Where's My Rubble? There's Supposed to Be Rubble!

It looks like the ABC's Media Watch got it wrong, yet again. And Tim Blair has the evidence. Makes you wonder why they bother:

ON MONDAY night, Media Watch host David Marr casually dismissed the whole "Pentagon flag on Saddam's statue" story as bogus ...

Tim has found a lot of other media which lend credence to the Daily Telly's claim that:

The Stars and Stripes used by US Marine Corporal Ed Chin to cover the statue in Baghdad's Firdos Square was under the debris at the Pentagon following the September 11 al-Qaeda terrorist attack.

Or do they? Here's the Associated Press version of how Lt. Tim McLaughlin got that flag:

"Tim actually went back into the Pentagon and assisted after the attack occurred. He was given a flag that day and has kept it with him ever since," [Lt. McLaughlin's father Phil McLaughlin] "In fact, I saw him pack it when I was out to see him in 29 Palms Marine Base in January." [my emphasis].

No mention of the rubble there. The same wording appears in Lt McLaughlin's home-town newspaper: again, without the rubble. No rubble in Tim's corroborating detail from The Irish Times either:

"That flag came from the Pentagon on 9/11," Sgt Lambert said with something like awe in his voice. "Lt Tim McGloughlan [a colleague] was there on the day. We brought it all the way from 29 Palms. We drove our tanks all the way from Kuwait City with the flag in a plastic bag."

The BBC's report comes close to corroborating the Daily Telly's version, if you're prepared to accept hearsay:

Marines say that the US flag draped over Saddam Hussein's statue was the flag that was flying over the Pentagon on 11 September 2001.

Oops - what was it doing at the top of the flagpole? Wasn't it supposed to be in the rubble? Never mind there's always this report from the UK Daily Telegraph:

The US flag used to cover Saddam's head was recovered from the Pentagon after the September 11 attack and carried to Baghdad by Marines.

There's that missing rubble again. Not looking good is it?