Saddam Hussein Biography
SADDAM HUSSEAIN
Saddam Hussein Biography: The Butcher of Baghdad
Today, on Biographics we learn about the lifeof Iraq’s former president Saddam Hussein. Early Life On April 28, 1937, Saddam Hussein was bornto a peasant woman in a mud and straw village called Al-Awja near Tikrit, on the banks ofthe Tigris River. Saddam bore the physical mark of his tribeon the wrist of his right hand; a tattoo of three dark blue dots. Most people in his village lived in severepoverty and life was difficult. Saddam’s father, a sheepherder, disappearedbefore he was born. Then, a few months later, Saddam’s 12-year-oldbrother died from cancer. This sent Saddam’s mother Subha into a cripplingdepression and she attempted to abort her unborn baby and kill herself. She failed and when her infant son was bornshe named him Saddam, which means in Arabic the “one who confronts,” or “the stubbornone.” Without a husband, Subha didn’t have themeans to support her baby. She sent Saddam to live with her brother KhairallahTalfah, a retired army officer and Arab nationalist in Tikrit.
Saddam lived with him for only three years,until Talfah was imprisoned due to his part in a coup to overthrow the pro-British governmentin Iraq. By this time, Saddam’s mother had remarrieda man named Ibrahim Hassan. Villagers knew him as “Hassan the liar.” Back at his mother’s home, the young Saddamendured regular beatings and maltreatment at the hands of his stepfather. Neighbors and early friends of Saddam recallHassan beating him to wake in the morning and regularly shouting things like, “Youson of a dog, I don't want you!” He was forbidden from going to school, andinstead was made to be useful by stealing goats and chickens for the family. If Saddam was caught stealing -- it has beensaid -- he would rather poison the animals than return them to their owners. At the age of 10, Saddam heard his uncle hadbeen released from prison and he fled to Tikrit to be with him. Talfah filled the boy with dreams of glory,saying he would be a great leader of Iraq someday. He gave Saddam his first real possession -- ahandgun.
Saddam reportedly used the weapon to threatenhis primary school teachers and he may have murdered a man when he was not yet a teenager. According to the story, after the killingpolice showed up at Talfah’s house and found Saddam sleeping with the gun, still warm,under his pillow. Under his uncle’s care, Saddam was finallyable to go to school but he learned much more than how to read and write. Through the years he was deeply influencedby Talfa’s politics and after leaving the al-Karh Secondary School in 1957, at the ageof 20, Saddam joined the Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party as a low-level thug and gunman. The party was formed in Syria in 1947 withthe ultimate goal of unifying the various Arab states in the Middle East. At the time, it was the most radical, nationalistparty in Iraq and it had become an underground revolutionary force. When he was 22, Saddam played a major rolein the Ba’ath Party’s assassination attempt of the then-Iraqi Prime Minister Abdul KarimQassim. During the attack on October 7, 1959, Saddamand other assassins ambushed Qassim’s car on Baghdad’s busiest street. The Prime Minister’s chauffeur was killedbut Qassim was spared, surviving gunshot wounds in the arm and shoulder.
Saddam escaped with a bullet in his leg. The official version of the story portraysSaddam as a hero who dug the bullet out with a penknife. Another version suggests that the plot failedbecause Saddam opened fire prematurely. Several of the would-be assassins were caught,tried and executed but not Saddam. He managed to flee to Syria before eventuallyseeking refuge in Egypt. While in Egypt, Saddam studied law at theUniversity of Cairo. Saddam returned to Iraq in 1963 after a successfulmilitary overthrow of Qassim's government. After his return, Saddam was recruited foryet another assassination. The Ba’ath Party suffered from infightingand a coup was planned to overthrow the leader.
