An Iraqi man who pleaded for help and sat in the inspectors' vehicle was forcibly removed and hauled off by Iraqi police this Saturday morning.

Appearing agitated and frightened, the young man, with a closely trimmed beard and mustache, sat inside the white U.N.-marked utility vehicle for 10 minutes. At first, an inspection team leader sought help from nearby Iraqi soldiers, but the man refused to leave the vehicle as the uniformed men pulled on his sleeve and collar.


"I am unjustly treated!" he shouted.


Then U.N. security men arrived, and they and Iraqi police carried the man by his feet and arms into the fenced compound, the journalists said.


Did the inspectors just sign this man's death warrant?

Can the U.N. grant asylum? Here's the Declaration on Terratorial Asylum adopted by the U.N., but it only talks about states granting asylum. Could a British inspector grant asylum in Britain to an Iraqi who wished to defect? The inspectors sure didn't make much of an effort to do so here.

The man might have been deranged. Or he might have actually been persecuted by Iraq. We'll probably never know now.