Here’s a sweet little news release from Jordan Eason’s IraqSlogger magazine:

From the Voices of Iraq news agency:

Falluja residents rename main street after "Martyr Saddam"

Falluja, Dec 31, (VOI) - Residents in the restive Iraqi town of Falluja on Sunday circulated leaflets renaming the main street in the town after the former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, eyewitnesses said. The leaflets, distributed by hand and posted on walls, carried the signatures of Falluja residents, the witnesses told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). "Falluja main street which lies along Simak U.S. base has been renamed Martyr Saddam street in appreciation and commemoration of his visit to Falluja," one of the citizens said. The deposed president was hanged on Saturday and laid to rest in his home village of Awja at dawn on Sunday. He had visited Falluja twice, in 1982 and in 1991. Meanwhile, Falluja was in mourning over his death, with most of the families staying at home, streets empty and most of the shops and markets closed. Falluja council of clan chiefs denounced the execution of Saddam. "Executing Saddam Hussein at this time in particular and on the morning of the first day of Eid al-Adha (Bairam)... indicate politicizing the political work and failure of any attempt to reconcile with the Iraqi government," the chiefs said in a statement, a copy of which was received by VOI. "The execution of Saddam and what accompanied it of sectarian shouts confirm that (Prime Minister Nouri) al-Maliki's government is not interested in the unity of Iraqis," the statement added. The tribal chiefs described hanging Saddam as an "Eid gift presented by Maliki's government to Iran." Falluja is 45 km west of Baghdad.

Voices of Iraq is apparently known as “Aswat-al-Iraq.” I only know this through the efforts of my noted research assistant, Jimmy Google, Cub Reporter. But Jimmy tells me that Aswat-al-Iraq maintains an English language webpage here.

It’s wise to take news items read on a foreign page with at least a grain of salt, I suppose, although experience over the last six years has taught us that some foreign papers and outlets, such as Canadian, British, French, German, Japanese and a few Italian points are far more accurate and trustworthy than most American-branded outlets. (That’s probably because news sources in those countries are not knee-padding themselves for massive corporate gifts from Congress.)

On first read VOI does seem to be kind of neutral, without much semantic propaganda-loading in its reportage, so it might be worth looking at now and then. As a final comment on accuracy and fact, I always check Juan Cole’s Informed Comment for an accurate view of whatever I read or hear. He has a professional lifetime of experience in the region; he’s my “go-to guy” for Iraq and the Middle East, since much of what he reports has been checked out with personal contacts he has made over the years. He has shown favorable acceptance of many VOI reports.

Naming a street “Martyr Saddam”? The main drag that runs right past a US base? That’s embarrassing.

As for hanging the man at the very beginning of a religious holiday – that’s really tacky. It seems to be a deliberate slap in the face to Sunnis, whose celebration of the holiday begins at sunrise, Saturday. Shia on the other hand, start their celebration at dawn, Sunday.

I get the feeling that, once again, political opportunists have buried a problem and created a bigger problem.