Seasoned Middle East observer Amir Taheri, writing in the Arab News, reports that the arrest of Saddam Hussein is having a dramatic effect on the insurgents previously under his control. Disarray in their ranks should provide a bonanza of fresh intelligence.
With Saddam Hussein under arrest, a power struggle has started within the remnants of his Baathist regime.Posted by Alan at December 24, 2003 12:43 AMAt least three rival groups are positioning themselves to fight for the control of what they call “popular resistance” (Al-Muqawemmah Al-Shaabaiyah).
The issue is attracting broader Arab interest with some pan-Arabists, Islamists and other groups focusing on the Iraqi insurgency as the vanguard of a wider struggle against the West led by the United States.
Inside Iraq, however, the power struggle within the insurgency is fought around more mundane issues. At stake is some $400 million in cash that Saddam and his entourage took away from the Iraqi Central Bank in Baghdad on April 8, hours before the US Marines arrived.
The fallen regime is also believed to have stashed away billions of dollars in foreign, mostly Swiss, French and Austrian banks. Until 2002, these were managed by Barzan Ibrahim Al-Tikriti, a half-brother of Saddam who is now believed to be held by the coalition forces.
The rival groups are also fighting over control of large quantities of weapons that the Saddamites looted from army barracks last spring. One of the last orders Saddam issued to his supporters on April 8 was to “seize and secure” as many weapons as they could. According to Iraqi sources, however, there are enough arms in secret locations to supply the insurgency for months if not years.
The three main groups involved in the power struggle are organized along tribal and clan lines covered by a veneer of ideology.