At least they didn't claim he had a 3rd nipple

Via Atrios, we learn:

Senior U.S. officials told CNN on Tuesday that they now believe fugitive terrorism suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi did not have a leg amputated in Iraq, as the Bush administration had previously said.

Although the administration pointed to Iraq's medical assistance to al-Zarqawi as evidence of a link between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's regime, it's now believed that al-Zarqawi still has both legs.

Perhaps indicating our excessive immersion in TV, this blunder recalls nothing so much as the scene in You Only Live Twice, where Bond whacks the supposed Mr Henderson on the leg, to verify that it is artificial, and thus that Henderson is who he says he is. We can only speculate as to whether some unfortunate was assigned to hit al-Zarqawi on the suspect leg, and what might have happened afterwards.