This is weird:

Three Alabama businessmen have decided to leave Baghdad for a while because they've received word that militias loyal to a controversial Muslim cleric will try to take over the Iraqi capital on Thursday.

"Things are getting hot in Baghdad!" Winton Blount IV wrote in a Sunday e-mail from Amman, Jordan. Blount and his partners, Andy Furr and Danny Campbell, flew to Amman on Saturday after having basically remained in their apartment for 12 consecutive days to stay out of harm's way....

While the Alabamians waited for tensions to subside, Blount said, American, British and Iraqi sources told them that "Baghdad will ignite" on Thursday and that "all shops MUST close and militia will try to take over." ...

--Birmingham (Alabama) News

Yikes. And consider the source -- if the name Winton Blount IV sounds familiar, it should: His father, Winton III, was the Senate candidate the young George W. Bush worked forwhen he was AWOL from the National Guard.

Sounds like a guy who might get to know things the rest of us aren't told.

(Incidentally, a couple of somewhat larger companies -- General Electric and Siemens -- have suspended most of their Iraq operations.)