Naji

First, I must admit to having enjoyed this film. I thought it was well acted, fun, and tells a story at least I didnt know (although not a documentary, still fairly realistic in my opinion). One thing that sort of bothered me was how Naji was shown as being a good and decent guy, I had doubts about this considering some of the information that has come out about Iraqi officials. Long story short I did some research on him and found out some very interesting things (on wikipedia). Apparently, he is a sunni, not a ba'ath party member like Sadaam. Also of worthy note, two of his brothers were implicated in an assassination attempt of Sadaam in the early 80s. It doesn't mention what their punishment was but one can certainly assume that it was severe if not capital. Despite all this, somehow he rose to being part of what I quess is the outer circle of the Sadaam's inner circle. Flash forward, in 2001 he becomes the foreign minister. During this time he negotiates for with the UN and weapons inspectors. Apparently at some point in 2003 he becomes a French mole and leaks information to both the French and the CIA. The information he was told apparently was from Sadaam that he had stock piled massive amounts of poison gas (while some would argue this; to date that has turned out to be false). Just before the war, he is smuggled out of Iraq to Syria and eventually to Egypt where he is guarunteed protection from both the CIA and the Egyptians. According to wikipedia the U.S. also offered him political assylum which he turned down. Eventually, once the war was over he settled in Qatar to teach journalism. Based on the brief research I did, the only conclusion that I could come to was that basically he a good administrator and nothing is ever mentioned of him being involved in any atrocities; in fact, by leaking information he may well have been trying to prevent atrocities. I suppose, in retrospect, that my preconcieved notion may well be incorrect (although it is still possible that the truth has not been told). Anyway, I just thought I would share this in case anyone else wondered what had happened to him and if he was portrayed acurately. In so far as Suchets performance is concerned, I personally thought that we was excellent.