Keeping up the mood of paranoia and intrigue...

Back last summer I blogged on the destruction of a US Army tank in Iraq by insurgents using an unusual weapon. Wild speculation ranged at the time from a 1940 Soviet antitank rifle, perhaps souped up with new ammunition, to the first-ever use in anger of an electro-magnetic railgun. In the fullness of time consensus gathered that it was an RPG with a new and rare warhead.

A little strange, then, to find railguns in the list of "golden nuggets" sent by John Scarlett to the Iraq Survey Group as suggestions for their next book...whoops, their final report. (The Scotsman)

"The message, Mr Mangold said, suggested ten "nuggets" of information about Saddam Hussein’s weapons programs that could be included in ISG reports.

Among the "nuggets" were claims that Saddam had a secret smallpox programme, that Iraq had developed mobile chemical weapons laboratories and that the country possessed or was building a "rail gun" as part of a nuclear project.

None of those suggestions have been supported by the evidence found by the ISG.."

So - does Scarlett get his information from casual web rumours?