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September 23, email to Aaron Brown, CNN

Well, well, well.  I almost can’t believe it, but I’m going to pay Mr. Aaron Brown a compliment.

At 0952 (Texas Time) today, the co-host chick (can’t remember her name) said something about how y’all couldn’t release any remarks by the prez in advance of his UN speech.  Now that in itself ain’t anything special.  What was special was what you had to say in return:

“Yeah, like it never happened.  We have it, but we don’t.”  Then you gave the chick a wry smile, and she smiled back, all flirty – and she looked good.  Damn, what is her name, Aaron?  Tell her Captain May sends his compliments…

Y’all were exchanging a little inside joke, weren’t you?  Those remarks you couldn’t let out were like the story of the Battle of Baghdad, which you also can’t let out.

Yep, I could tell.

I know you’ve been tugging at the leash to spill the truth about Baghdad since the night it happened, April 4, while you and Fredericka (I know her name, and she looks good, too) were broadcasting the start of the firestorm that hit my brothers at the Baghdad Airport.  Yep, that very night you were full of knowing looks, even said something about how there were things y’all couldn’t talk about on the air right now…

Then on April 8, while you were talking to Walter Rodgers, who was standing in with the 3/7 Cavalry, you led up to the interview with a telling line:

“Well, we’ve been following the 3/7 Cavalry all the way from their lead across the desert to the Baghdad Airport.”  How come no mention of the later “foray” into Baghdad on Saturday, April 5?  How come no battle stories from the bloodless victory over the city April 6 and 7?  We both know why.  Because the operation for the 3/7 Cavalry ended at the Baghdad Airport. [Editor’s emphasis]

A moment later you closed the interview with a question very much out of keeping with the Disney World War y’all were filming:  “Do they feel safe?”

Rodger’s reply?  “I think the Colonel Ferrell, the battalion (sic) commander summed it up for all of them in a meeting today when he said that none of them would feel safe again until they were back home in Ft. Stewart, Georgia.”

I didn’t fault y’all a bit for keeping mum at first because the unit was engaged, and you did a pretty good job of covering up any informational leaks that would have compromised an engaged unit.  Frankly, though I think you bastards are buzzards, I didn’t mind your teasing the fact that CNN probably had the best angle on the story of all – your guy was embedded with the 3/7 Cavalry that night and he started hollering fit to be tied into his mike when the artillery started impacting out there, then small-arms fires starting plinking off steel in his vehicle and y’all cut away saying “technical difficulties.”

The only problem I have with any of you is that you should have broken the story after the Battle of Baghdad was over.  You in the media owed recognition of their unit to its nation.  For God’s sake, man, they didn’t cover up the 7th Cavalry when Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull wiped it out under Custer.

I won’t be tiresome and berate you, though, because you did a good thing today:  You showed sarcasm about the propaganda you’ve been coerced into broadcasting.  Attaboy.

Give my regards to the ever-reginal Christiane Amanpour, who is more of a diplomat than I to have kept her mouth shut when she wanted to speak out so much back in April, then again on Mayday.  Her remarks from England today were as welcome as always to my ears.

As a favor, I’ll attach a few of the indicators I picked up of your attempt to hide what happened in Baghdad.  If you want a more detailed analysis of the intelligence you guys inadvertently gave away before Baghdad – or since for that matter – get back with me.  Regards,

Captain May

PS:  Hey, will you pass on my regards to Carl Rochelle over at MSNBC?  He was broadcasting outside the White Folks House at 1406 (Texas Time) on September 12, the day the prez went and stuck a citation on the 3rd ID.  When he was doing his script, he said that the president had begun the day by honoring… (pause) the 3rd Infantry Division.  Do you know why he paused after the word “honoring?”  Because his voice had broken on that very word, and he was choking back tears to think of what that unit went through.  I’ve been feeling the same way since April, only I don’t have to choke it back.  Ain’t it time for the whole country to cry a little?

 

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