And by “blows the lid off” I of course mean “devotes two sentences to.” Writes Bob:

Michael Yon’s solid documentation—the units involved, their commander’s names, the exact GPS coordinates of the site, video, and still photographs of the bodies, and a face-to-face meeting between Yon and AP reporter Robert Reid—and we get al Qaeda “reportedly” left mass graves.

Exactly. Yon did their homework for them. Actually, he did more than that — he gave them a free license to use or republish his materials. The facts of the murders and the shallow graves aren’t in doubt and they’ve got the names of the Iraqi officers on the scene to cross-check the death toll. If the AP’s uncomfortable attributing the killings to Al Qaeda without further proof that’s perfectly fine, but why not even print the village’s name? Especially when the same stringer worked on this story about U.S. and Iraqi troops driving out jihadis from another local village. It’s a perfect peg.

No report yet on the massacre from Robert Reid, either. Here’s his latest. Maybe they’re holding it back, fleshing it out into a 10,000-word bombshell that’s going to detonate just in time for the Sunday papers?

Update: I’m glad I get to say I was wrong here. Yon’s scoop did make it in to at least one version of the AP’s new Iraq round-up. It’s buried near the end so it won’t end up in all print versions of the story, but it’s there. Click and scroll down.

Update: Yon just posted his latest, featuring a video clip of his interview with Abu Ali, a leader of the 1920s Revolution Brigades in Diyala. He’s on our side for the moment; I wonder how getting acquainted with U.S. soldiers will affect him after AQ is chased from the area and the Americans become the enemy again. Just like I wonder how many Americans he’s already killed.

Yon asked him what he wanted to say to the American people. Click the image to watch.