TV channel praising Saddam Hussein airs on anniversary of his hanging; backers unknown

Mysterious ‘Saddam Channel’ hits Iraq TV

BAGHDAD — Turning on their TVs during the long holiday weekend, Iraqis have been greeted by a familiar if unexpected face from their brutal past: Saddam Hussein.

The late Iraqi dictator is lauded on a mysterious satellite channel that began broadcasting on the Islamic calendar’s anniversary of his 2006 execution.

No one seems to know who is bankrolling the so-called Saddam Channel, although the Iraqi government suspects it’s Baathists whose political party Saddam once led. The Associated Press tracked down a man in Damascus, Syria named Mohammed Jarboua, who claimed to be its chairman.

The Saddam channel, he said, “didn’t receive a penny from the Baathists” and is for Arabs who “long for his rule.”

Jarboua has tried hard to hide where it’s aired from.