Interesting read about Saddam, his inner circle, and the Dirty Nine and how he his inner circle by fear..
Iraq's most wanted
According to a Jordanian official who met with the Kamel brothers often, the standards for cruelty were set at the top, with Saddam himself. When one of his Republican Guard in charge of supplies at the presidential palaces was caught stealing soaps in the early 1990s, a court sentenced the guard to a few months in prison. That wasn?t enough for the dictator. ?Who steals from Saddam will betray Saddam,? he declared, and had the man killed. He forced the guard?s brother, another close aide, to attend the execution and to smile as it happened.
An Iraqi doctor who attended an informal dinner party with Jordanian intelligence officials, among others, was summoned back to Baghdad under suspicion of treason. Jordanian officials later confirmed that Saddam fed the man to starving dogs on one of Saddam?s farms.
Uday Hussein, the elder of Saddam?s sons, ?should have been committed to an asylum long ago,? says another senior Jordanian official who knew him in the 1990s. A sadistic playboy, Uday was notorious for raping any woman he coveted, and in one horrific incident bludgeoned one of his father?s trusted aides to death. Crippled in a 1996 assassination attempt, Uday has since lost his status as heir apparent to younger brother Qusay, who is now effectively his father?s second in command, charged with overseeing the entire security apparatus and, now, the defense of Baghdad.
When the Kamel brothers were ?in a good mood,? remembers a Jordanian official who met with them often, they traded atrocity stories. Hussein Kamel had overseen the program to build weapons of mass destruction and liked to style himself ?the father of the Iraqi atomic bomb,? which, fortunately, was never finally built. When Jordan?s King Hussein asked Hussein Kamel what had happened to the missing chemical and biological weapons, Kamel said they?d been destroyed but wouldn?t want to say just where, because the site also held mass graves. ?They were completely nuts,? says the Jordanian official.
BRAGGING AND BRUTALITY
Hussein Kamel boasted about the punishment he meted out to an aide who failed to carry out a task he?d been given in the assigned time. ?Hussein Kamel forced him to drink a bottle of gasoline and then got an incendiary bullet and shot him in the stomach.? Perhaps embroidering the tale, and amid gales of laughter, the brothers claimed the man exploded. Saddam Kamel was proud of the time he beat a member of the Republican Guard ?until his brain came out of his ear.? But both agreed that another relative, Saddam?s paternal cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, ?was the hero,? the Jordanian says. ?He was the one who killed the most.? Known as ?Ali Chemical? for his role in gassing Kurds in northern Iraq, al-Majid was also the savage governor of Kuwait after the invasion, and played a leading role in slaughtering rebellious Iraqi Shiites in 1991. In 1996 the Kamel brothers, who?d failed to win support for overthrowing Saddam, made the mistake of going back to Iraq. And Ali Chemical killed them, too. He?s now one of the Dirty Nine.
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Another is Abid Hammoud al-Tikriti, a distant cousin and longtime bodyguard who is sometimes described as Saddam?s personal secretary. ?He is probably the only one who knows where Saddam is at any time,? says a Jordanian source who?s dealt with him. ?He is the closest to Saddam?s inner, inner circle.? So close, in fact, that on occasion he?s even stood up to Uday, contradicting the son?s ravings. The head of the special security organization charged with hiding weapons of mass destruction, Hani al-Latif Tulfah, obviously will be a major prize for the coalition if he?s captured.
Along with al-Majid, Aziz Salih Numan, the second governor of occupied Kuwait, tops the list for crimes committed there. Under his rule, torture was at its height, hundreds of Kuwaitis were ?disappeared? and the oilfields were burned for pure vengeance.
Mohammed hamza al-Zubaidi is notorious for his role in crushing the Shiite uprisings. So is the vice chairman of the Baath Party?s Revolution Command Council, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who savagely suppressed the rebellion in An Nasiriya. But Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, who led the columns blasting their way into the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, damaging some of the most sacred shrines of Islam, is for some reason not included on the hit list. Nor is Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, the Iraqi Christian whose erudite English has made him one of the most familiar spokesmen for the regime on the international scene. Obviously it does them no good in Saddam?s eyes to be exempted, and that may have been done intentionally as a U.S. ploy to divide the regime.
