Politics: Fred Francis' Scoop

Last night, as I was skipping around the dial searching for a little more insight into the nascent war in Iraq, I returned to NBC several times. I felt they had the best coverage in the very short term. Dan Rather comes across too ludicrously serious at CBS and Peter Jennings showed up late at ABC, looking like he ran straight from a haircut to the chair. Tom Brokaw had a nice rapport with a smattering of war experts and affected the right tone for this tiny little beginning to what could be a huge war and what will be a massive occupation.

But Brokaw went over to Fred Francis for what I thought was the blockbuster bit of information for the evening. Of course, as I've mentioned before, I'm out of step with the American people, and that was proven by the fact that there has been almost no coverage beyond NBC's own of this item.

Francis, reporting from Kurdistan, explained that the U.S. has had months of in-and-out incursions into Baghdad, operated by CIA special forces troops. Francis also reported that they have been operating out of a secret base set up in the Kurdish autonomous zone. According to the report, which is based on information from un-named Pentagon sources, these activities have been continuing since last summer.

So this war, proclaimed to have begun last night, has been going on for nine months. Just so you know.