IT MAY not have been such a good idea for a Baghdad newspaper to repeat a Times story about Saddam Hussein’s purchase of a Libyan bolthole for his inner circle.

The Al-Babil daily, run by the Iraqi dictator’s son Udai, printed an abbreviated translation of the article. It had a mocking headline — “The Barking of the Dogs” — but that has made no difference. The Iraqi Information Ministry has banned the newspaper from publishing for a month.

Officials gave no reason beyond saying that it had “violated press regulations”. Observers believe that the ban must at least have Saddam’s tacit consent.

Al-Babil has published three articles in recent days that may have angered Saddam, but Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based Arabic paper Al Quds, had little doubt that publishing the Times story was a major factor.

The suspension “probably means that Saddam was very angry that any reference had been made to the damaging story at all, at this most sensitive time when any mention of even junior family members planning to quit is potential political dynamite”.

Udai’s newspaper regularly carries excerpts from foreign press and various internet sources. A week ago it published a list of several hundred Iraqi officials that an opposition website had identified as “targets”. The headline was: “Heroes’ list”.

It allegedly infuriated a number of those named. It also printed articles considered insulting to Arab heads of state, in particular Egypt’s President Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdullah.

Once groomed to succeed his father, in the past few years Udai has been overshadowed by his younger brother, Qusai, who heads the feared secret service. Nevertheless, he remains extremely powerful.

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