Who needs Woodward & Bernstein? We've got Strobel & Landay.

This was widely reported in the middle of May and given big play on the broadcast media:

"Iraq's top al-Qaida terrorist, angered by a post-election lull in violence, ordered insurgents a month ago to intensify attacks and his lieutenants began plotting their deadly mission during a secret meeting in Syria, a top U.S. military official said Wednesday.

"The Jordanian born al-Zarqawi and his key militant leadership have met at least five times in foreign countries during the conflict, most recently during the past 30 days in Syria, according to the senior U.S. military official, who briefed reporters on condition he not be named."

And, although this "senior U.S. military official in Iraq" was a single, anonymous source, his words was dutifully broadcast to the entire world.

Now along come Knight-Ridder's answer to Woodward and Bernstein - Warren Strobel and Jonathan Landay, with not one but three anonymous sources:

"U.S. intelligence has no evidence that terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi visited Syria in recent months to plan bombings in Iraq, and experts don't believe the widely publicized meeting ever happened, according to U.S. officials.

"Three officials who said that the reports of Zarqawi's travels were apparently bogus spoke on condition of anonymity because intelligence matters are classified and because discussing the mistaken report could embarrass the White House and trigger retaliation against them.

"One of the U.S. officials said the initial report was based on a single human source, who has since changed his story significantly. Another official said the source and his information were quickly dismissed as unreliable by intelligence officials but caught the attention of some political appointees."

Will all the newspapers who dutifully reported the U.S. government's anti-Syrian smears now retract their story and apologize for printing false information? Will any of the broadcast media even report on Strobel and Landay's revelations? Stay tuned.

Update: In another demonstration that independent reporting from Iraq is actually possible, if you care to do it, Knight-Ridder provides us with this insight on the "success" of "Operation Lightning":

"Knight Ridder correspondents found all 23 routes leading out of the city were never closed and new checkpoints were operated sporadically and could be avoided."