Update on the U2 story

Follow-up on my earlier post.

While CNN hasn't updated its flawed story, AP is at least trying to fill in a few gaps. They went so far as to read their e-mail and talk to one Iranian:

"The specific location is not releasable due to host nation sensitivities," U.S. Air Force Capt. David W. Small, a Central Command spokesman, said in an e-mail.

The e-mail indicated the plane went down in a country whose government is friendly to the United States.

"The site of the crash has been secured to ensure the safety of local citizens and the integrity of the site for investigation team members," a military announcement said.

The one potentially hostile nation in the region, Iran, denied that a U-2 had crashed on its territory. A Revolutionary Guards commander, Gen. Ali Reza Afshar, told The Associated Press he "was not aware" of any reports of a U-2 down in Iran.

I think AP reporter Patrick Quinn gets the optimist of the year award for calling Iran "the one potentially hostile nation in the region." Pakistan is one assassination away from being a nuclear-armed anti-American Islamic state, and most of the other countries, including Iraq would be anti-American if they actually had the democracy that aWol keeps pretending to want. And as Eli notes, one unaware general doesn't exactly make for convincing proof that the plane didn't crash in Iran.