11:09 AM :: Stephen (contact)

Al-Sahaf goes bonkers? Maybe Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf has finally lost it. To be honest, I'm not sure how else to explain quotes like the following:

The minister also said that coalition forces were throwing booby traps in the form of pens and pencils into Iraqi villages and townships.

"The authority of the civil defense ... issued a warning to the civilian population not to pick up any of those pencils because they are booby traps," he said, adding that the British and American forces were "immoral mercenaries" and "war criminals" for such behavior.

"I am not talking about the American people and the British people," he said. "I am talking about those mercenaries. ... They have started throwing those pencils, but they are not pencils, they are booby traps to kill the children."

What possible incentive would we have to kill children with booby-trapped pencils? If we wanted to kill children in Iraq, wouldn't the MOAB work just as well? And does he even realize just how silly this makes him sound?

Then again, maybe al-Sahaf just wanted a little diversion from a long day of manufacturing quotes from Never-never-land:

Al-Sahaf also said the Iraqis have "shot down a lot of those cruise missiles" and said war's impact was "trivial."

"I can assure you that those villains will recognize, will discover in appropriate time in the future how stupid they are and how they are pretending things which have never taken place," he said.