True, but on the other hand, he obviously knew they were there and made no attempt to hide them; they were several years old, they were dead, dried, and if I understand correctly, they contained less opium than a poppy seed bagel. They had been display items at the UN office where he worked and he asked if he could have them when he was leaving the country. I think his biggest mistake was assuming that customs officers in *any* country would have the brains they were born with. (Apologies to any customs officials reading this post.)

One thing that I find conspicuously missing from any of the news reports is how the hashish was being "carried". A tiny amount, wrapped in tin foil, would be suspicious no matter how small; if it was a couple of shreds trapped in the lining of his coat pocket, plus a couple more shreds trapped in the lint in his pants pocket, plus some that had soaked into his pant leg - well, that would be pretty easy to miss even if you were taking reasonable (but not obsessive) precautions.

The fact that most of the news articles describe it as "0.6" and not ".06" doesn't impress me that much - most of them are probably copying from each other, anyway, and I doubt many journalists today have the math skills to realize the difference. (Apologies to any journalists reading this post, as well.) One CTV article used the 0.6 number, which they then described as a "microscopic" amount. So it's obvious they got one of their facts wrong.

(I was going to insert a comment here about the recent UK Guardian article about the acquittal of suspected IRA bomber Sean Hoey, after an expert witness made the startling admission that "molecules used in LCN DNA (low copy number DNA tests) were the size of a millionth of a grain of salt" - something which shouldn't be news, let alone surprising, to anyone who stayed awake in high school biology. But I digress.)

I suspect that, from now on, many UN narcotics experts who have to travel through Dubai on their way home will buy a brand-new set of clothes for the trip home, keep them in plastic until it's time to leave for the airport, and donate everything else to the locals. Hopefully, the UN will be prepared to re-imburse them ...