| Revision as of 02:26, 28 August 2006 view sourceGHe (talk | contribs)Rollbackers7,557 editsm JS: Reverted edits by 206.188.102.30 to last version by Soosed← Previous edit | Revision as of 02:27, 28 August 2006 view source 206.188.102.30 (talk)No edit summaryNext edit → | ||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| please stop deleting what i am writing. im just an honest guy here trying to have some legal humor. gees. i bet yur against bubble baths. | |||
| {{Infobox_President | name=<big><big>'''Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti''' <br> '''صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريتي'''</big></big> | |||
| | image=Saddam Hussein (107).jpg|300px | |||
| | nationality=] | |||
| | order= <center>] of the ]</center><br> <center>5th ]</center> | |||
| | term_start=]] | |||
| | term_end=]] | |||
| | predecessor=] | |||
| | successor= ] | |||
| | birth_date=] ] | |||
| | birth_place=], ] | |||
| | spouse= | |||
| | party=] | |||
| | vicepresident= | |||
| }} | |||
| '''Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti''' (]: {{ar|صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريتي}}, ''{{ArabDIN|ṣaddām ḥusayn ʿabdu-l-maǧīd al-tikrītī}}''<ref name="ref1">''Saddam'', pronounced {{IPA|}} (see ] for details), is his personal name, means ''the stubborn one'' or ''he who confronts'' in Arabic (in Iraq also a term for a car's ]). ''Hussein'' (Sometimes also transliterated as '''''Hussayn''''' or '''''Hussain''''') is not a ] in the Western sense but a ]; it is his father's given personal name; ''Abd al-Majid'' his grandfather's, and ''al-Tikriti'' means he was born and raised in (or near) ]. He is commonly referred to as ''Saddam Hussein'', or ''Saddam'' for short. The observation that referring to the deposed Iraqi president as only ''Saddam'' may be derogatory or inappropriate is based on the mistaken assumption that Hussein is a family name: thus, the '']'' regularly refers to him as "Mr. Hussein", while ] prefers to use simple ''Saddam'' . A full discussion can be found .</ref>; born ], ]<ref name="ref2">Under his government, this date was his official date of birth. His real date of birth was never recorded, but it is believed to be a date between 1935 and 1939. This is because precise dates of birth were often not recorded in the region where he was born, and peasant children, such as Saddam, were often given a nominal birth date of ], which is why his birth date is sometimes given as ] ]. From Con Coughlin, ''Saddam The Secret Life'' Pan Books, 2003 (ISBN 0330393103).</ref>), was the ] of ] from 1979 until April 9, 2003, when he was deposed in the ]-led ]. | |||
| A leading member of the Iraqi ], which espoused ] ], economic ], and ], Saddam played a key role in the 1968 ] that brought the ] to long-term power. | |||
| As vice president under his cousin, the frail ], Saddam tightly controlled conflict between the ] and the ] by creating repressive security forces and cementing his own firm authority over the apparatus of government. | |||
| As president, Saddam ran an ] government and maintained power through the ] (1980–1988) and the ] (1991). Saddam's government repressed movements that it deemed threatening, particularly those of ethnic or religious groups that sought ] or ]. While he remained a popular hero among many Arabs for standing up to ] and the ], some in the international community continued to view Saddam with deep suspicion following the 1991 ]. | |||
| Saddam was deposed by the United States and its allies during the ]. Captured by U.S. forces on ] ], Saddam is standing trial charged with ] before the ], established by the ]. | |||
| ==Youth== | |||
| {{Wikiquote}} | |||
| Saddam Hussein was born in the town of ], 8 miles (13 km) from the Iraqi town of ], to a family of shepherds. His mother, Subha Tulfah al-Mussallat, named her newborn son "Saddam," which in Arabic means "one who confronts." He never knew his father, Hussein 'Abd al-Majid, who died or disappeared 6 months before Saddam was born. Shortly afterward, Saddam's thirteen-year-old brother died of cancer, leaving his mother severely depressed in the final months of the pregnancy. Saddam's mother also tried to abort the baby by attempting ]. The infant Saddam was sent to the family of his maternal uncle, ], until he was three. <ref name="ref5">From Elisabeth Bumiller's interview of Jerrold M. Grumpkin, the founder of the Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior at the ] in the ''New York Times'' (] ]) on the importance of events during Saddam Hussein's youth. It can be read online at .</ref> | |||
| His mother remarried, and Saddam gained three half-brothers through this marriage. His stepfather, Ibrahim al-Hassan, treated Saddam harshly after his return. He was abusive and forced the young boy to steal chickens and sheep for resale. | |||
| At about the age of ten, Saddam fled the family and returned to live with his uncle Kharaillah Tulfah the father of his future wife, who was a devout ] Muslim, in Baghdad. Later in his life, relatives from his native Tikrit would become some of his closest advisors and supporters. According to Saddam, he learned many things from his uncle who was a prominent leader in the failed 1941 Nazi backed coup of Iraq, especially the lesson that he should never back down from his enemies, no matter how superior their numbers or capabilities. Under the guidance of his uncle, he attended a ] secondary school in Baghdad. In 1957, at age 20, Saddam joined the revolutionary ] Ba'ath Party, of which his uncle was a supporter. | |||
| Revolutionary sentiment was characteristic of the era in Iraq and throughout the ]. The stranglehold of the old elites (the conservative ], established families, and merchants) was breaking down in Iraq. Moreover, the populist pan-Arab nationalism of ] in ] would profoundly influence the young Ba'athist, even up to the present day. The rise of Nasser foreshadowed a wave of revolutions throughout the Middle East in the 1950s and 1960s, which would see the collapse of the monarchies of Iraq, Egypt, and ]. Nasser challenged the ] and ], nationalized the ], and strove to modernize Egypt and unite the Arab world politically. | |||
| In 1958, a year after Saddam had joined the Ba'ath party, army officers led by ] overthrew ]. The Ba'athists opposed the new ], and in 1959, Saddam was involved in the attempted United States-backed plot to ] Prime Minister Qassim. He was sentenced to death '']''. Saddam studied law at the ] during his exile. | |||
| Army officers with ties to the Ba'ath Party overthrew Qassim in a coup in 1963. However, the new government was torn by factionalism and ousted within eight months. Saddam returned to Iraq, but was imprisoned in 1964 when an anti-Ba'ath group led by ] took power. He escaped prison in 1967 and quickly came to be a leading member of the party. The Baathists overthrew the government of Rahman Arif in the bloody coup of 1968 with Saddam eventually taking the helm. According to biographers, Saddam never forgot the tensions within the first Ba'athist government, which informed his measures to promote Ba'ath party unity as well as his ruthless resolve to maintain power and programs to ensure social stability. | |||
| ==Consolidation of power== | |||
| ] (right)]] | |||
| ===Modernization=== | |||
| Saddam consolidated power in a nation riddled with profound tensions. Long before Saddam, Iraq had been split along social, ethnic, religious, and economic fault lines: ] versus ], Arab versus ], ] versus ], ] versus ]. Stable rule in a country rife with factionalism required the improvement of living standards. Saddam moved up the ranks in the new government by aiding attempts to strengthen and unify the Ba'ath party and taking a leading role in addressing the country's major domestic problems and expanding the party's following. | |||
