Maybe I should be grateful that they weren’t following a car chase live for the full three hours, but they may as well have been doing just that:

Soledad O’Brien: Bit of shocking news out of Iraq now. Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the most wanted terrorist in that country, suspected of ordering suicide attacks and carrying out bombings and abductions and beheadings – the list kind of goes on and on – well, now CNN is told that Iraqi security had Zarqawi in their hands and then let him go by mistake. Aneesh Raman live for us in Baghdad this morning. Aneesh, how did this happen?

Aneesh Raman: Yes, Soledad, we’re trying to get as much info as we can, but essentially we only know that headline. It came late yesterday to CNN from the deputy minister of interior here in Iraq who said at some point last year, Iraqi security forces had Abu Musab Al Zarqawi in custody and they let him go because they did not know his identity.
[...]
Soledad O’Brien: Well, shocking news…

Now look, I don’t expect Soledad O’Brien to do much more than maintain her Charlie’s Angels-style feathered haircut and apply her tooth whitening gel before bed each night, but the fact remains that, in addition to helicopter pilots to follow police pursuits, CNN presumably employs researchers and editors whose job it is to connect the dots that Soledad is too dim to connect by herself. She can be as shocked as she likes that the hapless Iraqis didn’t recognize Zarqawi and released him by accident, but maybe some CNN staffer with knowledge past how to act perky before 7AM should have explained to her that mistakenly releasing Zarqawi isn’t nearly as shocking as passing on three chances to kill or capture him deliberately to avoid damaging the case for invading Iraq:

The Pentagon drew up still another attack plan, and for the third time, the National Security Council killed it. Military officials insist their case for attacking Zarqawi’s operation was airtight, but the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam.

The blood on Zarqawi’s hands is on the President’s as well. Shhhh, don’t tell Soledad, she might electrocute herself.

*Thanks to Nick for the pic.