"Or do you believe that all this talk about Saddam's Regime being the most repressive in the modern world is just so much propaganda - The UN, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, etc, are all deluded - they've got it all wrong?"

I doubt that the organisations you mention make such a claim at all. They list the repressions and abuses found in the country - and there are many, but I have never seen a statement from any of them that Iraq is "the most repressive in the modern world". I am sure that there are many countries which abuse their citizens in equal measure, but the world seems happy enough to leave them alone (or quite often support them) unless they have another reason to attack - and all of a sudden human rights abuses become extremely important.