11:05 AM :: Stephen (contact)

Geraldo goes home.Personally, I find it hilarious that Geraldo Rivera has been forced to leave Iraq (although revealing future troop movements on a live broadcast isn't quite as funny). But what's even better is his explanation for how it happened:

A Pentagon official told CNN that members of the 101st Airborne would escort Rivera to the Kuwaiti border. But Rivera appeared in another live report from Iraq hours after the official announced his expulsion, and said he knew nothing of it.

"In fact, I'm further in Iraq than I've ever been," he said. "It sounds like some rats from my former network, NBC, are trying to stab me in the back."...

Rivera said he had heard nothing about being expelled until he called network headquarters for the scheduled live broadcast.

"MSNBC is so pathetic a cable news network that they have to do anything they can to attract attention," he said. "You can rest assured that whatever they're saying is a pack of lies."

Nevertheless, as the day went on, Fox News executives pleaded with Pentagon officials to not expel Rivera. Pentagon officials stood their ground and insisted that Rivera go, and a deal was eventually reached, the Pentagon sources said.

A "pack of lies"? What is there for them to lie about? The mistake was made on a live broadcast, and he's either being expelled from Iraq or he isn't. Maybe Rivera is just polishing his rhetoric to get a job with the Iraqi Information Ministry:

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Iraq's information minister on Friday denied U.S. claims that Syria was sending military equipment to Baghdad, calling the claims "baseless" and U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "ridiculous."

"These accusations against brotherly Syria are of course baseless," Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf said in an interview with Lebanon's Al-Hayat LBC satellite channel. "He (Rumsfeld) makes such lies on a daily basis."...

Speaking to the Lebanese satellite channel from Baghdad, al-Sahhaf said: "This man (Rumsfeld) is the most despicable creature. Rumsfeld is ridiculous. He is a strange case."