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Source: http://nytimes.com/2002/10/27/weekinreview/27BURN.html
Fear of Hussein May Be Yielding to Doubt
(New York Times) John F. Burns - In a country where the merest hint of dissent had been a death sentence in years past, many foreign reporters have been approached in recent days by individuals offering forbidden thoughts. Taking advantage of moments in which the official "minders" assigned to journalists by the information ministry were distracted, or briefly absent, these Iraqis burst out with vehemence against the government, and often against Mr. Hussein personally, part of a wider unhinging of events in Iraq. After Hussein abruptly decreed freedom for tens of thousands of political prisoners and common criminals across the country, many Iraqis were openly contemptuous of the decision to release thousands of unrehabilitated murderers and thieves onto their streets.