The government of Norway has shot down a claim made at the conclusion of Monday night's The Wanted episode that it was in direct negotiations with Iraq to extradite Mullah Krekar, an alleged terrorist responsible for "killing hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans and Europeans," in the words of producer Charlie Ebersol. For its part, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintained that there had been no change in its stance regarding Krekar and accused the producers of the program of dealing "with a serious matter in a superficial manner." Regarding the document that the producers obtained from a Kurdish official -- and displayed prominently on the program -- promising that Krekar would not be mistreated, the Foreign Ministry said that it did not "provide any diplomatic guarantee against abuse or against the implementation of a death sentence ... and it does therefore not change the conditions for the return of Mullah Krekar to Iraq." It said that Krekar will be expelled from Norway "as soon as the necessary conditions are met." Meanwhile, the airing of future episodes of The Wanted appears to be under a cloud after Monday night's episode drew fewer than 3 million viewers, making it the lowest-rated broadcast TV show of the night.

22/07/2009