Out of Iraq

Some good news for a change, and not an April Fool's joke, either. Congratulations to the U.S. military and the Iraqi civilians who assisted them in rescuing POW Pfc. Jessica Lynch overnight, and to all the civilians who worked so hard to get journalists Molly Bingham (freelance photographer for Newsweek), Matt McAllester and Moises Saman, both with Newsday, and Danish freelance photographer Johan Rydeng Spanner out of the Iraqi prison where they were being detained. Good luck to the Rev. Jesse Jackson in his efforts to get the other prisoners released. Did you know that POW Spc. Shoshanna Johnson is the single parent of a two-year-old girl?

We aren't hearing much about it here in the U.S., but British troops, specifically the Black Watch, also pulled off a dramatic rescue. And four other journalists were released and expelled from Iraq after being detained not by the Iraqis but by the U.S. military. Boaz Bismuth of the Israeli daily newspaper Yediot Ahronot, Dan Scemama of Israel's Channel One television, and Luis Castro and Victor Silva of Radio Televisao Portuguesa were covering the war independently. So was Geraldo Rivera, even though he claimed to be "embedded" with the 101st Airborne. He also was expelled from Iraq by the U.S. military, for drawing a map on live television showing where various U.S. forces were and where they were planning to go. Meanwhile, there are reports that the Iraqi government has just kicked out Al Jazeera's reporter in Baghdad. Peter Arnett is still there, though, working now for British tabloid the Daily Mirror.

Iraq fact of the day: Half of the 5.5 million people in Baghdad (excluding U.S. and British troops) are younger than 15. Only 20 percent -- one in five -- of U.S. residents are under age 15.)