| Saddam actively fostered the modernization of the Iraqi economy along with the creation of a strong security apparatus to prevent coups within the power structure and insurrections apart from it. Ever concerned with broadening his base of support among the diverse elements of Iraqi society and mobilizing mass support, he closely followed the administration of state welfare and development programs. | |||
| At the center of this strategy was Iraq's ]. On ], ], Saddam Hussein oversaw the seizure of international oil interests, which, at the time, had a ] on the country's oil. A year later, world oil prices rose dramatically as a result of the ], and skyrocketing revenues enabled Saddam to expand his agenda. | |||
| Within just a few years, Iraq was providing social services that were unprecedented among Middle Eastern countries. Saddam established and controlled the "National Campaign for the Eradication of Illiteracy" and the campaign for "Compulsory Free Education in Iraq," and largely under his auspices, the government established universal free schooling up to the highest education levels; hundreds of thousands learned to read in the years following the initiation of the program. The government also supported families of soldiers, granted free hospitalization to everyone, and gave subsidies to farmers. Iraq created one of the most modernized public-health systems in the Middle East, earning Saddam an award from the ] (UNESCO). | |||
| To diversify the ] ], Saddam implemented a national infrastructure campaign that made great progress in building ]s, promoting ], and developing other ]. The campaign revolutionized Iraq's energy industries. Electricity was brought to nearly every city in Iraq, and many outlying areas. | |||
| Before the 1970s, most of Iraq's people lived in the countryside, where Saddam himself was born and raised, and roughly two-thirds were ]s. But this number would decrease quickly during the 1970's as the country ploughed much of its oil profits into industrial expansion. | |||
| Nevertheless, Saddam focused intensely on fostering loyalty to the Ba'athist government in the rural areas. After nationalizing foreign oil interests, Saddam supervised the modernization of the countryside, mechanizing ] on a large scale, and distributing land to peasant farmers.<ref name="ref6">For further details see Khadduri, Majid. ''Socialist Iraq''. The Middle East Institute, Washington, D.C., 1978.</ref> The Ba'athists established farm ]s, in which profits were distributed according to the labors of the individual and the unskilled were trained. The government's commitment to agrarian reform was demonstrated by the doubling of expenditures for agricultural development in 1974-1975. Moreover, agrarian reform in Iraq improved the living standard of the peasantry and increased production, though not to the levels Saddam had hoped for. | |||
| Saddam became personally associated with Ba'athist welfare and economic development programs in the eyes of many Iraqis, widening his appeal both within his traditional base and among new sectors of the population. These programs were part of a combination of "]" tactics to enhance support in the working class, the peasantry, and within the party and the government bureaucracy. | |||
| Saddam's organizational prowess was credited with Iraq's rapid pace of development in the 1970s; development went forward at such a fevered pitch that two million persons from other Arab countries and ] worked in Iraq to meet the growing ] for ]. | |||
| In 1976, Saddam rose to the position of general in the Iraqi armed forces. He rapidly became the ] of the government. At the time Saddam was considered an enemy of ] and radical ]. Saddam was integral to U.S. policy in the region, a policy which sought to weaken the influence of Iran and the Soviet Union. As Iraq's weak and elderly President ] became increasingly unable to execute his duties, Saddam took on an increasingly prominent role as the face of the government both internally and externally. He soon became the architect of Iraq's foreign policy and represented the nation in all diplomatic situations. He was the de facto ruler of Iraq some years before he formally came to power in 1979. He slowly began to consolidate his power over Iraq's government and the Ba'ath party. Relationships with fellow party members were carefully cultivated, and Saddam soon gained a powerful circle of support within the party. | |||
| ===Succession=== | |||
| In 1979 President al-Bakr started to make treaties with ], also under Ba'athist leadership, that would lead to unification between the two countries. Syrian President ] would become deputy leader in a union, and this would drive Saddam to obscurity. Saddam, the Vice President and ] ruler of Iraq, acted to secure his grip on power. He forced the ailing al-Bakr to resign on ], ], and formally assumed the presidency. | |||
| Shortly afterwards, he convened an assembly of Ba'ath party leaders on ], ]. During the assembly, which he ordered videotaped, Saddam claimed to have found spies and conspirators within the Ba'ath Party and read out the names of 68 members who he thought could oppose him. These members were labeled "disloyal" and were removed from the room one by one and taken into custody. After the list was read, Saddam congratulated those still seated in the room for their past and future loyalty. The 68 people arrested at the meeting were subsequently put on trial, and 22 were sentenced to execution for treason. | |||
| ==Saddam Hussein as a secular leader== | |||
| Saddam saw himself as a social revolutionary and a modernizer, following the model of Nasser, President of Egypt. To the consternation of Islamic conservatives, his government gave women added freedoms and offered them high-level government and industry jobs. Saddam also created a Western-style legal system, making Iraq the only country in the ] region not ruled according to traditional Islamic law (]). Saddam abolished the Sharia law courts, except for personal injury claims. | |||
| Domestic conflict impeded Saddam's modernizing projects. Iraqi society is divided along lines of language, religion and ethnicity; Saddam's government rested on the support of the 20% minority of largely ], peasant, and lower middle class Sunni Muslims, continuing a pattern that dates back at least to the British ] authority's reliance on them as administrators. | |||
| The Shi'a majority were long a source of opposition to the government due to its secular policies, and the Ba'ath Party was increasingly concerned about potential Sh'ia ] influence following the ] of 1979. The Kurds of northern Iraq (who are Sunni Muslims but not Arabs) were also permanently hostile to the Ba'athist party's Arabizing tendencies. To maintain his regime Saddam Hussein tended either to provide them with benefits so as to co-opt them into the regime, or to take repressive measures against them. The major instruments for accomplishing this control were the ] and ] organizations. Beginning in 1974, ], a close associate of Saddam, commanded the People's Army, which was responsible for internal security. As the Ba'ath Party's paramilitary, the People's Army acted as a counterweight against any coup attempts by the regular armed forces. In addition to the People's Army, the Department of General Intelligence (]) was the most notorious arm of the state security system, feared for its use of ] and assassination. It was commanded by ], Saddam's younger half-brother. Since 1982, foreign observers believed that this department operated both at home and abroad in their mission to seek out and eliminate perceived opponents of Saddam Hussein. | |||
| Saddam justified Iraqi nationalism by claiming a unique role of Iraq in the history of the Arab world. As president, Saddam made frequent references to the ] period, when Baghdad was the political, cultural, and economic capital of the Arab world. He also promoted Iraq's pre-Islamic role as the ancient cradle of civilization ], alluding to such historical figures as ] and ]. He devoted resources to archaeological explorations. In effect, Saddam sought to combine pan-Arabism and Iraqi nationalism, by promoting the vision of an Arab world united and led by Iraq. | |||