The plan was ultimately betrayed however andSaddam became a wanted man. He was forced into hiding but was caught andimprisoned in 1964. While in captivity, he remained active inparty politics and read up on his role models -- tyrants Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. In 1966, Saddam escaped prison thanks to thehelp of sympathetic prison guards. Afterwards, he was appointed deputy secretaryof the Regional Command, and became a rising star in the Ba a'th organization. Rise to PowerIn 1968, another successful coup in Iraq put Saddam’s Ba’ath party in power and PresidentAhmed Hassan al-Bakr (Saddam’s cousin) named him deputy and head of the secret police. Saddam proved to be a ruthless, but effectivepolitician. Within government, he either eliminated orco-opted individuals who stood in his way. Eventually, he clawed his way to become thevice president of Iraq’s Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), the core group that held Iraq’sBa’athist government together.
Although not the official president of Iraquntil 1979, Saddam truly held the reins from the early 1970s onward. When the Ba’ath Party seized control, itdid not enjoy widespread support across the country. That changed after Saddam nationalized Iraq’soil industry in the early 1970s before the energy crisis of 1973. As a result, the nation enjoyed a boom tothe economy and the massive earnings allowed the Ba’athist government to fund the health,education, and public works sectors and expand social programs. In an attempt to wipe out illiteracy, Saddamrequired all children to attend school and made it free through high school. He also provided free hospitalization to allIraqis and full economic support to the families of Iraqis soldiers. Such reforms were unheard of in any otherMiddle Eastern country. In the years before the Iran-Iraq War constructionbecame one of the prized occupations of Iraq’s middle class.
It is also important to note, 40 percent ofthe increased revenue from oil went to buying armaments from Western and Soviet suppliers. That figure increased at the onset of thewar with Iran. In 1979, when al-Bakr attempted to unite Iraqand Syria, in a move that would have left Saddam effectively powerless, Saddam forcedal-Bakr to resign, and on July 16, 1979, Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq. Five days later, he called an assembly ofthe Ba'ath Party -- consisting of roughly 250 people. At the meeting, party officials sat mystifiedas Saddam made the announcement he had uncovered a plot against him -- and he claimed the conspiratorswere in the room. An alleged informant then read a list of 68names out loud, and each person was promptly arrested and removed. All the individuals were eventually triedand found guilty of treason. Twenty-two were sentenced to death. The whole ordeal was filmed and circulatedaround Iraq.
This was an intentional, well-scripted displayof Saddam’s power and a clear message of who was in charge. Three months later, Saddam declared 14 people(up to 13 of them Jews), part of a “Zionist spy ring.” He made a very public, carnival-like displayout of their execution by stringing them up before a crowd of thousands in downtown Baghdad. Over the next several months, Saddam had more“plotters” murdered live on television and he hung them up on city lampposts. To guard against coups and ensure loyalty,Saddam surrounded himself with kin -- putting his fellow clansmen in government positions. He regularly used informants and the secretpolice to route out suspected conspirators. If anyone so much as made a joke about Saddam,they could have their tongue cut out or pay with their life. He believed it was better to murder a personof suspicion and be wrong -- than it is was to not, and be killed by them.
Personal Life Saddam married his first cousin, Sajida -- hisuncle Talfah’s daughter. They had five children including two sons,Uday and Qusay, and three daughters, Raghad, Rana and Hala. He took on mistresses but did not parade themaround publically. Later on, when his sons grew up, he gave themhigh-ranking positions within Iraq’s government. Saddam’s public image was meticulously crafted-- he dyed his hair black, sported a mustache, and refused to wear his reading glasses unlessin private. He had a slight limp due to a slipped discso he was never filmed walking for more than a few steps. He was 6’ tall, and his weight fluctuatedfrom trim to chubby but his well-tailored suits were made to disguise his protrudingbelly. Each of his 20 palaces was kept fully staffed,with meals prepared daily as if he were in residence to disguise his whereabouts. He moved around frequently and used body doublesto thwart assassination attempts. His meals, such delicacies like imported lobster,were first tested for radiation and poison. His wine of choice was Portuguese, MateusRose, but he never drank in public to maintain the conceit that he was a strict Muslim. Saddam was particularly phobic about germsand even top generals summoned to meet him were often ordered to strip to their underwearand their clothes were then washed, ironed and X-rayed before they could get dressedto meet him.
