VERY good documentary this week on the History Channel about the connections between Saddam and the Nazis.
The Nazis financed the Grand Mufti of Baghdad to help overthrow the British in Iraq during WWII (which was unsuccessful). One of the people who was arrested and interned by the British was Saddam's uncle (who would end up raising him). The Ba'ath Party (through Saddam and the Grand Mufti) modeled its apparatus on the Nazis.
It's not surprising that many of those elements continue to exist in the Middle East.
The really BAD guys do have a history together don't they?