| As a sign of his consolidation of power, Saddam's ] pervaded Iraqi society. Thousands of portraits, posters, statues and murals were erected in his honor all over Iraq. His face could be seen on the sides of office buildings, schools, airports, and shops, as well as on Iraqi currency. Saddam's personality cult reflected his efforts to appeal to the various elements in Iraqi society. He appeared in the costumes of the ], the traditional clothes of the Iraqi peasant (which he essentially wore during his childhood), and even Kurdish clothing, but also appeared in Western suits, projecting the image of an urbane and modern leader. Sometimes he would also be portrayed as a devout Muslim, wearing full headdress and robe, praying toward ]. | |||
| ==Foreign affairs== | |||
| In foreign affairs, Saddam sought to have Iraq play a leading role in the Middle East. Iraq signed an aid pact with the ] in 1972, and arms were sent along with several thousand advisers. However, the 1978 executions of Iraqi Communists and a shift of trade toward the West strained Iraqi relations with the Soviet Union, leading to a more Western orientation from then until the Gulf War in 1991, though Saddam continued to receive the largest share of his armaments from the Soviet bloc. | |||
| He made a state visit to ] in 1976, cementing close ties with some French business and conservative political circles. Saddam led Arab opposition to the 1979 ] between Egypt and Israel. In 1975 he negotiated an accord with ] that contained Iraqi concessions on border disputes. In return, Iran agreed to stop supporting opposition Kurds in Iraq. | |||
| Saddam initiated Iraq's ] project in the 1980s, with French assistance. The first Iraqi ] was named by the French "]", a ] formed from "]", the name of the French experimental reactor that served as template and "Irak", the French spelling of "Iraq". It was destroyed by an ], because Israel suspected it was going to start producing weapons-grade nuclear material. | |||
| After Saddam had negotiated the 1975 treaty with Iran, ] withdrew support for the Kurds, who suffered a total defeat. Nearly from its founding as a modern state in 1920, Iraq has had to deal with Kurdish ] in the northern part of the country. Saddam did negotiate an agreement in 1970 with separatist Kurdish leaders, giving them autonomy, but the agreement broke down. The result was brutal fighting between the government and Kurdish groups and even Iraqi bombing of Kurdish villages in Iran, which caused Iraqi relations with Iran to deteriorate. | |||
| ===The Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988)=== | |||
| {{main|Iran-Iraq War}} | |||
| In 1979 Iran's Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was overthrown by the ], thus giving way to an ] led by the ]. The influence of revolutionary Shi'ite Islam grew apace in the region, particularly in countries with large Shi'ite populations, especially Iraq. Saddam feared that radical Islamic ideas — hostile to his secular rule — were rapidly spreading inside his country among the majority Shi'ite population. | |||
| There had also been bitter enmity between Saddam and Khomeini since the 1970s. Khomeini, having been ]d from Iran in 1964, took up residence in Iraq, at the Shi'ite holy city of ]. There he involved himself with Iraqi Shi'ites and developed a strong, worldwide religious and political following. Under pressure from the Shah, who had agreed to a rapprochement between Iraq and Iran in 1975, Saddam agreed to expel Khomeini in 1978. | |||
| After Khomeini gained power, skirmishes between Iraq and revolutionary Iran occurred for ten months over the sovereignty of the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway, which divides the two countries. During this period, Saddam Hussein continually maintained that it was in Iraq's interest not to engage with Iran, and that it was in the interests of both nations to maintain peaceful relations. However, in a private meeting with ], Iraq's permanent ambassador to the United Nations, he revealed that he intended to invade and occupy a large part of Iran within months. Iraq invaded Iran by attacking ] of ] and entering the oil-rich Iranian land of ], which also has a sizeable Arab minority, on ], ]. Saddam declared Khuzestan a new ] of Iraq. | |||
| In the first days of the war, there was heavy ground fighting around strategic ports as Iraq launched an attack on Khuzestan. After making some initial gains, Iraq's troops began to suffer losses from ] attacks by Iran. By 1982, Iraq was on the defensive and looking for ways to end the war. At this point, Saddam asked his ministers for candid advice. Health Minister Riyadh Ibrahim suggested that Saddam temporarily step down to promote peace negotiations. Ibrahim’s chopped up body was delivered to his wife the next day. | |||
| Iraq quickly found itself bogged down in one of the longest and most destructive ] of the twentieth century. During the war, Iraq used ] against Iranian forces and Kurdish separatists. | |||
| On ], ], the Kurdish town of ] was attacked with a mix of ] and ]s, killing 5,000 ], and maiming, disfiguring, or seriously debilitating 10,000 more. (''see'' ]) . The attack occurred in conjunction with the 1988 ] designed to reassert central control of the mostly Kurdish population of areas of northern Iraq and defeat the Kurdish ] rebel forces. The United States maintains that Saddam ordered the attack to terrorize the Kurdish population in northern Iraq (), but Saddam's regime claimed at the time that Iran was responsible for the attack.<ref name="ref14">ref: Stephen C. Pelletiere, New York Times, ] ] : A War Crime or an Act of War?</ref> | |||
| Saddam reached out to other Arab governments for cash and political support during the war, particularly after its oil industry severely suffered at the hands of the ] in the Gulf. Iraq successfully gained some military and financial aid, as well as diplomatic and moral support, from the United States, the Soviet Union, and France, which together feared the prospects of the expansion of revolutionary Iran's influence in the region. The Iranians, claiming that the international community should force Iraq to pay the casualty of the war to Iran, refused any suggestions for a cease-fire. They continued the war until 1988, hoping to bring down Saddam's secular regime and instigate a Shi'ite rebellion in Iraq. | |||
| The bloody eight-year war ended in a stalemate. There were hundreds of thousands of casualties, perhaps upwards of 1.7 million died on both sides. Both economies, previously healthy and expanding, were left in ruins. | |||
| Saddam borrowed a tremendous amount of money from other Arab states during the 1980s to fight Iran and was stuck with a war debt of roughly $75 billion. Faced with rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure, Saddam desperately sought out cash once again, this time for postwar reconstruction. The desperate search for foreign credit would eventually humiliate the strongman who had long sought to dominate Arab nationalism throughout the Middle East. | |||
| ===Tensions with Kuwait=== | |||
| The end of the war with Iran served to deepen ] tensions between Iraq and its wealthy neighbor ]. Saddam saw his war with Iran as having spared Kuwait from the imminent threat of Iranian domination. Since the struggle with Iran had been fought for the benefit of the other Gulf Arab states as much as for Iraq, he argued, a share of Iraqi debt should be forgiven. Saddam urged the Kuwaitis to forgive the Iraqi debt accumulated in the war, some $30 billion, but the Kuwaitis refused, claiming that Saddam was responsible to pay off his debts for the war he started. | |||
| Also to raise money for postwar reconstruction, Saddam pushed oil-exporting countries to raise oil prices by cutting back oil production. Kuwait refused to cut production. In addition to refusing the request, Kuwait spearheaded the opposition in ] to the cuts that Saddam had requested. Kuwait was pumping large amounts of oil, and thus keeping prices low, when Iraq needed to sell high-priced oil from its wells to pay off a huge debt. | |||
