Ba`thist thug versus Ba`thist thug: Saddam and Allawi. I saw parts II, and III of `Allawi propaganda biography on Arabiyya TV (I heard somebody on Fox News today praising AlArabiyya). Again, very revealing about the close ties between Allawi and Saddam. `Allawi claims that his disagreements with Saddam began in 1968, but he did not resign from the party until 1975. He also was part of a party faction that feuded with Saddam not over principles but over powers. They did not object to Saddam's killings, but wanted more of their members in the regime. I believe that this "documentary" will damage further Allawi in the eyes of Iraqis, because he speaks about the ruling Ba`th party with a tone of nostalgia. And he talks about this brutal party as a "democratically-run" party that was ruined by Saddam. Most damaging, Allawi reveals his closeness, friendship, and fondness for the notorious Nadhim Kzar. I will not tell you what I know about this brutal man, but will cite a pro-Allawi source. This is what none other than Kanan Makiya (the pro-US occupation neo-conservative who had promised Bush that Iraqis would welcome US occupation forces with "flowers and sweets", and who is slated to be the next puppet Iraq ambassador in US) wrote about Kzar in his Republic of Fear (p. 6): "The first chief of Internal State Security was Nadhim Kzar, a 1969 appointee of Saddam Husain's...He nurtured a reputation for ruthlessness and sadistic practices, which struck terror inside the party itself. For instance, he had a penchant for conducting interrogations personally and extinguishing his cigarette inside the eyeballs of his victims...Under Kzar, the secret police was responsible for the torture and unpublicized killings of possibly a few thousand people, principally communists and Kurds." This is the man with whom Allawi was aligned. And even after the execution of Kzar after his coup attempt in 1973, Allawi stayed--accoring to him--as head of the "Ba`thist organization in Europe." What Ba`thist organization in Europe? Was he leading the Ba`thist revolution in Belgium? Or was he heading the Kzar's operations in Europe? He even revealed of himself unwittingly when talking about `Abdul-Karim Ash-Shaykhali who was in the medical school in Baghdad. When Saddam wanted to appoint him as foreign minister, Shaykhali said that he could not leave his medical school. Allawi, then a medical student like Shaykahli, wrote a memo to the Dean of the Medical School allowing Shaykhali to serve in government. This "medical student" had more powers than the dean. This is why a fellow classmate of Allawi at the time (who is now a physician in Canada) remembered him as a thug who carried his gun to school. Allawi's knowledge of geography seems to be as limited as that of George W. He refers to the province of Dhufar as being in Yemen while it is a known province in Oman, and a center for a famous rebellion. The itnerviewer (the right-wing Lebanese Elie Naquzi) is so ignorant of Arab affairs, that he barely spoke except to nod or smile at his boss. He even thought that Sa`id Hamami (a PLO ambassador) was an Iraqi Ba`thist.