Reports: Iraqi officials held in alleged coup plot

Interior ministry staff accused of reconstituting Saddam's outlawed party

BAGHDAD - At least 25 Iraqi interior ministry officials have been arrested, including several accused of planning a coup, according to newspaper reports Thursday.

The arrests over the past three days were carried out by an elite counter terrorism force that reports directly to Prime Minister Norri al-Maliki, The New York Times reported, citing Iraqi security officials.

Some of those detained were accused of trying to reconstitute Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath Party, an Iraqi government investigator said.

The interior ministry oversees Iraq's police and other security services.

Four generals, including Gen. Ahmed Abu Raqeef, the interior ministry's director of internal affairs, were among those detained, the Times reported.

The Baath Party ruled Iraq for 35 years until the regime was ousted by a U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The decision to outlaw the Baath party was the first official act of L. Paul Bremer's Coalition Provisional Authority, and along with his order to disband the Iraqi army has been widely blamed for setting in motion the Sunni insurgency in the fall of 2003.

The strict implementation of so-called de-Baathification rules meant that many senior bureaucrats who knew how to run ministries, university departments and state companies were fired. But in February, Iraq's presidency council issued a controversial law that allowed lower-ranking former Baath party members to reclaim government jobs. The measure was thought to effect about 38,000 members of Saddam's political apparatus, giving them a chance to go back to government jobs. It was also meant to allow those who have reached retirement age to claim government pensions.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28291201/

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{ The ghost of Saddam still haunts the corridors of power in Baghdad. I'm surprised it has taken so long for an attempted coup to take place. There may have been more that we haven't heard about. Many still look at the Saddam/Baath party period as the good old days and desire the return of the iron hand. After the Americans withdraw these coups will become more frequent and sooner or later the government headed by al-Maliki or someone else will be ousted. I have little doubt another Saddam is waiting in the wings. My bet would be that he will make his entrance within a year or so. When this debacle is all over nothing will really have changed. 5000 Americans or so will be dead and perhaps over 100,000 Iraqis Will be dead. Bush will be back in Crawford clearing brush and it will all have been for nothing. The futility of war. When will we learn?}