The prying eyes of Saddam’s intelligence agencies focused on the urban populace as well as administrative personnel wherever they were located.

The Iraqis’ joy and celebration at the destruction of Saddam’s regime can be attributed to the sense of relief that the dictator’s ‘iron fist’ — formally represented by the intelligence organization and its men — was pried open and is no longer at their throat. That the Iraqis have regained their equanimity is evident from the fact that they are openly expressing their concerns and views without fear of having their words and actions recorded.

Things, however, were different when Saddam was in power. Not one of them was able to gain a position in the administrative setup without first passing through the most elaborate search. Personal details of an applicant’s life would be scrutinized — details such as his religious persuasion, his social life as well as his travels outside the country.

During its recent visits to the espionage centers in Baghdad as well as the province of Karbala which was a source of worry for Iraqi authorities for many years, Alsharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, discovered documents that exposed the scale of espionage committed on the Iraqi people by their own government — from recording regular telephone calls to acquiring more politically relevant information.

A quick glance through some of the material and the sheer number of files would leave no one in doubt that the former regime suffered from an extreme kind of paranoia. Every aspect of an individual suspect’s life was covered and filed, as were the lives of his entire family, especially of those family members living outside the country. Phone lines were tapped, conversations of even the mundane kind recorded. The regime also had a habit of employing undercover agents to infiltrate and spy on the local population, as well as on military personnel. These agents would communicate with each other through special hand signs and keywords.

The regime was especially concerned with opposition parties in the West who were attempting to recruit agents outside as well as within regime’s inner circle.

This information was discovered in a file dated May 2002, under the heading: “Top Secret”. The document revealed that some of the military personnel were targeted as they were in financial difficulties. And these people were more likely to be recruited by the opposition parties and turned against the authority.

What is most interesting is that a document with Arabic letters, “Aleph. Meem. Ain. Meem” inscribed on it stated that a US attack on the regime was imminent and any hope of averting or postponing the attack was unrealistic, especially since most of Arab leaders had secretly agreed to the US war plans. Other reasons for the attack, according to the document, was that the West sees Iraq as a member of a dangerous triangle which includes Iran, and Iraq’s financial support to Palestinian families whose members die in suicide attacks on Israel.

The officer, who was to submit the report to the director of intelligence, wrote on the file: “These are facts already known and therefore are not due for immediate submission”.