WP: Palestinians in Iraq Pay the Cost of Being 'Saddam's People'

[sabra]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/29/AR2005122901360.html

Palestinians in Iraq Pay the Cost of Being 'Saddam's People'

BAGHDAD -- For years, Saddam Hussein harbored a small population of Palestinians in Iraq, trotting them out to cheer whenever he went to war -- which he routinely justified as essential to Arab nationalism and the Palestinian cause.

...

Now Hussein is in prison. The Shiites are in power. The Palestinians are worried.

...

Their fears were sparked by the arrest in May of four Palestinians by the Interior Ministry, which critics accuse of being infiltrated by militiamen loyal to Shiite factions and of torturing prisoners. The four men were plucked from the warren of Palestinian housing in eastern Baghdad in a hail of gunshots, then paraded on national television as terrorists.

...

Successive Iraqi governments nurtured them, and Hussein used them to bolster his claim as an Arab nationalist leader. They were frequently lauded in the government-controlled media. Hussein made world headlines by promising a house and $25,000 to each Palestinian family in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that had a member killed while attacking Israel.

...

The Palestinians say their position was less privileged than it seemed. "This was all just talk," said Thayer Mahdi, 39, a Palestinian who owns a clothing store. "We suffered like all Iraqis."

[madeline_con]

1. Is Israel backing the Iraqi Interior Mnistry? eom

[Behind the Aegis]

2. Is this yet another country 'owned' by Israel?

:eyes:

[Thorandmjolnir]

3. What?

"...whenever he went to war..."

How many times did Iraq go to war? They make it sound like it was every Sunday, like a football game.

I hate writing like this.