Main content start
Combing through government documents seized when a U.S.-led coalition toppled the regime in 2003 and are now archived at the Hoover Institution, political scientist Lisa Blaydes examined more than 2,000 rumors Saddam’s Baath Party had gathered. The rumors, she said, provide an insight into the hopes and fears of Iraqi citizens not available through the country’s media, which was tightly controlled by the state and propagandist in nature.