Saddam's name more popular than ever in Iraqi oil town

[T_i_B]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=453792

New babies are being named Saddam by their parents in Baiji, an oil refinery town 160 miles north of Baghdad, such is the hostility to the US occupation, an official at the local births and deaths registration office said. Iraqis queued yesterday for new dinar banknotes with pictures of Babylonian rulers and a 10th century Iraqi mathematician in place of a smiling Saddam Hussein.

But in Baiji, "Long live Saddam" slogans are scrawled everywhere. The mayor's office and a building which housed a pro-American opposition party are burned out, having been set on fire by demonstrators who brandished pictures of the former Iraqi leader.

A local sheikh said: "The people have decided that the disasters they suffer under the Americans are worse than those they suffered under Saddam Hussein." He pointed to a small pit in the concrete in the courtyard of his house where a grenade had exploded, thrown by someone who thought him too close to the Americans.

In the Sunni Muslim heartlands along the banks of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, Saddam is the apparent victor over the US in the eyes of the inhabitants. It is thought the former Iraqi president may even be hiding in the region.

[Judi Lynn]

1. Now we can see why Bush won't let our Democratic Senators go to Iraq

They would come back telling us _Bush and his fellow psychopaths have been lying BIG TIME to everyone about Iraq. From Thankfully_in_Britain's article:

(snip) Anger exploded in Baiji two weeks ago when the US-appointed police fired into a pro-Saddam demonstration, wounding four people. The soldiers were forced to flee to the American base north of the town. US troops have returned, with snipers on rooftops and armour in the streets, but they can control the town only by using military force. (snip)

(snip)A Swedish journalist witnessed US soldiers beat an elderly religious man, Maad Ibrahim, almost to death. Mustapha Can, a correspondent for the Swedish evening newspaper Aftonbladet, was with a US patrol, which was hit by two mortar rounds.

He told The Independent: "Suddenly I saw the soldiers kick in a door and drag out an old man who screamed, 'Me no shoot! please, please mister.' The soldiers shouted, 'Shut the fuck up! Shut the fuck up!'

"They tied his hands behind his back and then, as he lay on the ground, one said: 'Keep his head still.' He slammed him on the head with his rifle butt again and again. Then the others kicked him. There was blood everywhere." US officers later admitted they were probably wrong about the old man, but said "these things happen in the heat of the action". (snip)