Iraq's drive to consolidate power

Baghdad 2002: Iraq's leadership is giving away cars to military officers in an apparent bid to consolidate power

By CNN Baghdad Bureau Chief Jane Arraf

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A decade into the most sweeping sanctions in U.N. history, there are so many new cars and buses in Baghdad that the city is now widening the roads.

The cars -- always important in this huge, oil-rich country -- are a symbol of the leaking sanctions and an example of the way the Iraqi leadership has managed to consolidate its power.

The government subsidies many of the vehicles, and for the first time since 1991 it's giving free cars to military officers -- from Peugeots to Toyotas, depending on rank.

Salaries for government workers are still a fraction of what they were before the Gulf War. But some like bank employee Hameed Mathour have seen their wages rise by 25 percent from last year.

"If you ask anyone in the street they'll say there's progress in all walks of life," he says.

Progress, though, is measured on a different scale since the Gulf War. Mathour still has to hold down two other jobs to get by. Many schoolteachers still make less than $5 a month.

The big money seems to be spent on things like construction and oil equipment and vehicles blocked or delayed by U.N. sanctions.

While Saddam Hussein gets credit for improvements, the U.S. gets the blame for the country's problems

Where's Iraq getting the money? It helps that the government prints as much money as it wants. There are no official figures on inflation.

But most of the cash comes from what the United States calls illegal sales of oil to Iraq's neighbors.

"Of course the city is doing better, the buildings and streets are being improved, there are new cars, and it's due to our leader President Saddam Hussein," says Hassan Jabari, and Iraqi government employee.

And that's the point. While the United States officially gets the blame for almost all of Iraq's problems, the Iraqi president gets all the credit for its successes.

There are new parks, new streetlights and new public buildings in the capital.

But the biggest construction projects are literally palatial.

CNN is not allowed to take pictures of the president's new palace -- or even his old ones. Officials fear the U.S. military could use the pictures to help target the sites.

With rumblings that the United States may try to topple the Iraqi president, the leadership appears to be making an effort to consolidate its power just in case.

But since the regime put down uprisings in the north and south after the Gulf War while the United States stood by, there's been no serious challenge to the Iraqi leader.

Iraq's riches don't seem to be trickling down to the country's less well-off

Hussein has made a big point of meeting with and rewarding tribal leaders from the south who have pledged their loyalty. And he's even made overtures to the Kurds in northern Iraq.

The money doesn't seem to be trickling down to the millions of Iraqi poor. UNICEF says malnutrition has stayed at the same alarming rate for the past five years.

But the money does seem to be reaching what's left of Iraq's middle class -- giving military officers and others loyal to the regime more incentive to stay loyal.