(Crossposted from the Streak.) The classic statement of U.S. soldier frustration with Iraq remains "What kind of people loot dirt?" (Captain Allen Vaught, 490th Civil Affairs Battalion, to Daniel Williams and Rajiv Chandrasekaran of The Washington Post.) But we might have a runner-up! This isn't about U.S. forces, but whatever. Courtesy of subscription-only IraqSlogger:

Common household appliances were transformed into potentially deadly weapons in a workshop raided by Iraqi forces in central Baghdad, according to security sources.

Iraqi police received a tip last week from a resident of the al-Andalus Square central Baghdad east of the Tigris, who said that his neighbor seemed to be unloading dozens of tank-style water heaters into his residence. ...

Last Thursday Iraqi police arrived at the residence with a warrant. Upon searching the premises, they found three water heaters packed with explosives and a further 65 open and ready to be rigged.

OK, now something Too Hot For TWI!

The first house I ever lived in outside my mother's or father's was at 20 Plum Street in New Brunswick during my freshman year in college. (It's a parking lot today.) A slum lord who referred to himself in the third person owned it -- as in, the guy would threaten my roommate Kris Walter with flourishes like, "If Kevin M**** doesn't get his money on time, people get thrown down stairs!" Part of the revenge that Liz enacted on her housemates for being bastards to her was to turn off the power before the rest of us moved out. In a fit of misdirected anger, we took revenge on the house, unscrewing water heaters and messing with the heating and the ducts. (Already Jesse Cannon and a transsexual had thrown themselves through the living room wall during parties.) So what I'm saying is that it's a thin line between college miscreant and terrorist.