Must Read: US troops protect wanted Iraqi ex-minister

[malaise]

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US troops have taken a former Iraqi minister who holds US citizenship from a Baghdad court after he was sentenced to two years in jail for misusing public money on Wednesday, Iraqi officials said.

Ayham al-Samarraie, a Sunni Arab who served in the first post-war interim government of Iyad Allawi, had been in Iraqi custody since his arrest on charges of financial and managerial corruption in August.

A source in the prime minister's office said US officials had taken him from the courtroom at the central criminal court in Baghdad after sentencing.

"I am under American protection," al-Samarraie told Reuters by telephone, without explaining how he had managed to leave the court. In an earlier call, he said he was at the US embassy.


http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/8960610D-33E3-4DDB-8A48-58CB7F720CB5.htm
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Another WTF moment brought to you by Bushco