I’m afraid that if you didn’t see the December 18, 2003, episode of Envoyé Spécial on France2, you won’t believe what follows. I saw it, and I’m not sure I believe it myself. The program was touted during prime-time news as the full story of the arrest of Saddam Hussein. Aha!, I thought. Let’s see how they are going to tell it, or spin it, or doctor it.

It was doctored all right. The original version of the special — announced in that week’s TV guides — was bumped. You can understand why: By December 18, this special on the difficulties (or, more accurately, the impossibility) of finding Saddam had a shelf life of minus four days. Yet with atmosphere shots of the Tigris at sunset — and an American colonel, with an Arab falcon on his wrist, standing in beautifully angled sunlight on the terrace of a fabulous palace — the special was just too good to be scrapped outright. And who could turn down its superb military analysis? Of course that colonel will never find his quarry: All those GIs in top-secret operations rooms staring into computer screens are no match for Saddam.

So the special was "updated."....