The Lowdown on Saddam Coming Soon

And now the most absorbing two minutes in television, the latest from the political grapevine:

Dangerous — Even Without Nukes
The dossier on Saddam Hussein soon to be made public by the British government will say that he is within three years of developing a nuclear weapon, but will also say that he already has enough chemical and biological weapons to wipe out the entire population of the globe. This according to the Scotsman newspaper, which says the file on Saddam says he has enough chemicals to make 200 tons of VX, a particularly powerful nerve gas. The file says Saddam needs only enriched uranium to complete a nuclear bomb.

A Drink, A Smoke and Torture TV
Meanwhile, the Butcher of Baghdad may not be all the man he's cracked up to be. A woman who says she used to be Saddam's mistress tells ABC News that he often used Viagra to enhance their sexual encounters. Parisoula Lampsos also says that even when relaxing, Saddam's brutal side could come out. She says Saddam loved watching The Godfather, listening to Strangers in the Night by Frank Sinatra, or seeing videos of his enemies being tortured. He sometimes donned a cowboy hat, sipped whiskey on the rocks and puffed on a cigar as he watched the torture.

Dead or Alive?
A new report suggests that Usama bin Laden may in fact be dead. Yosri Fouda, a correspondent for the satellite station Al-Jazeera tells the Associated Press he spent two days in June interviewing two top Al Qaeda operatives. Fouda says that during the course of their conversation, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, believed to be one of the highest ranking Al Qaeda members still at large, once referred to bin Laden in the past tense and that a general sense of disarray leads him to believe that bin Laden could be dead. Al-Jazeera announced last week it will broadcast the interviews as part of its coverage marking the anniversary of the attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. And today the cable channel broadcast some tape purporting to be some of the 9/11 hijackers plotting their attacks. A voice said to be Usama bin Laden reads their names and says they "changed the course of history." One hijacker is shown superimposed over a mural of the Pentagon, but the building obviously shows the damage after the 9/11 attack there, in which all the hijackers were killed.

Different Commemorations
Finally, while America, and much of the world, solemnly remembers the massacre of Sept. 11, a group of Muslim clerics will gather in London to commemorate what they call a "Towering Day in History." The conference, held at the Finsbury Park Mosque in North London, will be attended by the "most radical mullahs in Britain," according to the Daily Telegraph. The paper says the group will argue that the 9/11 atrocities were a justified defense against aggression against Muslims.