What if the Judge presiding over Saddam's case turned out to be not only the nephew of discredited neo-con informer Ahmed Chalabi but also responsible for the assassination of a senior Iraqi official? Couldn't happen, right? I mean, the neo-cons running Iraq now aren't THAT stupid are they? Well...

"Iraq's top criminal court is investigating allegations that Salem Chalabi, the organiser of the war crimes tribunal that will try Saddam Hussein, threatened an official days before the man was assassinated.

Mr Chalabi, whose uncle is the former Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi, is accused of attempting to intimidate Haitham Fadhil, a Finance Ministry official who was investigating the Chalabi family's property holdings when he was killed in May...

The investigation began after the shooting of Haitham Fadhil, a Ministry of Finance inspector, on May 28. He was preparing a report that concluded that members of the Chalabi family and their political party, the Iraqi National Congress, had illegally seized hundreds of pieces of property after the US invasion last year."