| Meanwhile, Saddam showed disdain for the Kuwait-Iraq boundary line (imposed on Iraq by British imperial officials in 1922) because it almost completely cut Iraq off from the sea. One of the few articles of faith uniting the political scene in a nation rife with sharp social, ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic divides was the belief that Kuwait had no right to even exist in the first place. For at least half a century, Iraqi nationalists were espousing emphatically the belief that Kuwait was historically an integral part of Iraq, and that Kuwait had only come into being through the maneuverings of British ]. | |||
| The colossal extent of Kuwaiti oil reserves also intensified tensions in the region. The oil reserves of Kuwait (with a population of a mere 2 million next to Iraq's 25) were roughly equal to those of Iraq. Taken together, Iraq and Kuwait sat on top of some 20% of the world's known oil reserves; ], by comparison, holds 25%. | |||
| The Kuwaiti monarchy further angered Saddam by allegedly ] oil out of wells that Iraq considered to be within its disputed border with Kuwait. Given that at the time Iraq was not regarded as a ] state, Saddam was able to complain about the alleged slant drilling to the ]. Although this had continued for years, Saddam now needed oil money to stem a looming economic crisis. Saddam still had an experienced and well-equipped army, which he used to influence regional affairs. He later ordered troops to the Iraq-Kuwait border. | |||
| As Iraq-Kuwait relations rapidly deteriorated, Saddam was receiving conflicting information about how the U.S. would respond to the prospects of an invasion. For one, Washington had been taking measures to cultivate a constructive relationship with Iraq for roughly a decade. {{fact}} The U.S. also sent billions of dollars to Saddam to keep him from forming a strong alliance with the Soviets. <ref name="ref7">A free-access on-line archive relating to U.S.-Iraq relations in the 1980s is offered by ''The National Security Archive'' of the ]. It can be read on line at . The Mount Holyoke International Relations Program also provides a free-access document briefing on U.S.-Iraq relations (1904 - present); this can be accessed on line at .</ref> | |||
| U.S. ambassador to Iraq ] met with Saddam in an emergency meeting on ], ], where the Iraqi leader stated his intention to continue talks. U.S. officials attempted to maintain a conciliatory line with Iraq, indicating that while ] and ] did not want force used, they would not take any position on the Iraq-Kuwait boundary dispute and did not want to become involved. The transcript, however, does not show any explicit statement of approval of, acceptance of, or foreknowledge of the invasion. Later, Iraq and Kuwait then met for a final negotiation session, which failed. Saddam then sent his troops into Kuwait. | |||
| ==The Gulf War== | |||
| {{main|Gulf War}} | |||
| On ], ], Saddam invaded and ] the oil-rich ] of Kuwait. U.S. President ] responded cautiously for the first several days after the invasion. On the one hand, Kuwait, prior to this point, had been a virulent enemy of Israel and was on friendly terms with the Soviets. On the other hand, Iraq controlled ten percent of the world's crude oil reserves and with the invasion had doubled the percentage. U.S. interests were heavily invested in the region,<ref name="ref8">For a statement asserting the overriding importance of oil to U.S. national security and the U.S. economy, see, e.g., the declassified document, "Responding to Iraqi Aggression in the Gulf," The White House, National Security Directive (NSD 54), top secret, ], ]. This document can be read on line in at .</ref> and the invasion triggered fears that the ], and therefore the world economy, was at stake. The ] was also concerned. Britain had a close historical relationship with Kuwait, dating back to British ] in the region, and also benefited from billions of dollars in Kuwaiti investment. ] ] underscored the risk the invasion posed to Western interests to Bush in an in-person meeting one day after the invasion, famously telling him, "Don't go wobbly on me, George." | |||
| Cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union made possible the passage of resolutions in the ] giving Iraq a deadline to leave Kuwait and approving the use of force if Saddam did not comply with the timetable. U.S. officials feared that Iraq would retaliate against oil-rich ], a close ally of Washington since the 1940s, for the Saudis' opposition to the invasion of Kuwait. Accordingly, the U.S. and a group of allies, including countries as diverse as ], ] and ], deployed massive amounts of troops along the Saudi border with Kuwait and Iraq in order to encircle the Iraqi army, the largest in the Middle East. | |||
| During the period of negotiations and threats following the invasion, Saddam focused renewed attention on the ] problem by promising to withdraw his forces from Kuwait if Israel would relinquish the occupied territories in the ], the ], and the ]. Saddam's proposal further split the Arab world, pitting U.S. and Western-supported Arab states against the Palestinians. The allies ultimately rejected any connection between the Kuwait crisis and Palestinian issues. | |||
| Saddam ignored the Security Council deadline. With unanimous backing from the Security Council, a U.S.-led coalition launched round-the-clock missile and aerial attacks on Iraq, beginning ], ]. Israel, though subjected to attack by Iraqi missiles, refrained from retaliating in order not to provoke Arab states into leaving the coalition. A ground force comprised largely of U.S. and British armored and infantry divisions ejected Saddam's army from Kuwait in February 1991 and occupied the southern portion of Iraq as far as the ]. Before leaving, Saddam ordered the oil wells across Kuwait to be torched (''see'' ]). | |||
| On ], ], referring to the conflict, Bush announced: "What is at stake is more than one small country, it is a big idea - a ], where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind: peace and security, freedom, and the rule of law." | |||
| In the end, the over-manned and under-equipped Iraqi army proved unable to compete on the battlefield with the highly mobile coalition land forces and their overpowering air support. Some 175,000 Iraqis were taken prisoner and casualties were estimated at approximately 20,000 according to U.S. data, with other sources pinning the number as high as 100,000. As part of the cease-fire agreement, Iraq agreed to abandon all chemical and biological weapons and allow UN observers to inspect the sites. UN trade sanctions would remain in effect until Iraq complied with all terms. | |||
| ===Persian Gulf War aftermath=== | |||
| Iraq's ethnic and religious divisions, together with the resulting postwar devastation, laid the groundwork for new rebellions within the country. In the aftermath of the fighting, social and ethnic unrest among Shi'a Muslims, Kurds, and dissident military units threatened the stability of Saddam's government. Uprisings erupted in the Kurdish north and Shi'a southern and central parts of Iraq, but were ruthlessly repressed. In 2005 the BBC reported that as many as 30,000 persons had been killed during the 1991 uprisings . | |||
| The United States, which had urged Iraqis to rise up against Saddam, did nothing to assist the rebellions beyond enforcing the ]. U.S. ally ] opposed any prospect of Kurdish independence, and the Saudis and other conservative Arab states feared an Iran-style Shi'a revolution. Saddam, having survived the immediate crisis in the wake of defeat, was left firmly in control of Iraq, although the country never recovered either economically or militarily from the Persian Gulf War. Saddam routinely cited his survival as "proof" that Iraq had in fact won the war against America. This message earned Saddam a great deal of popularity in many sectors of the Arab world. | |||
