to Baghdad, is perhaps cleared up by Bob's remark that it was probably sloppy reporting.

Further information on the story is still coming out.

By cutting out editors and bureau chiefs from the reporting process, one of the first news reports about President Bush's secret trip to Baghdad, by Mike Allen of The Washington Post, one of the few reporters invited to fly on board Air Force One and with the strict provision he could not tell his editor or bureau chief in Washington, muddied the waters for people anxious for details about the trip. Allen's report, titled, "Flight to Baghdad: Untold Story," stated, "A little after 5 am Baghdad time, about 10 hours after takeoff from Andrews, the cabin lights were turned off and all the shades were down. Twenty minutes later, we touched down in Baghdad."

...Allen's report was the first to give any details about the itinerary but he gave the false impression that Air Force One touched down in Baghdad at o'dark thirty in the morning, an hour and a half before sunrise in the Iraqi capital. Allen later told CNN that none of the on-board pool reporters were able to file their stories until Air Force One got above 10,000 feet. In the same interview, he stated that the reporters were not permitted to file until Air Force One had cleared "airspace." If he meant Iraqi airspace, it is doubtful that the aircraft would have been flying in Iraqi airspace at 10,000 feet and then ascended over Syria or Turkey. More inconsistencies in a story so full of holes it could pass for a piece of Swiss cheese.

A number of people who read the Post print edition Friday morning were also given the impression that there was an early morning landing and that Bush was serving Thanksgiving dinner to the troops in the morning. And they would stay confused. Outrageously, by Sunday, November 30, the Post still had not corrected its error.

The only correction it published in its Sunday, November 30 edition was the following less-than-critical one: "The headline "Carving the Bird" was inadvertently omitted from the crossword puzzle in the Nov. 23 Magazine." But the bird carving that the Post first indicated took place in the wee hours of the morning at the Bob Hope Dining Facility at Baghdad airport went uncorrected.

...In the CNN report filed on November 26, the president is quoted telling the reporters on Thursday night, November 27, after takeoff from Baghdad, "I was fully prepared to turn this baby around and come home," he says. "Three hours out, I checked with our Secret Service and checked with the people on the ground. They assured me that we still had a tight hold on the information." Incredible, CNN was told the day before what the President would tell reporters the next day?

Still lying.

"You take the blue pill--the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill--you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes." - Morpheus, the Matrix

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