Posted on 11/29/2009 7:46:53 PM PST by Saije
Turning on their TVs during the long holiday weekend, Iraqis were greeted by a familiar if unexpected face from their brutal past: Saddam Hussein.
The late Iraqi dictator is lauded on a mysterious satellite channel that began broadcasting on the Islamic calendar's anniversary of his 2006 execution.
No one seems to know who is bankrolling the so-called Saddam Channel, although the Iraqi government suspects it's Baathists whose political party Saddam once led. The Associated Press tracked down a man in Damascus, Syria named Mohammed Jarboua, who claimed to be its chairman.
The Saddam channel, he said, "didn't receive a penny from the Baathists" and is for Iraqis and other Arabs who "long for his rule."
Jarboua has clearly made considerable efforts to hide where it's aired from and refuses to say who is funding it besides "people who love us."
Iraqis surprised to find Saddam on their TVs responded with the kind of divided emotions that marked his reign.
"Iraqis don't need such a satellite channel because it has hostile intentions," said Hassan Subhi, a 28-year-old Shiite who owns an Internet cafe in eastern Baghdad.
Others said they felt a nostalgic sorrow at the sight of their late leader, a Sunni Arab.
"All my family felt sad," said Samar Majid, a Sunni high school teacher in western Baghdad, mentioning images shown from Saddam's execution, and pictures of his two sons and grandson.
The channel, which is broadcast across the Arab world, dredges up the sectarian divisions that Saddam inspired among Shiites and Sunnis at a time when Iraq is gearing up for crucial national elections. Iraqi politicians have been arguing over parliamentary seat distribution in a dispute that has inflamed the splits. The wrangling will likely delay the vote beyond its constitutionally required Jan. 30 deadline.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
The Mother Of All TV Channels
A different Hussein, of course.
I’ll bet you can only watch someone be handcuffed behind their back and thrown off of a building or hit with a power drill in the thigh so many times....
then again, I have watched CBS’s primetime programming.
“He’s dead, Jim”
I only tune in for “The Stretch Hussein Comedy Hour.”
Lol. I guess the star of the show has a crick in his neck.
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