Jim Oberg emails to point out that many people in the Saddam-on-the-street video are holding and waving weapons. It's inconceivable that the real Saddam would allow people to be that close to him at all, let alone with automatic rifles. It would be too easy for someone to solve the Iraqi peoples' problem with a single burst.

Though, I suppose they could have issued guns with empty clips.

My wife probably had the right take on this one yesterday. Except for the young boy in the shots, all of the men at that impromptu rally were of military age. If your going to stage a rally for said despot, who better to invite than his body guards and goons.

I saw that street video a couple of times and it was obviously staged. The crowd involved no more than 30 people and the rest of the street/market was deserted.

Concerning the weapons, Saddam's security forces would never let a popular crowd so near to the President with assault weapons.

I remember on CNN, when Bush I went to the gulf during the first gulf war. All the soldiers had their M-16's on their shoulders. But the Secret Service had the bolts and charging handles.