Practicalmadness

Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the Iraqi information minister whose surreal, hyperbolic propaganda has amused the world since the start of the war weeks ago, may or may not have committed suicide.

The Iranian newspaper Mardomsalari and Iran's Arabic newspaper, Al Wifaq, both carried claims that al-Sahaf hung himself a few hours before Baghdad fell to US forces on April 9. However, the refugees did not provide any source to confirm the claim.

But White House press secretary Ari Fleischer yesterday said the US government believed former Iraqi leaders, including deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz and al-Sahaf, may be hiding in Syria.

Meanwhile, news outlets around the world (but mostly in the Middle East, and/or the Sun-Times) are apparently so disappointed with the U.S.'s lightning war against Saddam Hussein that they're starting to make certain insinuations about exactly how Baghdad came to fall:

An Iranian news agency allegedly close to top conservative military figures attributed the fall of Baghdad to a secret tripartite agreement between Saddam Hussain, Russia and the US. (The Guardian)

And no, we are absolutely not going to war with Syria. We're just cutting off the oil pipeline, and using harsh language, but we are not going to bomb them into the mesozoic...time.