Mata Hari, Call Your Service

The BBC has hit rock bottom and started to dig. From the Telegraph comes this innocent little BBC request-- In a time of war, mind you (emphasis added):

Politicians reacted in disbelief to the revelation that for over two hours yesterday, the BBC News website carried a request for people in Iraq to report on troop movements.

The request was removed from the website after it sparked furious protests that the corporation was endangering the lives of British servicemen and women.

But according to accounts last night, a story on a major operation by US and Iraqi troops against al-Qa'eda somewhere north of Baghdad contained an extraordinary request for information about the movement of troops.

Last night the BBC confirmed the wording of the request was: "Are you in Iraq? Have you seen any troop movements? If you have any information you would like to share with the BBC, you can do so using the form below."

No doubt the BBC would have been happy if anyone had cared to send along any photographs, maps, battle plans, and code books they'd happened to come across.

To paraphrase an old Cold War quote, If the BBC was working for the other side, what would it do differently?