IRAQ: Never mind the looted museums. The London cops got Tarik Aziz's cigar case back...
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
