Saddam's Mercedes
Federal agents seized a
Mercedes-Benz from an Army reservist who said the armor-plated,
bulletproof luxury car probably belonged to Saddam Hussein. First Sgt.
William von Zehle said he bought the car while serving in Iraq. U.S.
Immigration and Customs enforcement agents said the car, which was also
equipped with loudspeakers and hidden microphones, was being treated as
a “possible war trophy.”
“It belonged to the former Iraqi regime,” ICE spokesman Dean Boyd said.
He said investigators were unsure whether the former Iraqi dictator
actually owned it.
[...]
Federal agents are holding the car while investigating possible
violations of federal smuggling laws and an executive order barring the
importation of property from the former Iraqi regime.
Saddam's Pistol
US President George Bush
has been given a pistol Saddam Hussein had with him when he was
captured and now proudly shows it to selected guests, Time magazine has
reported.
The gun was taken from Saddam by US special forces when they caught him
in a spider hole near his home town, Tikrit, last December, the report
said.
The military had the pistol mounted, and it was presented to Mr Bush
privately by some of the troops who ferreted out Saddam, Time said,
citing unnamed sources.
Mr Bush now takes select visitors to see the pistol in a small study next to the Oval Office, the magazine said.
"He really liked showing it off," the report quotes an unnamed recent
visitor to the White House as saying. "He was really proud of it."
The
Mercedes story made me think of the embarrassing, childish, elitist
and, as it turns out, illegal Saddam Pistol episode from back in the
days before the phrase "Mission Accomplished" caused Bushies to wince in pain. As Bush explained
to reporters in his characteristically rambling and
grammatically-challenged way, "What she's referring to is a -- members
of a Delta team came to see me in the Oval Office and brought with me
-- these were the people that found Saddam Hussein, the dictator of
Iraq, hiding in a hole. And, by the way, let me remind everybody about
Saddam Hussein, just in case we all forget. {Blah, blah ...mass
graves...blah, blah...torture chambers...blah, blah...hands cut off}
So this is the person. So needless to say, our people were thrilled to
have captured him. And in his lap was several weapons. One of them was
a pistol. And they brought it to me. It's now the property of the U.S.
government."
I guess if First Sgt. von Zehle had presented the car to Bush it would have been all okay.
