Crank Up the Rumor Mill: If Wolfowitz Leaves . . .

Yikes!

Wrong Weapon, Wrong Soldier?

The ad Monday in this and many newspapers for a PBS documentary film called "Operation Homecoming" was striking. The photograph showed a lone silhouetted soldier carrying a rifle.

But upon inspection, he's clearly not carrying an M16. The soldier is carrying a Russian AK-47. He may be going home, but it's nowhere near Nashville or Buffalo. So what happened?

Boeing, which underwrote the National Endowment for the Arts homecoming project -- teaching writing to soldiers and families so they could record their experiences in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars -- is said to be none too happy about the ad.

Not us, said Boeing spokesman Dan Beck: "The ad was developed by the Documentary Group," which did the film. Apparently, they "were assured it was an American soldier," he said, adding that U.S. troops are allowed in certain circumstances to carry an AK-47 or other non-U.S. weapon. "It was an image they had obtained from a military photographer."

"It could turn out to be that that is an Iraqi soldier," said Richard Robbins, who directed the film. "We are trying to get to the bottom of it." But Robbins said Jacob Bailey, the award-winning Air Force photographer who took the picture, "thinks it probably was an Iraqi soldier, as do we."

Of course, Boeing "would rather have had a U.S. soldier," he said. "But the guy's on our side, he's not an enemy soldier. If it's a mistake, it's my mistake, although theoretically somebody at Boeing should have caught it." But "things are moving very fast" when these things are all being put together, he said.

In any event, "the film is about the experience of American soldiers," Robbins said. "They've seen this image, so it's relatively in keeping with what they do."

Waiting for Godot Was Easier

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, wasn't pleased to find that the Department of Education waited until this week to provide data -- first reported yesterday in The Washington Post -- that showed a $1-billion-a-year reading program is helping kids. Miller shot off an angry letter to Education Secretary Margaret Spellings saying that his office, probing cronyism and mismanagement in the Reading First program, had asked for the info two months ago but never got it.

The department tells our colleague Amit R. Paley that it doesn't know what Miller is talking about and has complied with his requests. Stay tuned.