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by
Mark MacKinnon
Globe and Mail, 19
December 2003
Baghdad — Jassim
Abu Ahmed almost spits his disgust at the television set showing yet
another image of the dazed and bedraggled Saddam Hussein.
"It's not him," Mr.
Ahmed says, waving his hand and looking away from the screen. "Everybody
knows it's not him. Why do they keep showing this?"
While Iraq's new
leaders are planning for what they have dubbed "the trial of the
century" and claiming a great victory over the Baathist remnants that
are still fighting the U.S.-led occupation, many Iraqis remain deeply
skeptical that the former dictator has been caught.
In a country where
the press was always controlled by the state, and that is now occupied
by a foreign power, people have learned not to trust what they see or
hear in the media.
And after watching
television news reports during the war that talked of Iraqi military
victories — even as U.S. troops were entering Baghdad — many now believe
they're still being fed lies. A fuel tanker that exploded in Baghdad
Wednesday, killing 10, was first reported as another suicide bombing —
then downgraded by U.S. military officials to a mere accident, further
adding to the disbelief surrounding Mr. Hussein's arrest.
Some even saw the
report of an eyewitness who has seen Mr. Hussein as part of the grand
plan, disbelieving it when Mowaffak al-Rubaie, a member of the
U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council who was among the handful of
people who have visited the ex-dictator since his weekend arrest, went
on television Wednesday to announce that Mr. Hussein was "still in
greater Baghdad" and would remain in the capital until his trial.
Mr. Ahmed, an
athlete who knew Mr. Hussein's oldest son Uday personally, says he is
positive the person the United States is parading as their prize catch
is not the former dictator. Mr. Hussein is known to have a tiny tattoo
on his left hand, but in the relentlessly replayed video that shows him
having his throat checked by a U.S. Army medic — the video that most of
the world accepts as footage of the humbled former dictator — the
markings are not apparent as Mr. Hussein strokes his straggly beard.
It's not the only
detail that disbelievers have seized on. Others find it strange that Mr.
Hussein's hair is black in the footage, but his beard is white.
"Everyone knows
that Saddam dyes his hair, but after eight months hiding in a hole, it's
still black?" asked Diaa, a 37-year-old taxi driver who gave only his
first name. "Tell me how this is possible. When they captured [former
information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf] after a few weeks, his
hair was already white."
Some, like Mr.
Ahmed, believe the ex-dictator's dead sons are also alive, and that the
whole family has struck a deal with U.S. President George W. Bush to
live abroad in secret exile.
The rumours have
also allowed those who have been fighting in Mr. Hussein's name to draw
continued inspiration.
Rumours that the
man captured was a look-alike sparked celebratory riots this week in the
Sunni Muslim town of Fallujah.
"It is someone
wearing a Saddam mask," 25-year-old tire repairman Waleed Ibrahim told
Associated Press in Fallujah yesterday. "It is a trick to help President
Bush get re-elected."
U.S. armoured
vehicles rolled down the town's main street, blaring messages to the
contrary.
"The coalition
forces have arrested Saddam Hussein. Reports that it is a Saddam double
are false," a voice declared in Arabic from a loudspeaker. "The old
regime will never come back. This is the end of the Baath Party."
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