They had to wash their hands in disinfectant. During his imprisonment, it is said he wouldtry to maintain this cleanliness by wiping his utensils and food tray with baby wipesbefore eating. Throughout his rule, he maintained a limitedworld-view and possessed little knowledge of Western culture, laws, and advancementsin technology. He was once shocked to learn there was nosuch law in the U.S. that prevented citizens from complaining about the President. Decades of Conflict The same year that Saddam anointed himselfpresident of Iraq, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini led a successful Islamic revolution. Saddam’s political power rested in partupon the support of Iraq's minority Sunni population and he worried that developmentsin Shi-ite majority Iran could lead to a similar uprising in Iraq. In response, on September 22, 1980, Saddamordered Iraqi forces to invade the oil-rich region of Khuzestan in Iran -- a clear violationof international law. The conflict soon turned into an all-out war;one Saddam foolishly expected would be over in a matter of weeks. Saddam had no prior military experience andhe grossly underestimated his enemy. Iran was three times the size of Iraq anda formidable opponent.
A stalemate ensued, with both sides engagedin a bloody trench war. At the same time ground troops were deadlocked,Saddam sunk millions of dollars into developing nuclear weapons. In 1981, Israel took this matter seriously-- believing if Saddam had the ability, there would be no preventing him from dropping anatomic bomb on their cities. In June, the Israeli Air Force destroyed Iraq’sresearch center at Osirik. At least 25 pounds of enriched uranium werereported to have been on the site. The plant was near completion and scheduledto begin operations within a matter of months. The destruction of Iraq’s nuclear plantwas humiliating and with no end in sight to the war, Saddam consulted his cabinet. At the meeting, Saddam’s health ministersuggested that he step down in order to gain the ceasefire with Iran.
As the story goes, Saddam thanked him forhis candor and had him arrested on the spot. The minister’s wife pleaded with Saddamto release her husband and he promised he would. When he sent him home the next day, he wasdelivered in a black canvas body bag, cut up into tiny pieces. In the closing days of the war with Iran,Saddam’s murderous ways reached new heights. In his most savage act, he poisoned thousandsof civilian Kurds using chemical gases, killing upwards of 5,000 people and injuring 10,000more. The genocide became known as the Halabja Massacreor Bloody Friday. Iranian photographer Kaveh Golestan witnessedthe gas attacks from a helicopter. “It was life frozen. Life had stopped, like watching a film andsuddenly it hangs on one frame. It was a new kind of death to me. (…) The aftermath was worse. Victims were still being brought in. Some villagers came to our chopper. They had 15 or 16 beautiful children, beggingus to take them to hospital. So all the press sat there and we were eachhanded a child to carry.
As we took off, fluid came out of my littlegirl's mouth and she died in my arms.” One decade after the attack, at least 700people were still being treated for severe after effects of the Halabja Massacre. Surveys have concluded the Kurdish populationin this region suffer from a higher percentage of medical disorders, birth defects, and variousdiseases including cancers and heart disease. On August 20, 1988, after years of intenseconflict that left one half million casualties on each side, a ceasefire agreement was finallyreached. The eight year war ravaged Iraq’s economyand infrastructure. One million Iraqi soldiers were out of work. At the end of the 1980s, Saddam turned hisattention toward Iraq's wealthy neighbor, Kuwait. Saddam believed the Kuwaitis had 200 billiondollars in various banks around the world. And, a takeover of this small country wouldyield him all the riches he needed to pay back Iraq’s war debt and stabilize his country.