| Saddam increasingly portrayed himself as a devout ], in an effort to co-opt the conservative religious segments of society. Some elements of Sharia law were re-introduced (such as the 2001 edict imposing the death penalty for ], ] and ], the legalization of "honor killings" and the ritual phrase "]" , in Saddam's handwriting, was added to the national flag.). | |||
| ==1991–2003== | |||
| Relations between the United States and Iraq remained tense following the Gulf War. In April of 1993 the Iraqi Intelligence Service, it is alleged, attempted to assassinate former President George H. W. Bush during a visit to Kuwait. Kuwaiti security forces apprehended a group of Iraqis at the scene of an alleged bombing attempt. On ], ], the U.S. launched a missile attack targeting Baghdad intelligence headquarters in retaliation for the attack against former President Bush . | |||
| The UN ] placed upon Iraq when it invaded Kuwait were not lifted, blocking Iraqi oil exports. This caused immense hardship in Iraq and virtually destroyed the Iraqi economy and state infrastructure. Only smuggling across the Syrian border, and humanitarian aid ameliorated the humanitarian crisis. Limited amounts of income from the United Nations started flowing into Iraq through the UN ]. | |||
| U.S. officials continued to accuse Saddam Hussein of violating the terms of the Gulf War's cease fire, by developing ] and other banned weaponry, refusing to give out adequate information on these weapons, and violating the UN-imposed sanctions and "no-fly zones." Isolated military strikes by U.S. and British forces continued on Iraq sporadically, the largest being ] in 1998. Charges of Iraqi impediment to UN inspection of sites thought to contain illegal weapons were claimed as the reasons for crises between 1997 and 1998, culminating in intensive U.S. and British missile strikes on Iraq, ]-19, 1998. After two years of intermittent activity, U.S. and British warplanes struck harder at sites near Baghdad in February, 2001. | |||
| Saddam's support base of Tikriti tribesmen, family members, and other supporters were divided after the war. In the following years, this contributed to the government's increasingly repressive and arbitrary nature. Domestic repression inside Iraq grew worse, and Saddam's sons, ] and ], became increasingly powerful and carried out a private reign of terror. They likely had a leading hand when, in August 1995, two of Saddam Hussein's sons-in-law (] and ]), who held high positions in the Iraqi military, defected to Jordan. Both were killed after returning to Iraq the following February. | |||
| Iraqi cooperation with UN weapons inspection teams was questioned on several occasions during the 1990s and ] chief weapons inspector ] withdrew his team from Iraq in November 1998 citing Iraqi non-cooperation, without the permission of the UN, although a UN spokesman subsequently stated that "the bulk of" the Security Council supported | |||
| the move . After a crisis ensued and the U.S. contemplated military action against Iraq, Saddam resumed cooperation. The inspectors returned, but were withdrawn again on ] <ref name="ref9">Richard BUTLER, ''Saddam Defiant'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 2000, p. 224</ref>. Butler had given a report the ] on ] in which he expressed dissatisfaction with the level of compliance. Three out of five of the Permanent Members of the U.N. Security Council subsequently objected to Butler's withdrawal. | |||
| Saddam continued to loom large in American consciousness as a major threat to Western allies such as Israel and oil-rich Saudi Arabia, to Western oil supplies from the Gulf states, and to Middle East stability generally. U.S. President ] (1993-2001), maintained economic sanctions, as well as air patrols in the "]". In October 1998, President Clinton signed the ]. The act calls for "regime change" in Iraq and authorizes the funding of opposition groups. Following the issuance of a UN report detailing Iraq's failure to cooperate with inspections, Clinton authorized ], a three-day air-strike to hamper Saddam's weapons-production facilities and hit sites related to weapons of mass destruction. Iraq responded by expelling UN inspectors. | |||
| Several journalists have reported on Saddam's ties to anti-Israeli and Islamic ] prior to 2000. Saddam is also known to have had contacts with Palestinian terrorist groups. Early in 2002, Saddam told ], head of the Palestinian political office, he would raise the sum granted to each family of Palestinians who die as suicide bombers in the uprising against Israel to $25,000 instead of $10,000. Some news reports detailed links to terrorists, including ], ], ] and ]. However, no conclusive evidence whatsoever concerning links between Saddam and bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization has ever been produced by any US government official. The official assessment by the U.S. Intelligence Community is that friendly contacts between ] over the years did not lead to a collaborative relationship, although the issue is still being debated in some circles. Commenting on the ], former 9/11 Commission member ], according to ], "was careful to say that new documents translated last night by ABC News did not prove Saddam Hussein played a role in any way in plotting the attacks of September 11, 2001," however, he contended that one of the documents shows that "Saddam was a significant enemy of the United States." The document in question, ABC cautioned, "is handwritten and has no official seal," and "does not establish that the two parties did in fact enter into an operational relationship." | |||
| ==2003 Invasion of Iraq== | |||
| ], satellite channels worldwide broadcast footage of the besieged Iraqi leader touring the streets of his bombed capital. Smoke was emanating from oil fires in the distance. As U.S.-led ground troops were marching toward the capital, a smiling Saddam Hussein greeted cheering, chanting crowds in the streets of Baghdad.<ref name="ref10">For further details see Globe and Mail Update, "Hussein does Baghdad walkabout" ] ].</ref>]] | |||
| {{main|2003 Invasion of Iraq}} | |||
| The domestic political situation changed in the U.S. after the ], which bolstered the influence of the ] faction in the presidential administration and throughout Washington. In his January 2002 state-of-the-union message to Congress, President ] spoke of an "]" comprised of ], ], and Iraq. Moreover, Bush announced that he would possibly take action to topple the Iraqi government. Bush stated, "The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for over a decade." "Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror," said Bush.<ref name="ref11">The full text of Bush's 2002 State of the Union address can be read on line (BBC News) at .</ref> | |||
| As the war was looming on ], ], Saddam Hussein talked with ] anchor ] for more than three hours — his first interview with a U.S. reporter in over a decade.<ref name="ref12">Dan Rather's interview with Saddam Hussein leading up to the U.S.-led 2003 invasion of Iraq on ] can be read on line (CBSNEWS.com) at .</ref> CBS aired the taped interview later that week. | |||
| The Iraqi government and military collapsed within three weeks of the beginning of the ] on ]. The United States made at least two attempts to kill Saddam with targeted air strikes, but both failed to hit their target, killing civilians instead. By the beginning of April, Coalition forces occupied much of Iraq. The resistance of the much-weakened Iraqi Army either crumbled or shifted to ] tactics, and it appeared that Saddam had lost control of Iraq. He was last seen in a video which purported to show him in the Baghdad suburbs surrounded by supporters. When Baghdad fell to the Coalition on ], Saddam was still preparing to leave. | |||
| ===Pursuit and capture=== | |||
