Oct. 3) -- Federal agents are investigating star war correspondent and gossip magazine favorite Lara Logan's choice of interior decoration for her CBS News office in Washington, D.C, according to the New York Post. Logan's workplace walls sport renderings of a munificent Saddam Hussein blessing angelic children and the former Iraqi leader looking relaxed in military uniform, as seen in video from television industry magazine Broadcasting and Cable.
Apparently the "art" was found in Iraq's wrecked Olympic Stadium, the magazine notes. The feds have successfully prosecuted at least one case against a journalist. Ben Johnson, a (now former) Fox News Channel satellite engineer, declared $20 in cigarettes to U.S. customs in 2003 - but not the dozen Iraqi paintings and 40 Iraqi bonds authorities confiscated, according to USA Today.
Johnson said he snagged some of the Iraqi items from palaces and bartered for others, USA Today said. Boston Herald reporter Jules Crittenden also had looted goods but wasn't charged because he cooperated with officials, the national newspaper reported.
Logan's portrait of Saddam with children had also rested in a shelled Baghdad palace, B&C said. As for the lone figure in uniform, Logan told B&C: "It was in pieces in the ruins of the Olympic Committee building after it was bombed." The Post confirmed that the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement "is looking into it." Customs officials have previously said similar pictures could be considered smuggled loot, according to The Associated Press.
Logan, 37, rose to CBS' chief foreign affairs correspondent post after years as a war correspondent. Originally from South Africa, she made recent headlines for her off-camera love affairs, as well as her contributions to '60 Minutes.'