Using documents in the Hoover Institution archives, Stanford political scientist Lisa Blaydes examined life in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, including how Iraqi citizens found creative ways to resist the Baath Party’s authoritarian regime.
As US forces stormed through Iraq in the spring of 2003, Iraqi officials scurried to hide the archives of the ruling Baath Party and Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) as well as of key government and intelligence departments in underground cellars where they were nevertheless soon discovered by trophy hunters.
With diplomacy and world affairs dominating the front page lately (or the home page, as we are gradually learning to think of it), this week’s list of recommended titles has a decidedly international cast.
A man I have known since grade school changed his name, years ago, to an Arabic one. He told me he rejected Christianity as “the white man’s religion that justified slavery.” He argued Africans taken out of that continent were owed reparations. “From whom?” I asked.
Prominent Qatari opposition figure Mona al-Sulaiti, said that the Arab quartet boycott may have reduced the Qatari regime’s support of terrorism. However, it did not fully stop it.
