I THOUGHT SUNNIS AND SHIITES COULDN'T BE ALLIES:

Saddam's Tough to Persuade. Cuba Tried (Alcibiades Hidalgo, Washington Post, 3/9/2003)

On the other side was our delegation, sent by Fidel Castro in an attempt to convince his Baghdad ally that a war in the Persian Gulf would be disastrous for Iraq....

The idea of a direct appeal to the Iraqi dictator had come from Castro.... Rodrigo Alvarez Cambras, an orthopedic surgeon who years before had removed a tumor from Saddam Hussein's spinal cord, was included. His presence would underscore the friendly, almost intimate, nature of the mission....

The Soviet military, which was kept fully informed on the mission's activities, provided us with detailed descriptions of the allied forces and equipment en route to the region, including information on new weaponry. At the Soviet base in Torrens, on the outskirts of Havana (known as Lourdes to Americans), electronic intelligence had been culled from command centers throughout the United States ...

Looks like parties hostile to the United States really do cooperate. Posted by Paul Jaminet at March 11, 2003 6:38 PM