And more (edited) from our London correspondent. Not sure how old he is; he claims to have fought in WW2, or at least witnessed it.
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The Times of London, Thunderer so-called and now in the same stable as Fox and Sky (Augean stable some would say) is reported to be running a front page story about a high ranking Iraqi General who defected a few days ago and is spilling the beans big time. In return the General is going to be offered a new identity and asylum in Britain, says the Times, says Sky who carried the news in its review of tomorrow (Monday's) newspapers. I do not read the Times so I shall not know any more than what I have said above but I gathered from the Sky piece that, in any case, the article is all about the asylum arrangements (a hot topic in these parts) and not about what information the General is giving.

This poses an interesting question which I have been pondering now for almost since the war started. Surely any interrogator's first question to any captured co-operating prisoner would be: Tell us what plans there are for chemical or bio warfare? And, this being the case, why is not the first question put by a journalist at the Centcom briefings: Have any of the captured military personnel confirmed that Iraq has such weapons of mass destruction?

I do not believe that American intelligence is as cack-handed as they would have us believe. It is more a question of news management with them. If you can read, as they tell us, a license plate from a satellite it is a reasonable supposition that they have been watching license plates moving around Baghdad (and probably everywhere else in the world including London) for a long time and (and no one has ever said this, so far as I know) recorded every number plate on tape and logged it on computer. The moment the number plate features in an incident they look back through their tapes and computer records to see where it has been previously and - Bingo - out of the sky comes a Hell Fire missile with your name on it!

Similarly, how can American Intelligence not know all about Saddam's bunkers? Even if the bunkers were built by a slave army, kept underground and then put to death when they had finished their work, you still have to cart off the spoil. Further more, bunkers and tunnels have to have ventilation systems that are vulnerable to dynamite, tear gas, etc. So what is the problem? Could any reader who has, or knows someone who has a seat at Sitcom please get these questions asked.

According to the author of a book about Saddam interviewed on Fox this evening, by the way, George Galloway (the UK member of parliament who some want to see tried for treason) said after meeting Saddam in his bunker that it was so deep his ears popped. It is always possible, of course, that the American intelligence is as cack-handed as it appears. If so there is no hope for the world and I am glad that I am due to be pushed off the end of the shelf sooner rather than later. I would be sorry for you younger folk, however.

Finally, a piece of trivia: Did you notice that the one American tank which was destroyed on the famous jolly through Baghdad had the word "Cojone" written along the barrel of its gun? "Cojone" is Spanish for testicles. The Greeks would have called this hubris. There are other cultures that would have seen it as inviting the attention of the Evil Eye.