This is why I went to Iraq the first time and why I came back again.

The WaPo Staff writer Karin Brulliard wrote this (Dozens Die In 2 Truck Bombings In the North) about a double Suicide Truck bombing in Karmah on March 26th.

"Also on Tuesday, the U.S. military said soldiers at an Anbar province military post foiled an attack Monday involving two suicide truck bombs and more than two dozen insurgents.

The attack began about 2 p.m. when an explosives-rigged water truck barreled toward the compound in Karmah, near Fallujah, prompting a soldier to fire on the vehicle, setting it ablaze, the military said in a statement. About 30 armed men with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and other weapons then began trading fire with soldiers. Minutes later, soldiers fired on and detonated a second truck that was approaching the post, the military said.

Eight U.S. soldiers were wounded, and 15 insurgents were killed, the military said."

Here is what I wrote about the events (Karmageddon Redux) of Monday March 26th, 2007. 

A far cry from the WaPo account.

The WaPo has the basic facts and is generally accurate, but presents a rather stilted picture.  The "eight" wounded soldiers misleads.  Only one was wounded bad enough to be medevaced and that was a decidedly non-life-threatening injury.  The rest of the "wounded" were scratches and scrapes treated with rubbing alcohol and bandaids.  By that standard, I was "wounded" because my knees and right shoulder got scraped up from low crawling across the roof.

What is even more interesting is the back story on the sources that you don't get to read about very often.

Ms. Brulliard has two sets of press releases coming at her.  One from the Coalition, the other from the Mohammedan Jihadists.

The Jihadists claimed (Iraq Resistance Report):

"Resistance assault on Americans in al-Karmah on Monday reported.

In a dispatch posted at 10:29am Baghdad time Wednesday morning, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported that Iraqi Resistance fighters assaulted the headquarters of US occupation troops in al-Karmah, not far from al-Fallujah, about 60km west of Baghdad on Monday, inflicting heavy losses on the Americans. AMSI reported eyewitnesses as saying that the attack left eight American troops wounded, all of them taken to hospital for treatment. The Americans acknowledged no deaths in the attack."

Now, Ms. Brulliard when contacting the a military media officer will say something like 'the AMSI says...'
AMSI was even further from the truth when they said, "all of them were taken to the hospital for treatment."  The insinuation about "acknowledged no deaths" is a cue to ask if anyone died.

This shows the nature of the information war.  A reporter in the press bunker in Baghdad gets two press releases or maybe a call from a stringer if IraqNA is working that day.

The military public affairs officer is taking a report directly from the unit.

The Jihad takes some factual information from the military and some from their own people.

But in the case of the double suicide bomb at OP Omar on March 26th, I was there.

There were two suicide truck bombers.  There was a firefight.  And I was the only reporter there and unlike the WaPo, I got it on camera.

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