The Warren article is full of nasty insinuations, but few facts. Some of his assertions can be contradicted by entries on Salam's blog.

Since http://gotham.realwomenonline.com/ has been taken off line there isnt the links to defend against this usual attack. Its hurting CP's credibility to keep posting this crap. Frankly im dissapointed.

God this article is such bullshit. Lay off the guy

Alright, the guy is likely upper class which requires Baath ties. His uncle is a banker, he studied abroad, he's in an upper class neighborhood and he seemed a little too attached to Baath hunting clubs and lounges. Fine, doesn't make him a hoax or intelligence agent. We knew he wasn't some camel humper in the desert

His hostility towards the old regime on the other hand is still damn useful to know how deep the rot was in Iraq. Resistance wasn't just a starving Shia or Kurdish thing

read the salam pax interview in the austrian magazin format, it explains a lot

here you will find a translation: http://buzzmachine.com/

Whatever the entirety of his article is, the point that Warren makes about Pax's likely Baathist affiliation is convincing.

I had my suspicions when I saw that self-pitying Huntington quote on his site. Clearly the guy's a typical Arab nationalist power-worshipper who only complains that someone else (Saddam) has the power. Show me one convincing passage that shows the guy has a true democratic, reformist mindset, cause I've been reading his site, and I've yet to see one.

He's gotten his fame by being a singular blog presence from Iraq to complain about Saddam and give a first-hand account of events there. This doesn't mean the guy is the Iraqi Thomas Jefferson, and the way other bloggers have been drooling over him is frankly disgusting.

The conspiracy pontifications are silly. It's easy enough to imagine that Salam could be tied into the half-dozen or so wealthy merchant families that long predate Hussein and the Baath Party. Could he also have been Baathist? Sure, just like many non-governmental professionals, but it's wrong to claim with bravado that there was no wealth, privilege, or internet, unless one were a Baath thug. We won't know until he drops the anonymity gig--but I give him the benefit of the doubt until then.

Now that Saddam is gone, why is Salam still hiding? Why is he hiding from the Americans, when he surely knows that, if he is who he has claimed to be, he could reap the rewards of a fat book contract, etc. by coming clean. I suspect that he is still hiding because he has something to hide.