Using the justification that Kuwait was historicallypart of Iraq, Saddam ordered the invasion on August 2, 1990. It took only six hours for Saddam’s armiesto the occupy the country -- a move greatly condemned around the world. A UN Security Council resolution was promptlypassed, imposing sanctions and setting a deadline of January 15, 1991, for the Iraqis to leaveKuwait. During the occupation, Saddam staged a numberof bizarre televised interviews with citizens of Kuwait in which he asked them if they werehappy with the Iraqis invasion. Of course, they said yes...they didn’t havea choice! When Saddam ignored the January 15 deadline,a coalition force headed by U.S. President George H.W. Bush confronted Iraqi forces. Saddam was no match for America’s firepowerand modern warfare technology. Within six weeks Saddam’s troops were outof Kuwait. A ceasefire agreement was signed, the termsof which included Iraq dismantling its germ and chemical weapons programs. The previously imposed economic sanctionslevied against Iraq remained in place. Despite this and the fact that his militaryhad suffered a crushing defeat (an estimated 150,000 Iraqis died), Saddam claimed victoryin the conflict.
He called “The Mother of All Battles”his biggest victory and maintained that Iraq had actually repulsed an attack by “Americaand its criminal gang.” He said, “Iraq has punched a hole in themyth of American superiority and rubbed the nose of the United States in the dust.” During the 1990s, various Shi-ite and Kurdishuprisings in Iraq occurred, but the rest of the world, fearing another war, did littleor nothing to support these rebellions and they were ultimately crushed by Saddam's forces. At the same time, Iraq remained under intenseinternational scrutiny. Saddam violated the terms of the UN’s peacedeal -- when inspectors were sent into Iraq they found and destroyed stockpiles of weaponsincluding chemical and biological warheads and a “super gun” with missiles capableof reaching Israel. The inspectors also alleged Saddam was stillat work developing nuclear weapons. In 1993, when Iraqi forces violated a no-flyzone imposed by the UN, the U.S. launched a damaging missile attack on Baghdad.
Further strikes occurred in 1998. With economic sanctions still in place inthe years following the Gulf War, Saddam continued to maintain his personal wealth, and his family’s,through selling oil and medical supplies meant for his people on the black market. While the citizens of Iraq were in dire straits,he built opulent palaces and maintained his lifestyle. Saddam's FallAfter the terrorist attacks on the U.S. in September 11, 2001, President George W. Bushand members of his administration suspected Saddam’s government of having a relationshipwith Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda organization. And, of possessing “weapons of mass destruction.” In his January 2002 State of the Union address,President Bush named Iraq part of his so-called "Axis of Evil," along with Iran and NorthKorea. Later that year, UN inspections of suspectedweapons sites began, but little or no evidence that such programs existed was ultimatelyfound. Despite this, on March 20, 2003, under thepretense that Iraq did in fact have a covert weapons program and that it was planning attacks,a U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq.
Within weeks, the government and militaryhad been toppled, and on April 9, 2003, Baghdad fell. Saddam, however, managed to elude capture. In the months that followed, an intensivesearch for Saddam began. While in hiding, Saddam released several audiorecordings, in which he denounced Iraq's invaders and called for resistance. Finally, on December 13, 2003, Saddam wasfound hiding in a hole in the ground, a bunker near a farmhouse in ad-Dawr, near Tikrit. The once well-dressed and groomed leader lookeddisheveled, unshaven and bewildered when he was arrested. Saddam was moved to a U.S. base in Baghdad,where he would remain until June 30, 2004, when he was officially handed over to theinterim Iraqi government to stand trial for crimes against humanity. With his days numbered, Saddam showed no accountabilityor remorse for his crimes.
In 2003, when asked by Iraqi politicians abouthis brutal acts, Saddam called the Halabja attack Iran’s handiwork; said that Kuwaitwas rightfully part of Iraq and that the mass graves were filled with thieves who fled thebattlefields. Saddam declared that he had been “just butfirm” because Iraqis needed a tough ruler. During his trial, Saddam would prove to bea belligerent defendant, often boisterously challenging the court's authority and makingbizarre statements. On November 5, 2006, Saddam was found guiltyand sentenced to death. The sentencing was appealed, but was ultimatelyupheld by a court of appeals. On December 30, 2006, at Camp Justice, anIraqi base in Baghdad, Saddam was executed. He was then buried in Al-Awja, his birthplace,on December 31, 2006. This closed the chapter on one of modern history’smost tyrannical and brutal dictators.
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