They've been very impressed.
With only PAP like that available back at base, resourceful Australian journalists are setting off on their own
to try to discover what sort of thing our troops are up to.
A journey into the unknown undertaken by a Today Tonight crew
which crossed into Iraq to see first hand the impact of war.
That journey into the unknown was led by someone well known to us.
It's an hour and a half drive by one of just two major routes into Iraq from the south.
Alright, we've just passed assigned to Um Qasr.
We're coming up on the eastern side to the Iraqi border
and you can see that we're wearing our waterproof vests.
Yes, it's Dave Sluggo Richardson from Barcelona tonight.
Roadblocks. Roadblocks.
Within minutes Skye's had police roadblocks in place.
Every car coming from his village to the capital was searched.
Let's get out of here.
Six years ago Media Watch exposed his lies about being chased out of New Yorker by Christopher Skace.
All filmed in Barcelona.
Now we're told that Sluggo was going into Iraq.
It's amazing to us that our plain coloured sedan is permitted to enter this sensitive area of operations.
This is amazing knowing nobody has stopped us.
We could be anybody. I mean, you know, we could be Saddam Hussein, you know, undercover operatives, terrorists driving around.
No one has stopped us. This is just absolutely incredible.
I'm expecting we will be stopped as we get closer.
And we were.
It's amazing to us that Sluggo still does those pieces to camera in his car.
But let's cut to the chase and have a look at his visit to Iraq.
We're stopped at the checkpoint, then allowed to cross for a short time.
OK, this is the international zone that separates Kuwait on the other side of that fence, technically with Iraq.
We are, in fact, technically inside Iraq. Um Qasr is just up the road there.
Do we need to stop? Yes?
We have to come out of Iraq. We have to move.
We have to move. OK.
The troops didn't tell us why we had to be moved out so quickly.
Maybe they'd heard about Barcelona tonight.
What Today Tonight had done was intercut his travel log with footage taken by other journalists who really were in Iraq.
A little bit of the gun battle at Um Qasr, a coalition plane even further away over the Al-Faw Peninsula.
And Sluggo doesn't seem to have seen much along the 110-kilometre drive from Kuwait city.
So Today Tonight was so desperate they pretended a Land Rover parked at the border was also parked 30 kilometres back up the road.
The American camp.
After his dramatic border crossing Sluggo scooted back to the hotel.
And Today Tonight's David Richardson is now safely back in Kuwait where I spoke to him a short time ago.
You'd obviously heard about a number of missing journalists before you went into Iraq.
What was going through your mind? Did you feel under threat?
Not so much under threat. I guess it would be unfair to say that we didn't have butterflies.
Butterflies. Naomi, he didn't go to Iraq.
He walked just 10 metres into the demilitarised zone for a little shoot and scoot.
Maybe Sluggo should take some tips from his tabloid TV rival Jane Hanson who also went to the border.
I'm about five kilometres from Um Qasr. That's the border check right there. I have the British supply convoy right behind me.
After camping out for a couple of nights on a cabbage farm Jane hitched a ride with the convoy and made it to Um Qasr.
We're met by Captain Oliver Lee from the Elite 4-2 commandos who have taken over security in Um Qasr.
We're starting in Iraq now? Yes you are.
OK. We go from here.
You want to make your way to the Australian contingent at the old port? That's right.
And her efforts were rewarded.
Down at the port we find another familiar sight, a much friendlier one.
How are you?
These men form the Australian Navy Clearance Diving Team 3.
So we can load up, get the gear in, get the charges in and we can get the boat.
Navy Officer Gavin briefs clearance divers on the mission at hand.
Very rare access to Australian forces actually on the job.
But despite eyewitness accounts like Jane's there's still huge confusion back home about what sort of thing our troops are up to.
Are Sydney Sunday papers even reporting the same war?
How our Navy made these children smile.
Terrible toll.
A three-year-old Iraqi girl lies injured in hospital after a Baghdad bombing raid yesterday killed dozens, tragically escalating the human cost of war.
No wonder with the fighting raging that the NT News decided to go back to basics.
Topless woman attacks picnic.
That was on a day when other papers devoted their front pages to a different type of attack.
Assault on Baghdad.
Fiery road to Baghdad.
Evil right to the end.
Allies fear saddam chemical attacks in battle for Baghdad.
Into the fires of hell.
Fight for Baghdad to begin.
But on the NT News, convicts at the races, a purse pinched at church, and Charlie Parrott getting a medal from World War II.
And not a word about Iraq.
So refreshing.
Until next week, good night.