| ====Pursuit ==== | |||
| As the US forces were occupying the ] and other central landmarks and ministries on ], Saddam Hussein had emerged from his command ] beneath the ] district of northern Baghdad and greeted excited members of the local public. In the ] Panorama programme ''Saddam on the Run'' witnesses were found for these and other later events (see ''Note 15''). This impromptu walk about was probably his last and his reasons for doing what was certainly extremely dangerous and almost cost him his freedom, if not his life, are unclear. It is possible that he wished to take what he thought might be his last opportunity to greet his people as their president. The walkabout was captured on film and broadcast several days after the event on ] and was also witnessed by ordinary people who corroborated the date afterwards. He was accompanied by | |||
| bodyguards and other loyal supporters including at least one of his sons and his personal secretary. | |||
| After the walk about Saddam returned to his bunker and made preparations for his family. According to his eldest daughter ] he was by this point aware of the "betrayal" of a number of key figures involved in the defence of Baghdad. It appears there was a lot of confusion between Iraqi commanders in different sectors of the capital and communication between them and Saddam and between Saddam and his family were becoming increasingly difficult. This version of events is supported by ] (at the time, referred to as '''"Baghdad Bob"''' and '''"Comical Ali"''' due to his consistent denials that US and British forces had made any progress towards Baghdad) former Information Minister who struggled to know what was actually happening after the US captured ]. | |||
| The Americans had meanwhile started receiving rumours that Saddam was in Al A'Zamiyah and at dawn on ] they dispatched 300 ] to capture or kill him. As the Americans closed in, and realising that Baghdad was lost, Saddam arranged for cars to collect his eldest daughters ] and ] and drive them to ]. His wife ] and youngest daughter ] had already left Iraq several weeks prior. Raghad Hussein stated in an interview for ''Panorama''; | |||
| *"After about midday my Dad sent cars from his private collection for us. We were told to get in. We had almost lost contact with my father and brothers because things had got out of hand. I saw with my own eyes the army withdrawing and the terrified faces of the Iraqi soldiers who, unfortunately, were running away and looking around them. Missiles were falling on my left and my right - they were not more than fifty or one hundred metres away. We moved in small cars. I had a gun between my feet just in case." (Attributed to ]) | |||
| Then according to the testimony of a former bodyguard Saddam Hussein dismissed almost his entire staff; | |||
| *"The last time I saw him he said: My sons, each of you go to your homes. We said: Sir, we want to stay with you. Why should we go? But he insisted. Even his son, ], was crying a little. He was trying not to show his feelings. He was stressed but he didn't want to destroy the morale of the people who were watching him, but inside, he was definitely broken." (Attributed to an anonymous former bodyguard) | |||
| After this he changed out of his uniform and with only two bodyguards to guard him, left Baghdad in a plain white ] and made his way to a specially prepared bunker in ] on the northern outskirts of the city. | |||
| ] in interview stated that Saddam stayed in the Dialah bunker for three weeks as Baghdad and the rest of Iraq were occupied by US forces. Initially he and his entourage used ]s to communicate with each other. As this became more risky they resorted to sending couriers with written messages. One of these couriers was reported to have been his own nephew. However, their cover was given away when one of the couriers was captured and Saddam was forced to evacuate the Dialah bunker and resorted to changing location every few hours. There were numerous sightings of him in ], ] and ] to the north of Baghdad over the next few months as he shuttled between safe houses disguised as a shepherd in a plain taxi. How close he came to being captured during this period may never be made public. Sometime in the middle of May he moved to the countryside around his home town of ]. | |||
| A series of audio tapes claiming to be from Saddam were released at various times, although the authenticity of these tapes remains uncertain. | |||
| Saddam Hussein was at the top of the "]," and many of the other leaders of the Iraqi government were arrested, but extensive efforts to find him had little effect. In June in a joint raid by special operations forces and the 1st Battalion, ] of 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, they captured the former president's personal secretary ], Ace of Diamonds and number 4 after Saddam and his sons ] and ]. Documents discovered with him enabled intelligence officers to work out who was who in Saddam's circle. The cooks, the bodyguards the drivers, and photographs proved a goldmine. One photo, taken just two years before, featured a row of bodyguards around Saddam, looking | |||
| every inch the ] don. One by one the Americans put names to faces, found their homes, then they | |||
| planned to catch them. Manhunts were launched nightly throughout the ]. Safe houses and | |||
| family homes were raided as soon as any tip came in that someone in Saddam's circle might be in the area. | |||
| In July 2003 in an engagement with U.S. forces after a tip-off from an Iraqi informant Saddam's sons were cornered in a house in ] and killed. | |||
| According to one of Saddam's bodyguards, the former president actually went to the grave himself on the evening of the funeral: | |||
| *"After the funeral people saw Saddam Hussein visiting the graves with a group of his protectors. No one recognised them and even the car they came in wasn't spotted. At the grave Saddam read a verse from the Koran and cried. There were flags on the grave. After he finished reading, he took the flags and left. He cried for his sons." {{citation needed}} | |||
| This story, however, likely resulted to explain the missing flags. The commander of the 1st Battalion, ] in Tikrit and Auja, where the sons were buried, had the cemetery heavily guarded. The flags were removed by US forces to prevent his sons being honored as martyrs. These flags now reside at the National Infantry Museum at Fort Benning, Georgia. | |||
| The raids and arrests of people known to be close to the former President drove him deeper underground. Once more the trail was growing colder. In August the US military released ] of how Saddam might be disguising himself in traditional garb, hair died grey, even without his signature moustache. By the early autumn the Pentagon had also formed a secret unit – ]. Using ] and undercover agents, the ] and ] scoured Iraq for clues. Their orders were clear, to capture or kill high value target number one, Saddam Hussein. | |||
| By the beginning of November Saddam was under siege. His home town and powerbase were surrounded and his faithful bodyguards targeted and then arrested one by one by the Americans. The noose was tightening day by day. Protests erupted in several towns in the Sunni triangle. Meanwhile some ] ] showed their support for Saddam. | |||
| On ] Mohamed Ibrahim Omar al-Musslit was unexpectedly captured in Baghdad. Mohamed had been a key figure in the President's ]. His cousin Adnan had been captured in July by the 1st Battalion, ] in ]. It appears Mohamed had taken control of Saddam on the run, the only person who knew where he was from hour to hour and who was with him. According to US sources it took just a few hours "interrogation" for him to crack and betray Saddam. | |||
| Within hours ] (1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division) together with US Special Operations Forces launched ] and under cover of darkness made for the village of ] on the outskirts of Tikrit. The informer had told US forces the former president would be in one of two groups of buildings on a farm codenamed ] and ]. | |||
