Baker Said Iraq Is "helluva mess", the BBC reported?

In a trifecta for unattributed reporting, the BBC finds the Baker Commission a convenient tool for creating the aura of defeat around Iraq.

It begins:

Former US secretary of state James Baker was visibly shocked when he last visited Iraq, and said the country was in a "helluva mess", the BBC reported.

Who testified to his physical shock? No one knows.

It is impossible to parody the rest of the story as a forest of anonymous sources:

1. Citing a unnamed close friend and ally of Baker's

2. Citing unnamed members of Baker's committee

3. ...one participant

But then this is the BBC whose reputation, along with the NY Times, Reuters and the International Red Cross (of faked ambulance pictures fame) is in the toilet along with the famous Koran that was never flushed at Gitmo.