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The Internet in Iraq
05/28/2003

Of course, at the center of the topic of the Internet in Iraq is Salam Pax, and any other news relates to him to some degree, often as an indication of who he must have been pre-war. Consider this, from an article about the Iraqi youths who have never before known a Saddam-less nation:

The Saddam generation was shut off even more when international sanctions were imposed after the Gulf War. The Internet arrived in Iraq two years ago. Access was tightly controlled, and Saddam's officials blocked news and cultural sites.

This raises the question of how Salam was able not only to access the Internet, but to traverse it so freely. It also brings to my mind (anyway) the chilling comparison to another Iraqi who had free rein on the Internet:

A family friend says the day Uday discovered the Internet was "a black day for Iraqis," because he used it to learn of torture methods from other ages and lands that he decided to try. He would lock victims in coffins for days at a time, says the source, or put them in pillories. According to a family friend, he also liked to have offenders beaten on one side. Then he would order medical tests and have the thrashings continue until the kidney on that side had conclusively failed.

Uday's favorite punishment was the medieval falaqa, a rod with clamps that go around the ankles so that the offender, feet in the air, can be hit on the bare soles with a stick. A top official in radio and TV says he received so many beatings for trivial mistakes like being late for meetings or making grammatical errors on his broadcasts that Uday ordered him to carry a falaqa in his car. Uday also had an iron maiden that he used to torture Iraqi athletes whose performance disappointed him.

(both articles via Right Wing News)

ADDENDUM:
Right at the top of Salam's latest post, I found this:

Internet prices are getting steeper, now we pay 8 dollars for an hour. capitalisim! pah.

Spoken like a true aristocrat!

Posted by Justin Katz @ 09:33 PM EST