On Thu, 18 Dec 2003, Michael Kalus wrote:
BTW, can you provide me with a reference for the "dangling bodies'? Because I was unable to find anything on this so far.
I was travelling in the area (India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey) at the time. In the 1960s the usual overland traveller's route through the region to Europe had been Bombay - Gulf - Iraq (Basra) - Turkey. In the 1970s, when I was there, the route had shifted to Pakistan - Afghanistan - Iran - Turkey because of attacks on foreigners and in particular the hanging of several Americans as supposed CIA agents, spies. The Baath Party took over in 1968 and nationalized the oil industry in 1972; the surge in anti-western agitation occurred in that period. Googling provides a lot of hits, mostly propaganda for one side or the other. One interesting quote regarding the Baath takeover: "To the end Qassim retained his popularity in the streets of Baghdad. After his execution, his supporters refused to believe he was dead until the coup leaders showed pictures of his bullet-riddled body on TV and in the newspapers." (From "Out of the Ashes, the Resurrection of Saddam Hussain", by Andrew and Patrick Cockburn.) The coup leaders included one Saddam Hussian, who of course killed the rest over the next few years. This time around the president's bullet-riddled body has not been displayed on TV. -- Jim Dixon jdd@dixons.org tel +44 117 982 0786 mobile +44 797 373 7881 http://jxcl.sourceforge.net Java unit test coverage http://xlattice.sourceforge.net p2p communications infrastructure