A MAN'S FOUND DEAD IN A ROOM WITH 55 BICYCLES...

A winning hand: Three months after five army intelligence specialists who know how soldiers alleviate boredom came up with a deck of 55 most-wanted Iraqis, 20 are in U.S. custody and the creators are enjoying a marketing coup (Francine Dube, May 10, 2003, National Post)

Reservists Sergeant Scott Boehmler, 27, Second Lieutenant Hans Mumm, 34, Sergeant Shawn Mahoney, 31, and Specialist Joseph Barrios, 31, and Sergeant Andrei Salter, 31, an active-duty soldier, were working for the secretive Defence Intelligence Agency, marooned in offices at Bowling Air Force Base in Washington D.C.

They had been told to come up with an inventive way to help U.S. troops recognize the leaders of Saddam Hussein's regime.

The jumping-off point was their knowledge of how enlisted men were likely to behave after a hard day in a foxhole.

There was no chance the troops would turn to a training manual to memorize the names and faces of Iraq's most wanted. But they might play cards.

Sergeant Scott Boehmler, 27, a military history buff and American Civil War re-enactor, knew cards had been popular with soldiers back then and he had, of course, played his fair share of card games.

No one can remember who first suggested putting the faces of Iraq's most wanted on a deck of playing cards.

"The whole group really did," said Sgt. Mumm of Vienna, Va.

"I really thought that if it could make it to the light of day -- keeping in mind that we have a lot of management and a lot of superior officers -- it would catch on very quickly. I thought it could end up becoming the souvenir of the war."

He was right. Playing card companies have sold about three million decks on the Internet since the cards made their first appearance at Central Command headquarters in Doha, Qatar, on April 11. Prices have ranged as high as US$100 and there have even been reports downloaded versions are being sold on the streets of Baghdad.

Brilliant. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 10, 2003 9:30 AM