Touch

A French think tank has come up with the antidote to the Iraqi “most wanted” card deck.

“Le Regime Bush,” which claims to name the “52 most dangerous men in America,” is sold online at the think tank's Web site (www.reseauvoltaire.net).

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is the ace of spades, Vice President Richard Cheney is the ace of diamonds and Osama Bin Laden is the Joker. President Bush plays a secondary role — the king of diamonds — and is described as the president of a baseball club.

Each card features a photo and a sometimes tongue-in-cheek description explaining why the individual was included in the deck.

The creator of the cards, Thierry Meyssan, reportedly is the author of a French best-seller “9-11: The Big Lie,” which claims no plane crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11 and that the attacks were carried out by a group within the U.S. military.

Thierry told reporters that he found the Iraqi card deck, distributed to U.S. soldiers to help them track down and arrest Iraqi leaders, “indecent.”

He told reporters that he found it objectionable “to treat a manhunt as some kind of game.”

An e-mail request for an interview was not answered.

Le Regime Bush goes beyond the administration to demonize oil company executives, former members of Republican administrations and right-wing reporters.

Thierry's group, Voltaire Network, is a left-wing group that produces studies and reports about international affairs. Until now, it does not appear to have done much e-commerce.

The Bush deck is prominently displayed on the right of the site. Some 2,500 have been sold over the Internet, said reports. A translation in English was also advertised on the site, but the page displaying the cards was under construction at deadline.

Plans call for translating the decks into 10 languages and selling them in stores as well.

The Iraqi card deck, sold online by Web site GreatUSAFlags.com sold more than 1 million decks in three weeks when it was put on the market last spring. It sold for $5.95 a pack. Le Bush Regime sells for almost twice that.

The great card deck war has started.