On Monday I cited a Financial Times story that said the "government" of Mohamed Mohsen al-Zubaidi, the self-declared mayor of Baghdad, was "backed by the Iraqi National Congress." Yesterday The Independent reported the following:

Zaab Sethna, an INC spokesman, said yesterday that Mr Zubaidi was not speaking or acting on behalf of the organisation. "He was a former intelligence operative with the INC and his work was very successful," Mr Sethna said. "He operated out of Lebanon and Syria and ran networks in Iraq. He penetrated the Iraqi government at many levels."

He added: "On 8 April he came to Baghdad and the next thing we heard he was making all these statements saying he was speaking for the INC. He came to see us yesterday and he was told to stop saying he was INC. He does not represent the INC."

I saw Zubaidi on ABC news last night. He was pressing the flesh like a veteran pol, and a lot of people were smiling back at him. At that point I started to think my post on Monday was wrong -- a guy who worked for the INC couldn't possibly be that popular in Iraq.

(Link via the Rational Enquirer.)