DEATH SQUADS. I see Instapundit is poised to blame the BBC if anti-Saddam Iraqi blogger Salam Pax is, or has been, killed. Help me out here. SP has been covered to death (so to speak) in the Blogosphere for weeks -- I first heard of him via Lileks. As for his BBC coverage, I have seen only this report, and it had nothing on the guy that I hadn't already read in weblogs.

How then is his peril the Beeb's fault? Maybe there was a BBC broadcast at some point containing something like, "Salam Pax, of 23 Jihad Lane, who likes to take walks, unarmed, around 5 p.m. every weekday..." but I haven't seen it.

It seems very odd that the blogbrethren, who are always bragging about their reach and effectiveness, now claim their extensive coverage of Salam Pax constituted a secret shared by discreet friends until Big Media deigned to notice.

At least Sgt. Stryker should be happy.