Suicide Note Found at Mosul Blast Site

by christopher taylor MOSUL, IRAQ--A suicide bomber apparently caused Tuesday's deadly "mess hall" explosion in Iraq in which 22 people were killed, Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Wednesday. "First, the condition of the floor beneath the blast is not consistent with a rocket attack, despite what we may have earlier said," explained Myers. "Second, we have only just an hour ago found what we believe to be a suicide note at the scene."

The note in question, found in the pocket of a mangled torso believed to have belonged to the bomber, is "undoubtedly the work of an Islamic fundamentalist," according to FBI handwriting expert Dorothy-Anne E. Held. "You see the excessive loops, the lack of closure atop the letters "o." That evidences a lack of familiarity with Roman letters. Also, the use of onomatopoeia and brevity implicates the author's religious fanaticism."

The group that claimed responsibility, the Army of Ansar al-Sunna, objects to being called religious fanatics, but is willing to defer to Ms. Held's expertise in psychoanalyzing its departed brother based upon the handwriting sample.