Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Turning on their TVs during the long holiday weekend, Iraqis were greeted by a familiar if unexpected face from their 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 Iraqis and other Arabs who 'long for his rule'.
Jarboua has clearly made considerable efforts to hide where it's aired from and refuses to say who is funding it besides 'people who love us'.
The Saddam Channel debuted on Friday. The station's official name alternates between Al-Lafeta (the banner) and Al-Arabi (the Arab). It is mostly a montage of flattering, still images of Saddam - some of him dressed in military uniform, others in a suit, even one astride a white horse.
All the pictures are set against audio recordings of him making speeches and reciting poetry. None of the pictures appear to be recent, and no announcers or commentators appear or speak.
A Mideast satellite expert said Al-Lafeta's operators tried to hide any clues to their identities and broadcast sites by using a variety of satellite services and frequencies. The channel airs via Noorsat, a Bahrain-based satellite service. It also has purchased a frequency on Egypt-owned NileSat.
