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Cigar Woes Snare Another Politician

London mayor under investigation for case grabbed in Iraq in '03

By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff

Posted Jun 24, 2008 2:40 PM CDT

(Newser) – London's mayor found out yesterday that he is “the one and only Western politician to be brought to justice for crimes committed in Iraq.” Boris Johnson's misdeed? Taking a cigar case as a souvenir from the smashed villa of Iraq’s former deputy prime minister while on assignment as a journalist in 2003, the Times of London reports.

As police decide if the item is "culturally significant," Johnson rants in the Telegraph. "Despite all the manifold acts of deception and incompetence, there is not a single politician, on either side of the Atlantic,” to face justice “until now," he writes. “Is it Bush or Rumsfeld or Cheney? Is it Blair, after the Commons failed to impeach him? Is it Alastair Campbell, unrepentant sexer-up of the dodgy dossier?”

Tariq Aziz stands in an Iraqi court on Tuesday April 29, 2008 in this image taken from TV, as the judge read his name and discussed legal issues.
Tariq Aziz stands in an Iraqi court on Tuesday April 29, 2008 in this image taken from TV, as the judge read his name and discussed legal issues.   (AP Photo)
I am informed by my friends in the Metropolitan Police that I am shortly to become the one and only Western politician to be brought to justice for crimes committed in Iraq, Johnson writes.
"I am informed by my friends in the Metropolitan Police that I am shortly to become the one and only Western politician to be brought to justice for crimes committed in Iraq," Johnson writes.   (AP Photo)
London Mayor Boris Johnson called ludicrous police seizure of a cigar case%u2014perhaps culturally significant%u2014he took from the bombed-out residence of Iraq's former foreign minister.
London Mayor Boris Johnson called "ludicrous" police seizure of a cigar case%u2014perhaps "culturally significant"%u2014he took from the bombed-out residence of Iraq's former foreign minister.   (AP Photo)
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