This is almost funny

The AP releases a story headlined Iraq Forces Arrest Top al-Qaida Lieutenant. So what's the opening to the story?

A suicide driver detonated a car bomb outside the prime minister's party headquarters Monday, injuring at least 10 people in a blast claimed by the al-Qaida affiliate in Iraq. Authorities, meanwhile, announced the arrest of an al-Qaida figure allegedly behind the vast majority of the car bombings in Baghdad.

It's almost as if good news is just another excuse for printing bad news. In fact you have to plow through 12 paragraphs of bad news to get to the point of the headline.

A top lieutenant of al-Zarqawi's terror group, Sami Mohammed Ali Said al-Jaaf, also known as Abu Omar al-Kurdi, was arrested during a raid in Baghdad on Jan. 15, a government statement said Monday.

Al-Jaaf was responsible for 32 car bombings that killed hundreds of Iraqis, the statement said. The suspect "confessed to building approximately 75 percent of the car bombs used in attacks in Baghdad since March 2003," Allawi spokesman Thaer al-Naqib said in the statement.

Al-Jaaf was "the most lethal of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's lieutenants," the statement said. He "claims responsibility for some of the most ruthless attacks on Iraqi police forces and police stations."

Two other militants linked to al-Zarqawi's terror group also have been arrested, authorities said — a man described as the chief of al-Zarqawi's propaganda operations and one of the group's weapons suppliers.

Do you suppose they're hoping readers won't bother to get that far? Or they'll be so depressed by the time they get there it won't matter?

And look here — two others were also arrested — the chief of propaganda and a weapons supplier. Now you would think that would merit being in the first paragraphs, wouldn't you?

That's American journalism for you.