PejmanPundit points us to a rather interesting decription of the mood surrounding the Iraqi "amnesty" program.
You have to read all of the way to the end to see this passage:
Once the prison gates collapsed, the mood changed. Seeing watchtowers abandoned and the prison guards standing passively by or actively supporting them as they charged into the cell blocks, the crowd seemed to realize that they were experiencing, if only briefly, a new Iraq, where the people, not the government, was sovereign. Chants of "Down Bush! Down Sharon!" referring to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel, faded. In one cell block, a guard smiled broadly at an American photographer, raised his thumb, and said, "Bush! Bush!" Elsewhere, guards offered an English word almost never heard in Iraq. "Free!" they said. "Free!"
Will the left at least admit that Bush's sabre rattling was responsible for getting these people out of jail? Or will they continue to demonize Bush while lauding Saddam for his great humanitarian act? I know which one I think will happen, and it doesn't include any Bush praising activity.
Posted by Neal Mauldin at October 24, 2002 07:52 AM | TrackBackLater, a crowd - not huge, but a few hundred - appeared outside the Ministry of Prop-- er, Information in what may be the first non-government-organized demonstration in years. They [carefully] were chanting pro-Saddam slogans, but said that they had already been to a couple of government offices asking where their relatives were after the prisoner release.
Even Journalists who usually turned a blind eye to whatever the government did not want them to see could hardly ignore this.
So, it was covered. And now, all foreign journos have to leave and re-apply for entry under eveen more restrictive rules.
https://europe.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/10/24/iraq.journalists/index.html