IS SADDAM CRACKING? What on earth is going on in Iraq? I have no way of knowing what Saddam's strategy is behind the sudden release of so many prisoners. It's probably a desperate plea for support. But we know from history that the moment a tyrant begins to relax his grip, forces are unleashed that he can find hard to control. The superb New York Times reporter, John Burns, has been writing peerless reports from Iraq (they make Nick Kristof look like a college stringer), and he delivers these two paragraphs today:

A 68-year-old retired high school mathematics teacher, who gave her first name as Samiya, said she heard of the amnesty while driving across Baghdad, and headed straight for Abu Ghraib in the hope that her 59-year-old brother, a chemical engineer serving a 30-year prison term, would be freed. When asked if her brother was a political prisoner, the white-haired woman turned away, then said he was the victim of denunciation by a "jealous colleague" at work. Then, she launched into an encomium for Mr. Hussein. "We love our president because he forgives the mistakes of his people," she said.

Once the prison gates collapsed, the mood changed. Seeing watchtowers abandoned and the prison guards standing passively by or actively supporting them as they charged into the cell blocks, the crowd seemed to realize that they were experiencing, if only briefly, a new Iraq, where the people, not the government, was sovereign. Chants of "Down Bush! Down Sharon!" referring to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel, faded. In one cell block, a guard smiled broadly at an American photographer, raised his thumb, and said, "Bush! Bush!" Elsewhere, guards offered an English word almost never heard in Iraq. "Free!" they said. "Free!"

Ah that war-monger Bush. No wonder Iraqis hate him. - 1:44:46 PM

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2002