| ====Capture ==== | |||
| ] | |||
| On ], ], the ] (IRNA) of Iran first reported that Saddam Hussein had been arrested, citing Kurdish leader ]. These reports were soon confirmed by other members of the ], by U.S. military sources, and by ] prime minister ]. In a press conference in ], shortly afterwards, the U.S. civil administrator in Iraq, ], formally announced the capture of Saddam Hussein by saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, we got him." Bremer reported that Saddam had been captured at approximately 8:30 p.m. Iraqi time on ], in an underground "]" at a farmhouse in ] near his home town ], in what was called ]. Bremer presented video footage of Saddam in custody. | |||
| Saddam Hussein was shown with a full beard and hair longer and curlier than his familiar appearance, which a barber later restored. His identity was later reportedly confirmed by ]. He was described as being in good health and as "talkative and co-operative." Bremer said that Saddam would be tried, but that the details of his trial had not yet been determined. Members of the Governing Council who spoke with Saddam after his capture reported that he was unrepentant, claiming to have been a "firm but just ruler." Later it emerged that the tip-off which led to his capture came from a detainee under interrogation. | |||
| Shortly after his capture, Saddam Hussein was shown on a Department of Defense video on Al-Jazeera receiving a medical examination. | |||
| ====Incarceration==== | |||
| According to US military sources, immediately after his capture on ] Saddam was hooded and his hands were bound. He was taken by a military ] vehicle to a waiting helicopter and then flown to the US base located in and adjacent to one of his former palaces in ]. At this base he was paraded before jubilant US soldiers and a series of photographs were taken. After a brief pause he was loaded onto another helicopter and flown to the main US base at ] and transferred to the ] facility. Here he was photographed officially and had his long beard shaved. The next day he was visited in his cell by members of the ] including ] and ]. It is believed that he has stayed at this high security location for the majority of time since his capture. Details of his interrogation are unknown. There were rumours that he was flown out of Iraq during a dangerous upsurge in the insurgency during 2004 but this now seems unlikely. | |||
| On ], ], ]-owned ] newspapers '']'' of ] and '']'', printed photos of Saddam Hussein in his jail cell wearing only his ] with the headline "Tyrant's in his pants" (''The Sun''). On the page three of ''The Sun'' which is traditionally reserved for ] "]s", Saddam Hussein was shown wearing a white robe while doing laundry by hand, with the caption: "a pathetic figure as he washed his trousers in jail. (...) Now he sits astride a plastic pink chair while he carries out the chores of a laundry maid." | |||
| These photos, said to be "provided by American military sources to undermine the Iraqi rebellion" , were officially not authorised, being qualified "a clear violation of ] directives, and possibly ] guidelines for the humane treatment of detained individuals" by Bush's deputy press secretary Trent Duffy. The U.S. military said that it would "aggressively investigate" how the photographs of Saddam Hussein in captivity were released . | |||
| ==Trials== | |||
| {{main|Trials of Saddam Hussein}} | |||
| {{current|section}} | |||
| ]]] | |||
| On ], ], Saddam Hussein (held in custody by U.S. forces at ] in Baghdad), and 11 senior Ba'athist officials were handed over legally (though not physically, as there is, at present, no adequate Iraqi prison to hold them) to the interim Iraqi government to stand trial for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Particular attention will be paid to his activities in violent campaigns against the Kurds in the north during the Iran-Iraq War, and against the Shiites in the south in 1991 and 1999 to put down revolts. | |||
| On ], ], the first legal hearing in Saddam's case was held before the ]. Broadcast later on Arabic and Western television networks, it was his first appearance in footage aired around the world since his capture by U.S. forces the previous December. | |||
| On ], ] The former Malaysian prime minister, ] announced the formation, under his joint chairmanship, of an international ], with a main objective of ensuring fair trials for Saddam Hussein and the other former Ba'ath Party officials being tried with him. | |||
| On ], ], Saddam was charged by the Special Tribunal with the first of an expected series of charges, relating to the mass killings of the inhabitants of the village of ] in 1982 after a failed assassination attempt against him. | |||
| On ], ], the family announced that the legal team had been dissolved and that the only Iraq-based member, ], had been made sole legal counsel. | |||
| On ], ] Iraqi authorities put Saddam Hussein back on trial — four days after the ] referendum on the new constitution. The trial was adjourned until ]. | |||
| On ], ], ] a defense attorney during the ] on the legal team representing ] was killed. | |||
| On ], ], Chief Judge ] adjourned the trial until ] to allow time to find replacements for two defense lawyers who were slain and another who fled Iraq after he was wounded. | |||
| On ], ], Saddam's legal defense team stormed out of the court after questioning its legitimacy and asking about security issues regarding the protection of the defense. Saddam along with his co-defendants railed against Chief Judge Amin and the tribunal. | |||
| On ], ], Saddam Hussein shouted that he will not return "to an unjust court" when it convenes for a fifth session the following day. At the end of the session, when the judges decided to resume the trial the next day, Saddam suddenly shouted as the judges left: "I will not attend an unfair trial" and added "Go to hell!" | |||
| On ], ], Saddam Hussein claimed in court that Americans had tortured him during his detainment "everywhere on body" and that he had bruises as proof. None were seen, however. | |||
| On ], ], ] was nominated interim chief judge of the tribunal. He replaced former chief judge ], also a Kurd, who resigned after complaining of government interference. | |||
| On ], ], Saddam was called by the prosecution as a witness. On the stand, he made several political statements, saying he was still President of Iraq and calling on Iraqis to stop fighting each other and instead fight American troops. The judge turned off Saddam's microphone and closed the trial to the public in response. . | |||
| Iraqi prosecutors recommended on ] ] that he receive the death penalty together with his brother ] and former Vice-President ]. | |||
| On ], ], ] was found shot to death, after he was kidnapped by ten men wearing ] uniforms, the men drove away in Iraqi police vehicles. He was a chief defence attorney for ''Saddam Hussein'' and his brother ]. | |||
| Also on ] it was reported that Hussein had begun a ] in protest at the assassination of his lawyer ]. | |||
| On ], a U.S. official reported that Saddam had ended his hunger strike after missing only one meal. | |||
| On ], 2006, ], Saddam's chief lawyer, gave an interview with the ] in which he quoted Saddam as saying the following: ''"These puppets in the Iraqi government that the Americans brought to power are helpless. They can't protect themselves or the Iraqi people. The Americans will certainly come to me, to Saddam Hussein's legitimate leadership and to the Iraqi Baath Party, to rescue them from their huge quandary."'' | |||
| According to the AP, al-Dulaimi indicated that Saddam may wish to negotiate a role in ending the ] by making the verdict in his trial a bargaining chip. There are no indications, however, that the US or the ] is seeking help from Saddam to end the insurgency. | |||
