The Army said this morning that five GIs died in a vehicle accident north

[rodeodance]

of Baghdad"

The New York Times leads with some Sunni leaders saying that even though they're boycotting the elections they want to help write the constitution (though that's part of the job description of the soon-to-be elected assembly.) "The elections are one matter; the constitution is another," said one senior Sunni cleric who heads what the Times calls "possibly the most anti-American mosque in Baghdad." USA Today leads with the latest from Iraq where a car bomb exploded outside interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's political HQ, wounding about 10. Iraqi officials also said they had arrested Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's top bombmaker, who has reportedly confessed to 32 attacks. The Washington Post, along with most of the other papers, raises it eyebrows and plays that down, saying inside there's "no way to immediately verify" the claim. USAT also describes "heavy fighting" near Baghdad's airport. In what could be another sign of reporters' limited ability to move around, nobody else seems to mention that. The Army said this morning that five GIs died in a vehicle accident north of Baghdad.......

http://slate.msn.com/id/2112641/

[ClintonTyree]

1. Reporters don't dare...............

leave the relative safety of their compounds. There is no actual method in place to accurately report what the conditions are in Iraq.
This week will be total hell in Iraq. The US military has remarked how quiet it has been in the last week or so. Believe me, it's the lull before the storm. A storm that will leave hundreds, maybe thousands dead and wounded in the run up to this weekend's elections.
This is going to be HELL week in Iraq. If any reporter dares to poke his head outside to see what's going on, that reporter deserves the Pulitzer.

[katinmn]

2. Reading the Slate summary makes me feel like

we are living in an insame asylum run by the inmates.

[rodeodance]

3. it is very difficult to know what is actually going on in Iraq-propaganda

from all sides and reporters not able to move around.

[yardwork]

4. Doonesbury is doing this all week - Roland Headly won't leave hotel

[katinmn]

5. The "embedded journalist" plan was a stroke of pure genius

by Rove and others.

If it weren't for just a handful of un-embedded journalists, and the international media, even we Internet ferrets would be clueless as to what the rogue regime is doing in the Middle East and elsewhere.

[sarcasmo]

6. Heard on MSNBC four more years in Iraq.

A reporter quoting a General we will need four more years to train the Iraq's. How ironic four more years for Chimpy.