SADDAM IS LOSING POPULARITY among the Arab masses:

Saddam once was applauded as a hero who stood up to the United States when no other Arab leader would. Today, Arabs increasingly portray him as a reckless despot who is not doing enough to save his people or his neighbors from a conflagration, and who has taken the region to war twice before.

Sadly, it’s not really because of stories like this:

As she stepped up to the Iraqi checkpoint, a military policeman suddenly pulled a knife, slashed open the flimsy plastic containers and splashed petrol all over her.

Then the head of the Iraqi border guard casually walked up to her, pulled a lighter from his pocket and set her ablaze. Soaked in fuel, she began to burn like a torch. That was on Monday afternoon. Yesterday Nazif lay in Sulaimania emergency hospital, on the Iraqi side, whimpering with pain. She had third degree burns and doctors said she was lucky to be alive. . . .

In a faltering voice, she said: “They said absolutely nothing, just looked at me with hatred. Then they set me alight. My whole body was in flames. I can’t describe the pain.

“If it wasn’t for an old man who smothered me with his coat I would have burnt alive.

“The border guards just stood and watched. Even after the flames were out they refused to let me return to the hospital in Kirkuk.”

Get their names.