Boris Johnson
The always colorful and controversial Boris Johnson is embroiled in controversy. Earlier this week, he had to sack an aide who said immigrants unhappy with Johnson’s political ascension could go home. (The irony, of course, being that the aide is himself from Australia.) Now we learn Johnson is the subject of a police investigation for possession of a red leather cigar case belonging to Iraq’s former Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz. Johnson took the case when visiting the war-torn country back in 2003 as a journalist. He alleges that he stumbled upon it in the rubble that was Aziz’s estate. Perhaps the oddest aspect of news reports is that Aziz has rushed to Johnson’s defense:
For his own part, Johnson has written a hysterical op-ed, calling Tony Blair a war criminal, saying he should be the one investigated and arrested. Perhaps a more effective argument would be to discuss the fact that President Bush has Saddam Hussein’s pistol mounted in the West Wing. In fact, it’s on the wall of a certain room, adjacent to the Oval Office, made famous by Bush’s predecessor. And I think if this certain predecessor were still president, it would be the red cigar case, not the gun, on the wall.
