Officers From Saddam's Army To Re-enlist

The Iraqi government has called for the return of junior officers from Saddam Hussein's disbanded army to join up again.

This directly contradicts the American directive, issued in 2003.

The rationale being that the current security forces in Iraq need to be boosted.

Former officers, up to the rank of major, are eligible for reinstatement by applying in November at recruitment centres in six cities across Iraq.

The dissolution of the 400,000 Iraqi Army, in May 2003, is widely regarded by many to have been a terrible mistake.

The House of Saddam

Dictators, especially fallen dictators, make excellent subjects for films and TV.

Saddam Hussein is no exception, the BBC are planning to make a TV drama about his rise and fall.

The title of the drama is expected to be "House of Saddam", and will focus on how Saddam and his entourage seized power and held on to it for so long.

It will begin with his rise to power in Iraq in the late 70's and follow the story through until his capture, hiding in a hole in the ground, after the overthrow of his regime in December 2003.

The drama will tell Saddam's story from the perspective of Saddam's inner circle, rather than a western perspective.

The writer, Alex Holmes, seems from his quotes to be rather enamoured of Saddam:

"It's more to do with the fall and why he failed. He had a vision, which was to create a great Arab nation and write himself into the history books as a great leader who would be remembered in hundreds of years time.

But his own flaws and the tactics these failings forced him to rely on meant he never came near to achieving this vision, and instead dragged his country into misery and pain.

I want to tell the story from the perspective of the people inside his inner circle and understand how they saw the world and why they did what they did."

Adding:

"We are trying to understand their world and reassure them that we want to tell the story from their perspective - from the inside out, not a western viewpoint."

The four part drama is expected to be aired in 2006.

Saddam's Secret Exile Plan

It seems that Saddam Hussein had secretly accepted a last-minute plan to go into exile to avert the 2003 Iraq invasion.

However, it is reported that Arab leaders vetoed the proposal.

The UAE President, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan, made the proposal for Saddam to go into exile at an emergency Arab summit weeks before the invasion began in March 2003.

However, the Arab League refused to consider the initiative; even though the US had indicated that it supported the idea.

I wonder if they now regret their decision?