There is nothing like the independent judgment of the intelligent US press. Here is the New York Times columnist David Brooks deciding that Iraqi puppet prime minister/car bomber/former Saddam's assassin/embezzler-in-Yemen, Iyad `Allawi, is not a puppet after all. Why? Well, he asked Donald Rumsfeld, and Rumsfeld denied that `Allawi is a puppet. Should that not settle it in our minds? What more solid evidence do you want? "It was clear from our conversation...that the charge that Allawi is a puppet is just absurd."