Conrad Black is supported by Moonies

It appears that Conrad Black, the former proprietor of the Daily Telegraph now jailed in Florida for corporate fraud, has a new supporter in his desperate bid to convince George Bush that he is deserving of a presidential pardon. Coming hard on the heels of Black's adulatory hymn to Dubya in the Canadian paper, the National Post, in which he praised Bush's economic record and the outcome of the war in Iraq, the Rev Sun Myung Moon, the Korean cult leader of the Moonies, has sprung into action.

In Monday's Washington Times, which is owned by Rev Moon, carries an editorial saying the fallen media tycoon was "harshly punished" and his six-and-a-half-year sentence should be commuted. "Black has already paid $6.1 million to Hollinger International Inc, the company whose shareholders were defrauded, and a fine of $125,000. We urge the president to commute his sentence."

The editorial concludes: "Only the president can - and should - tip the scales of justice in the right direction when all other recourses have failed."

Spirited stuff, but there are two problems: first, Black is running out of time - he must persuade Bush that he deserves a pardon before he leaves office in January 20; and second, how valuable a supporter is Moon? While Lord Black is a staunch Catholic, the cult leader believes he is "humanity's saviour, messiah, returning Lord and true parent". His followers don't believe in the sign of the cross and also denounce homosexuals as "dirty dung-eating dogs". But he does claim to be an old friend – and financier – of the Bushes.