AGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 4 ? The Iraqi economy is flat on its back. But here on Karada Out, the bustling boulevard just across the Tigris River from Saddam Hussein's palaces, business is booming.
Specifically, the information business. In a two-mile stretch of this thoroughfare, 53 shops are selling satellite television receivers. Close to 100 stores have television sets on display on the sidewalks, where multicolored boxes from Korean manufacturers are stacked high.
At one store, Abdullah Salama, a 35-year-old manager, watched on a recent day as eight workers unloaded 3,000 satellite dishes from an orange tractor-trailer. The load should take only a few weeks to sell, Mr. Salama said. "Some people want to see entertainment programming," he said, "but basically they want to see the news."
The boom is taking place despite the on-again-off-again electricity situation in many places. Iraqis say they are mainly watching the Arabic language networks like Al Jazeera, though they have mixed opinions about whether they like what they see.
More than 100 newspapers are being published. By early afternoon it is impossible to find a copy of what by many accounts is the most credible daily paper in Baghdad: Azzaman, circulation 75,000, published by a former Saddam Hussein aide who escaped in 1992. Internet cafes also dot the street. Baghdadis now freely surf the Internet and send e-mail without a government official pacing behind them.
Abbas Darwish, 63, a shop owner who sells newspapers, said, "Iraqis are very thirsty to learn what is happening outside of Iraq."
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"I usually don't buy ? I just like to read the headlines," said Bilal Rashid, 36, as he surveyed a street corner newsstand. Like many Baghdadis, he prefers to spend 20 or 30 minutes scanning the front pages instead of shelling out money to buy a newspaper.
Mr. Rashid noted that many journalists now working for independent papers used to work for those sanctioned by the government. "Some of them are liars," he said. "They used to work for Saddam."
The skepticism extends to the slick Arab satellite television networks, notably Qatar-based Al Jazeera. A common complaint from Iraqis is that Al Jazeera is too sympathetic to Mr. Hussein and too eager to inflame Arab conflicts with the United States.
"They put benzene on the fire," said Abdul Hussain, owner of an electronics store on Karada Out.
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