Habib Toumi

Kuwaiti bloggers have scorned an allegedly secret attempt by the CIA to flood Iraq in 2003 with a video that depicts Saddam Hussain as gay and having sex with a teenage boy.

According to the report, published by the Washington Post on Wednesday, and quoting two former American intelligence officials, the CIA’s Iraq Operations Group, during the planning for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, looked at a number of ideas for discrediting Saddam Hussain in the eyes of his people.

“One was to create a video purporting to show the Iraqi dictator having sex with a teenage boy. It would look like it was taken by a hidden camera,” said one of the former officials familiar with the project. “Very grainy, like it was a secret videotaping of a sex session. The idea was to then flood Iraq with the videos.”

Another idea was to interrupt Iraqi television programming with a fake special news bulletin. An actor playing Hussein would announce that he was stepping down in favour of his son Uday. “I’m sure you will throw your support behind His Excellency Uday,” the fake Hussain would say. continue reading…

An Arab teacher has been sacked for asking her students at a private university in Bahrain to observe a one minute’s silence in tribute to Iraqi former president Saddam Husain.

The university administration fired the teacher after incensed Bahraini and Kuwaiti students complained about the teacher’s request, Bahraini daily Al Ayam reported on Tuesday.

The political science teacher allegedly called for the tribute before the start of the class, saying that the students had to pay respect to the “martyr and hero of the nation.” However, several students took the request to the president who launched an investigation into the incident.

Years after his downfall and subsequent execution, Saddam remains a controversial figure in Bahrain. continue reading…

A Jordanian tribe has decided to name all the males born this year “Saddam” and all the females “Raghad”, “Hala” or “Rana” after Saddam’s daughters after their town municipal council shelved a plan to name a street after Iraqi former leader Saddam Hussain.
The town cancelled the plan in the wake of a political and diplomatic furore it sparked in Jordan, Kuwait and Iraq.
Jordanian Prime Minister Sameer Al Rifae said his government would not accept the decision taken by the municipal council of Al Mazar, a small town 250km south of Amman.
Nabeel Al Shareef, Jordan’s Minister of State for Information and Communications, told the Ammon news service that the residents of Al Mazar submitted a petition to the municipal council to revoke their decision about naming one of the town streets after Saddam Hussain.
The council eventually accepted the petition and cancelled the decision, he said.

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