Across war146;s mindfields

Richard Blystone found one frolicking along with the Americans forces on deep sea missions. 8216;8216;It8217;s like a child,8217;8217; said a fond Mr.Jennings of his wet charge. To the rest of us he was Flipper. In a war devoid of happy stories, these features were a relief.

8226; Torture Chambers: Back in the real war. On Thursday, CNN8217;s Clive Myrie inspected a deserted Iraqi police station and was shocked by the condition of its prison cells.

We don8217;t know what he expected a hotel suite? but here a single room was 4215;8, with a dirty pillow. Furniture consisted of car tyres. For entertainment he discovered electricity wires, used by police to electrocute prisoners. Not surprisingly, he found only locals willing to speak on the subject.

But instead of the prisons, Myrie asked what he8217;d like to do to Saddam Hussein. 8216;8216;I would cut him into 50 pieces.8217;8217; Why 50, you wondered, and not 100?

A firsthand account of Iraqi prison conditions came from four journalists, missing in Baghdad, who resurfaced at the Kuwait border, Wednesday. Again, expectations were high because their sojourn in jail 8216;8216;was not much fun8217;8217;. They heard 8216;8216;screams8217;8217; and cries8217;8217;, they were 8216;8216;blindfolded8217;8217; and 8216;8216;interrogated8217;8217;. And Molly Bingham thought 8216;8216;are they gonna kill me?8217;8217; The Newsday correspondent admitted he had 8216;8216;pushed the envelope8217;8217; too far in one of his stories. However, the contents of the story were not revealed, nor, the questions the Iraqis asked 8212; pretty sensational stuff. But short on facts. It8217;s that kind of war.

8226; Public Opinion: The Iraqi voices we hear are in the presence of coalition forces. In the prison story, an armed soldier stood a few feet away from the Iraqi.

On the road between Basra and Baghdad, Iraqi men were frisked and then sat down for a friendly chat. The interpreter tells us that 8216;8216;they are living in hell8217;8217;. Probably, but if it was heaven on earth, they were unlikely to say so when a gun dangles over their heads.

8226; Destination Baghdad: The coalition forces are advancing 8216;8216;rapidly8217;8217; 8212; 8216;8216;faster than anyone could have imagined,8217;8217; BBC8217;s Adams told us from Qatar on Wednesday but WorldView India8217;s anchor doesn8217;t believe him.

She asked Satish Jacob in Baghdad about the 8216;8216;delays8217;8217; in the advance. To confound the confusion, channels disagreed how close to Baghdad the forces were: 30 kms BBC, CNN, DD, 40 kms Zee News, or 60 kms Star News?

8226; The Thin Red Line: You8217;ve heard about it often over the last two weeks without quite knowing where exactly it was located. Wednesday, BBC8217;s Adams found it 8216;8216;exists in Hussein8217;s mind8217;8217;. It8217;s the point at which he crosses over and in a 8216;8216;last throw of the dice8217;8217;, releases chemical weapons. This, said anchor Nisha Pillai, 8216;8216;is the American8217;s reading of Hussein8217;s psychology8217;8217;.

8226; Rhetorical Warfare: That8217;s Steve Kingstone8217;s description of the American strategy now BBC. Translated, it means the Americans are not only reading Hussein8217;s mind but trying to 8216;8216;demoralise8217;8217; and 8216;8216;degrade8217;8217; the Republican Army by 8216;8216;staggering claims8217;8217;.

One such claim was Tuesday8217;s assertion that it had taken out two Iraqi divisions. Livingstone and Andrew Gilligan in Baghdad were 8216;8216;sceptical8217;8217;. So was the anchor of the claim that Iraq8217;s anti-aircraft capability had been 8216;8216;taken out8217;8217; when they had shot down a Black Hawk and an F-18 Bomber.

8226; Chemical Chimera Part II: We8217;re still not there, but we8217;re getting closer. To Baghdad and the threat of chemical warfare by Iraqis and to the discovery of the C-weapons. BBC8217;s John Simpson found manuals training soldiers in chemical warfare. 8216;8216;We haven8217;t found any weapons.8217;8217;