Saddam, o Elvis de Bagdá

O Pepe Escobar volta a falar direto de Bagdá pelo Asia Times. O jornalista mostra como está o clima em Bagdá e a reação da população à gravações atribuídas ao ex-ditador, apelidado de Elvis pelos soldados americanos. Muito bacana, há um panorama de vários boatos que circulam em Bagdá, alguns confirmados pela inteligência jordaniana. Vale ler inteira.

The students are all Sunnis, the minority that dominated Iraq at the expense of Shi'ites for many decades. They are not part - yet - of the armed resistance, although they know people who are. They definitely don't, and never did, support Saddam. One says that "one Sunni equals 10 Shi'ites" in terms of fighting spirit, "and that's why the Americans will be defeated". Another says, "An armed group kidnapped three American women soldiers, two of them black. They kept the black ones for their own fun, but sold the white one for another group for 3 million dinars." This is not the kind of story that one would find in US-approved newspapers such as Iraq Today. Especially because the euphemistically named Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) never admits that its soldiers are being kidnapped.

A student suggests a visit to the city morgue. "The Americans are killing people like flies. In Ramadi they have footage of American helicopters throwing dead bodies in the desert." The CPA has in fact censored journalists' visits to Iraqi hospitals. Special permission is now required - and the wait can be eternal. As such, these outlandish claims (including the kidnapping one) can in no way be substantiated, although they do reflect a certain mood on the street.