| On ], 2006, two of Saddam Hussein's lawyers, ], a former US Attorney-General, and ], held a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to call for immediate security for all the Iraqi defense lawyers and to complain in a lengthy and documented statement of the unfair trial being conducted by the American authorities using Iraqis as a front. The two lawyers claimed that the United States had refused to provide adequate protection for the defense lawyers despite repeated requests that were made and that the United States was intentionally ensuring an unfair trial. | |||
| On ], 2006, it was reported that Saddam and "other former regime members" had begun another hunger strike on ] to protest the lack of fairness in their trial including the murder of defense lawyer Khamis al-Obeidi. | |||
| On ], 2006 An from Saddam Hussein was released by his lawyers to the media. The letter dated the on 7th of July urged Americans to "Save your country and leave Iraq." | |||
| On ], 2006, it was reported that Saddam had been taken to hospital where he was being fed by a tube as a result of his hunger strike. | |||
| On ], 2006, Saddam made his final court appearance, during which he said, "I was brought against my will directly from the hospital," "I call on Iraqis to be in harmony and work on evicting the invaders," and, "I ask you, being an Iraqi person, that if you reach a verdict of death, execution, remember that I am a military man and should be killed by firing squad and not by hanging as a common criminal." He also repeated his denunciation of the tribunal as an illegal tool of the American government. | |||
| ==Personal== | |||
| Saddam married ] in 1958. Sajida is the daughter of Khairallah Talfah, Saddam's uncle and mentor. Their marriage was arranged when Saddam was 5 and Sajida was 7, however, the two didn't meet until their wedding; they were married in ] during his exile. They had two sons (] and ]) and three daughters, ], ] and ]. Uday controlled the media, and was named Journalist of the Century by the Iraqi Union of Journalists. Qusay ran the elite Republican Guard, and was considered Saddam's heir. Both brothers made a fortune smuggling oil. Sajida, Raghad, and Rana were put under house arrest because they were suspected of being involved in an attempted ] of Uday on ], ]. General ] Tuffah, Sajida's brother and Saddam's boyhood friend, was allegedly executed because of his growing popularity. | |||
| Saddam also married two other women: ], whom he married in 1986 after forcing her husband to divorce her (she is rumored to be his favorite wife), and ], the general manager of the Solar Energy Research Center in the Council of Scientific Research, whose husband apparently was also persuaded to divorce his wife. There apparently have been no political issues from these latter two marriages. Saddam has a son, ], by Samira. | |||
| ]]]<!--dated when? now or in the 80s?--> | |||
| In August 1995, Rana and her husband ] al Majid and Raghad and her husband, ], defected to ], taking their children with them. They returned to Iraq when they received assurances that Saddam Hussein would pardon them. Within three days of their return in February 1996, both of the Majid brothers were attacked and killed in a gunfight with other clan members who considered them traitors. Saddam had made it clear that although pardoned, they would lose all status and would not receive any protection. | |||
| Saddam's daughter Hala is married to Jamal Mustafa Sultan al-Tikriti, the deputy head of Iraq's Tribal Affairs Office. Neither has been known to be involved in politics. Jamal surrendered to U.S. troops in April 2003. Another cousin was ], also known in the United States as "Chemical Ali," who was accused of ordering the use of poison gas in 1988. Ali is now in U.S. custody. Prior to the ], Baghdad's airport (Saddam International Airport) was named after him until ], ] when U.S. forces seized control of the airport, renaming the airport to its current name. | |||
| In August 2003 Saddam's daughters Raghad and Rana received sanctuary in ], ], where they are staying with their nine children. That month, they spoke with ] and the Arab satellite station ] in Amman. When asked about her father, Raghad told CNN, "He was a very good father, loving, has a big heart." Asked if she wanted to give a message to her father, she said: "I love you and I miss you." Her sister Rana also remarked, "He had so many feelings and he was very tender with all of us." <ref name="ref13">For coverage of the postwar ] and ] interviews with Saddam's daughters, see </ref> | |||
| In 2005 a ] interview of four American National Guardsmen from Pennsylvania whose job was to guard Saddam after his capture quoted Saddam as saying, "Reagan and me, good.... The Clinton, he's okay. The Bush father, son, no good." According to the soldiers Reagan was a favorite topic of Saddam's. Saddam told them about how Reagan sold him "planes and helicopters" and "basically funded his war against Iran." Saddam told them that he "wish things were like when ] was still president." | |||
| Saddam has an interest in literature and has written several novels. See ]. | |||
| ] awarded Saddam Hussein a ] in 1980, because of contributions to several local Detroit Catholic Churches, in particular a $170,000 donation to a church that was in heavy debt . | |||
| ==Notes== | |||
| <div class="references-small"> | |||
| <references /> | |||
| <!-- Dead note "3": See PBS Frontline (2003), "The survival of Saddam: secrets of his life and leadership: interview with Saïd K. Aburish" at . --> | |||
| <!-- Dead note "4": BBC News, ] ] --> | |||
| <!-- Dead note "15": ref: Panorama, BBC1 ] ] : Saddam on the run : Produced by Chris Woods and Presented by Jane Corbin. --> | |||
| </div> | |||
| ==Government positions held by Saddam Hussein== | |||
| * Head of Security (Mukhabarat) 1963 | |||
| * Vice President of the Republic of Iraq 1968 - 1979 | |||
| * President of the Republic of Iraq 1979 - 2003 | |||
| * Prime Minister of the Republic of Iraq (Various non continuous dates) | |||
| * Head of the Revolutionary Command 1979 - 2003 | |||
| ==See also== | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] (formerly Saddam International Airport) | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| ==External links== | |||
| {{sisterlinks|Saddam Hussein}} | |||
| {{wikinewshas|a section about ] and articles relating to this story| | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| :<small>'']''<small/>}} | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| *, ] | |||
| * (includes an archive of Saddam Hussein's recent audiotape recordings posted by the London-based "Free Arab Voice") | |||
| * | |||
| * — Provided by the '']''. | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| *, ] | |||
| * | |||
| * News From The Associated Press | |||
| * (''The Times of India'', ] ]) | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * by Sheila MacVicar, ] ] on RealOne Player reporting links to al Qaeda. | |||
| *. | |||
| *, by New American Century. | |||
| {{Wikinews|Saddam Hussein}} | |||
| {{start box}} | |||
| {{succession box | | |||
| before=] | | |||
| title=] | | |||
| years=], ] — ], ] | | |||
| after= Position Abolished<br><small>] with ] as Director of ]</small> | |||
| }} | |||
| {{succession box | | |||
| before=] | | |||
| title=] | | |||
| years= 1979-1991| | |||
| after=] | |||
| }} | |||
| {{succession box | | |||
| before=] | | |||
| title=] | | |||
| years= 1994-2003| | |||
| after=] | |||
| }} | |||
| {{end box}} | |||
| {{Persondata | |||
| |NAME=Hussein, Saddam | |||
| |ALTERNATIVE NAMES= | |||
| |SHORT DESCRIPTION=Former President of Iraq | |||
| |DATE OF BIRTH=], ] | |||
| |PLACE OF BIRTH=] | |||
| |DATE OF DEATH= | |||
| |PLACE OF DEATH= | |||
| }} | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
Revision as of 02:27, 28 August 2006
please stop deleting what i am writing. im just an honest guy here trying to have some legal humor. gees. i bet yur against bubble baths.