Arab Baath Socialist Party

Syrian authorities have arrested a leading opposition figure, hours after putting 10 other critics of the ruling Baath Party on trial, according to international human rights groups. Riad Seif, a former member of parliament, was taken into custody Monday evening and brought before a judge Tuesday, the activist group Movement for Justice and Development said on its website.

First, the attackers beat the retired Baghdad municipality worker, his wife and their daughter in their home last weekend. Then they beheaded them. The only clear motive people could think of for such brutality was that the dead man had belonged to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. "They didn't care if he was a good or bad person," his cousin Abu Abdullah said a few days later. "His job had required him to be a Baathist. He was never into it like others. He never hurt anyone."

Five years ago Wednesday, U.S. forces entered the heart of the Iraqi capital, and Saddam Hussein's regime fell. While much of the world watched the downfall of Hussein and the destruction of his huge statue in central Baghdad's Firdos Square on television, Iraqis lived it. They have memories of what they were feeling as Hussein was toppled from power. Here are some of them: -- As a junior member of Hussein's ruling Baath Party, I had prepared for months for the war.

The arrests of up to 24 police and Defense Ministry officials accused of aiding terrorists and belonging to the banned Baath Party of Saddam Hussein prompted vigorous denials Thursday by Shiite government leaders of a coup attempt against them. News of the arrests, which also raised concerns that the government's crackdown was reminiscent of Hussein's regime, comes just two weeks before Iraq is scheduled to take over responsibility for its security from the U.S.

Ahmad Chalabi, a perennial Iraqi insider and political survivor, held out an olive branch to his former enemies Wednesday by publicly welcoming onetime members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party back into public life. Chalabi, who heads a commission charged with removing former ranking Baath Party members from public office, told reporters at a Baghdad news conference that the Iraqi government had changed course and was now trying to bring more Baathists back into government.

Serious new divisions have emerged between the Bush administration and its Iraqi allies over the Baghdad government's refusal to enact a reform that the White House considers crucial to its new strategy for bringing the country's violence under control. In spite of a commitment by Iraq's prime minister to its passage, legislation that would ease rules barring former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party from government service has been blocked by the country's Shiite-dominated parliament. U.S.

Before the ink was dry Tuesday on a compromise to allow former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party to get government and military jobs, opposition erupted that could jeopardize the measure, one of the "benchmarks" for U.S. troop withdrawal. The reaction to the proposal to revise one of the laws that has most infuriated Sunni Arabs suggested that the measure could face stiff opposition in the Shiite Muslim-dominated parliament.

Iraq's Baath Party, once the machine of Saddam Hussein's tyrannical rule and now a key player in the country's civil war, has been divided by an internal power struggle pitting one of Hussein's top aides against a former general, U.S. and Iraqi government officials say. U.S. military and intelligence officials are still debating whether to welcome the power struggle or fear it. But they agree the outcome could strongly influence the course of the Sunni-led insurgency against Iraq's U.S.

Iraq's besieged prime minister said Monday that his government was making progress on the political front and had submitted to parliament legislation that would ease restrictions on members of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime. At a news conference in Baghdad, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said leaders of Iraq's main Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish factions had signed off on the bill, and he expected little opposition when lawmakers reconvened today after a month's vacation.

Reforms that would ease curbs on former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party rejoining Iraq's civil service and military appeared headed for legislative gridlock after attempts Sunday to read a draft bill in parliament disintegrated into yelling and finger-pointing. It was the first time that Iraqi lawmakers had taken up any of the so-called major benchmarks that Washington has deemed crucial for the long-term cessation of sectarian violence and national reconciliation.