WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS

Iraq's ruling Ba'ath Party was indeed once hostile to Islamic fundamentalism. But times have changed. The Iraqi media often refer to their leader as the great Mujahed (holy warrior) Saddam Hussein. His speeches are peppered with Koranic

references; his regime has launched a "faith campaign"; senior Ba'athists are learning the Koran by heart, and religious instruction is being stepped up in schools.

In the late 1990s, senior Iraqi defectors reaching Lebanon, Turkey, northern Iraq, and Europe even began to suggest that Saddam's embrace of Islam and his hatred of America had caused a seismic shift in Middle Eastern politics, resulting in an alliance of convenience.