The invaluable translation service MEMRI (the one defamed by al-Ken Livingstone, see post below) has provided us with the televised confessions of Muayed Al-Nasseri, who it says

commanded Saddam Hussein's "Army of Muhammad" throughout 2004'.

Am I the only person to have read that last sentence twice? Saddam Hussein is in prison, right? So what's he doing still commanding an army? Al-Nasseri claimed:

'We carried out many armed operations against the coalition forces in all the districts. The operations included bombarding their military posts, their camps, and their bases, fighting these forces, and planting explosive devices against their patrols and convoys...In addition, Saddam Hussein distributed a communique via the party, back then, instructing all his supporters or whoever wants to fight the Jihad for the sake of Allah, to join the Army of Muhammad because it is the army of the leadership.'

Al-Nasseri also made important claims about the involvement of Iran and Syria in the continuing war in Iraq. But am I alone in my astonishment that -- assuming, of course, that this account is true -- Saddam is still pulling the strings of Iraqi violence? And if this is so, and he is still an all-too active player in Iraq, might this not explain why his Ba'athist subordinates have never divulged where the bodies -- or rather, weapons of mass destruction -- are buried?