True.
He may have admired Stalin, and his recent military advisors may have been Stalinist Russians, but his origins are definitely fascist. Consider that his uncle was Kharaillah Tulfah, who worked with the Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini. The Mufti had links to Nazi Germany, probably established by Adolf Eichmann after he was appointed in 1937. According to Chuck Morse, the Mufti helped fund Nazi activities all over the Arab world, including a pro-Nazi coup in Iraq that failed. He would later go to Germany and then be sent to Bosnia where he recruited 100,000 muslims to fight for Hitler.
His cry was, "Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history, and religion. This saves your honor. God is with you."
Saddam was definitely a student of Hitler's. And given Abu Mazen's Holocaust denial, and his connection to the Mufti through Arafat, I do not see an immediate end to the influence of the Mufti in mideast affairs.