April 28, 2003

DIFFERENT BIRTHDAY, NEW PINATA

From Yahoo! News:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein's 66th birthday arrived Monday with none of the elaborate fanfare of the past and a spate of rumors that the deposed dictator was still alive and planning something dastardly to mark the occasion.

For days, Baghdad has been rife with rumors that Saddam planned to unleash some unspecified violence on the city to mark his birthday. There was no evidence that such a plan was afoot.

The day was a far cry from previous passages of April 28, the day Saddam was born to a poor family in 1937. In years past, mass singing, dancing, burning of the Israeli flag and general lavish praise of Saddam were commonplace across the land to fuel his self-promoted personality cult.

On Monday, however, many portraits of Saddam and most statues built in his image were gone or sat defaced, with his mustachioed countenance painted over or scratched off.



Posted by Jeff at April 28, 2003 08:34 AM | TrackBack
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