I am hardly a supporter of the Iraq war and don't jump on every little event reported over there but I find this story reported in today's Globe extraordinary:

Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi is prepared to offer amnesty to the country's insurgents, even those who have attacked and killed U.S. forces, in a surprise bid to co-opt the resistance and demonstrate the appointed interim government's independence from the unpopular Americans. Georges Sada, a spokesman for Mr. Allawi, explained that the Prime Minister wants to give insurgent fighters the opportunity to hand in their weapons and support the new government. He suggested not only that the government is prepared to offer amnesties but that attacks against U.S. troops over the past year were legitimate acts. “If [an insurgent] was in opposition against the Americans, that will be justified because it was an occupation force,” Mr. Sada told Associated Press. “We will give them freedom.”