IRAQ: Never mind the looted museums. The London cops got Tarik Aziz’s cigar case back...
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Boris Johnson admits he acquired the leather cigar case under ‘morally ambiguous’ circumstances. Back in 2003, the now-mayor of London was a mere journalist, trolling through the smashed and looted remains of a villa belonging to Saddam Hussein’s foreign minister Tarik Aziz when he spotted the bottom half of a cigar case protruding from the rubble. Johnson pocketed the case - for safe-keeping - and brought it home to the UK where he wrote about his souvenir hunting in a column for The Spectator magazine.
But now, Scotland Yard is investigating complaints that Johnson stole Iraqi cultural property. He’s turned the offending case over to police, but not without taking a few swipes at those who want to make him into a war criminal.
-- Bruce Wallace in Los Angeles