A former Iraqi athlete paid to advise the U.S.-led group reorganizing sports in that country was fired after expressing concerns that the official chosen to head the sports ministry was too closely associated with the late Uday Hussein, the former Olympic committee chairman with a long record of corruption and human rights abuses.

	BLOOD ON THE RINGS
	Read ESPN's series on the torture of Iraqi athletes and other allegations of abuse at the Iraqi Olympic Committee headquarters from its report in December. The report includes first-person accounts by former Iraqi soccer, volleyball and weightlifting athletes; a dossier of the alleged atrocities; a chat session with Uday Hussein's former body double; and an ESPN.com poll on the issues.

Issam Thamer Al-Diwan, a volleyball player who was tortured by Uday, said his contract was terminated and he was immediately flown back to his home in San Diego after his objection to Abdul Razak Al-Taey, a former volleyball federation chief in Iraq, became known.

"He has a bad history," Al-Diwan said of Al-Taey. "He worked for Uday."

Don Eberly, the Bush Administration official in charge of Iraqi sports on an interim basis, confirmed Friday to ESPN.com that Al-Diwan was dismissed. A naturalized American citizen who left Iraq in 1991, Al-Diwan -- the second leading athlete in recent weeks to clash with Eberly over the choice of Al-Taey -- was one of four Iraqi exiles officially advising Eberly.

Eberly said Al-Diwan violated his contract by speaking publicly about his concerns, and he disagrees with Al-Diwan's assessment of Al-Taey, who has expressed interest in running the new Olympic committee. While acknowledging that Al-Taey played a role in the former sports apparatus, he said Al-Taey was vetted by the Coalition Provisional Authority and not identified as a senior Ba'ath Party official.

"If you look at any of the 10 or 15 people that could serve as an alternative to (Al-Taey), you would have the same exact issues," Eberly said. "There are those who basically believe that if you were ever involved in sports in Iraq, or were seen in the presence of Uday, or even if you had a Baghdad address, you're an evil person. I've had to be firm in saying that is the wrong way to think."

U.S. officials are anxious to get the Iraqi sports culture moving again to restore the national life, and give citizens something else to focus on beyond the foreign occupation. This week, 54,000 soccer balls -- donated by Major League Soccer and other U.S. organizations -- arrived in Iraq, to be distributed around the country by troops. Sports facilities gradually are being repaired and turned over to the Iraqi people. The national soccer team has begun playing games again, said Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Thomas Basile.

The IOC on Wednesday formally invited Iraq to participate in the 2004 summer Olympics. Training in six sports -- weightlifting, wrestling, boxing, shooting, taekwondo and table tennis -- has been made a priority, with the hope of sending athletes from each of those sports to Athens, Basile said. The soccer team may be unable to make it to Greece because of the war, during which it missed qualifying games.

"Sports is alive and well in Iraq," Basile said.

But the leadership of the movement remains a contentious issue.

In a special report, "Results in Iraq: 100 Days Toward Security and Freedom," the White House cited "10 Signs of Cultural Rebirth." The No. 1 sign: "Iraqi Olympic Committee is reconstituted without fear from Uday Hussein," a statement it supported by a May 15 comment from former national team soccer player and torture victim Sharar Haydar. Identified as president of the Free Iraq Olympic group, Haydar was quoted by the Bush Administration as telling a London newspaper, "The Iraqi teams used to produce the champions of Asia in many sports. They have declined since the arrival of Uday. Now we want to rebuild them with the help of the international community."

Yet Haydar feels he has been excluded from helping rebuild Iraqi sports. The White House report was released last week -- despite Haydar, like Al-Diwan, having clashed with Eberly over the choice of Al-Taey a month earlier. In July, Haydar left his position on a 24-member interim Iraqi sports council that had been created by the United States after suggesting Al-Taey could not be trusted. He later told ESPN.com, "Uday's dead, but his tail is still there."

As for evidence of Al-Taey's recent links to Uday, Al-Diwan said he has a proposal for improving Iraqi sports, signed by Al-Taey, that was submitted to Uday last November. The proposal is with a friend of his in Baghdad, he said.

"I don't know why Mr. Eberly supports this guy," Al-Diwan said. "He didn't give any of us a chance to explain ourselves. We are his advisers, but he doesn't listen."

Eberly said that he has heard of Al-Taey's alleged proposal but that he has not seen it and would not be concerned if it exists.

"There was only one source of funds for sports in Iraq, and that was Uday," Eberly said.

Al-Diwan, no longer on the U.S. payroll, plans to return to Iraq soon to work with the athletes and mobilize support against Al-Taey in any effort to become head of the new Olympic committee. Elections are expected in September through a vote of sports federations.

Al-Taey also could be replaced as deputy of the sports ministry if the Iraqi people don't want him, Eberly said. His appointment to that job is on a temporary basis, and potentially he could lose his power as the Coalition Provisional Authority turns over more control of the nation to an Iraqi ruling council now bogged down in other non-sports issues.

"People should rest assured that his is an interim position," said Eberly, who moved back to Washington, D.C., recently to run the sports ministry from afar, with help from deputies in Baghdad.

Michel Filliau, the International Olympic Committee manager for relations with national Olympic committees, has said the IOC would accept anyone, including Al-Taey, who was properly elected as the new Olympic committee president in that country.

Tom Farrey is a senior writer with ESPN.com. He can be reached at tom.farrey@espn3.com.