Because, at the end of the day, Saddam?s inner circle is not just united by criminal complicity and family ties, it?s held together with fear. Unlike Osama bin Laden, whose support is built around his example and his teachings, however misguided, Saddam terrorizes everyone around him into obedience. When Saddam took absolute control of the country in 1979, one of his first acts was to execute rivals in his party. At a videotaped meeting, the names of dozens were read aloud. They were led away to be killed immediately as Saddam shouted, ?Get out! Get out!? Sitting in the front row of that meeting were Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Taha Yassin Ramadan and Tariq Aziz. When Saddam said the list was finished, they broke into tears.
Iraq's most wanted
According to a Jordanian official who met with the Kamel brothers often, the standards for cruelty were set at the top, with Saddam himself. When one of his Republican Guard in charge of supplies at the presidential palaces was caught stealing soaps in the early 1990s, a court sentenced the guard to a few months in prison. That wasn?t enough for the dictator. ?Who steals from Saddam will betray Saddam,? he declared, and had the man killed. He forced the guard?s brother, another close aide, to attend the execution and to smile as it happened.
An Iraqi doctor who attended an informal dinner party with Jordanian intelligence officials, among others, was summoned back to Baghdad under suspicion of treason. Jordanian officials later confirmed that Saddam fed the man to starving dogs on one of Saddam?s farms.
Uday Hussein, the elder of Saddam?s sons, ?should have been committed to an asylum long ago,? says another senior Jordanian official who knew him in the 1990s. A sadistic playboy, Uday was notorious for raping any woman he coveted, and in one horrific incident bludgeoned one of his father?s trusted aides to death. Crippled in a 1996 assassination attempt, Uday has since lost his status as heir apparent to younger brother Qusay, who is now effectively his father?s second in command, charged with overseeing the entire security apparatus and, now, the defense of Baghdad.
When the Kamel brothers were ?in a good mood,? remembers a Jordanian official who met with them often, they traded atrocity stories. Hussein Kamel had overseen the program to build weapons of mass destruction and liked to style himself ?the father of the Iraqi atomic bomb,? which, fortunately, was never finally built. When Jordan?s King Hussein asked Hussein Kamel what had happened to the missing chemical and biological weapons, Kamel said they?d been destroyed but wouldn?t want to say just where, because the site also held mass graves. ?They were completely nuts,? says the Jordanian official.
BRAGGING AND BRUTALITY
Hussein Kamel boasted about the punishment he meted out to an aide who failed to carry out a task he?d been given in the assigned time. ?Hussein Kamel forced him to drink a bottle of gasoline and then got an incendiary bullet and shot him in the stomach.? Perhaps embroidering the tale, and amid gales of laughter, the brothers claimed the man exploded. Saddam Kamel was proud of the time he beat a member of the Republican Guard ?until his brain came out of his ear.? But both agreed that another relative, Saddam?s paternal cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, ?was the hero,? the Jordanian says. ?He was the one who killed the most.? Known as ?Ali Chemical? for his role in gassing Kurds in northern Iraq, al-Majid was also the savage governor of Kuwait after the invasion, and played a leading role in slaughtering rebellious Iraqi Shiites in 1991. In 1996 the Kamel brothers, who?d failed to win support for overthrowing Saddam, made the mistake of going back to Iraq. And Ali Chemical killed them, too. He?s now one of the Dirty Nine.
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Another is Abid Hammoud al-Tikriti, a distant cousin and longtime bodyguard who is sometimes described as Saddam?s personal secretary. ?He is probably the only one who knows where Saddam is at any time,? says a Jordanian source who?s dealt with him. ?He is the closest to Saddam?s inner, inner circle.? So close, in fact, that on occasion he?s even stood up to Uday, contradicting the son?s ravings. The head of the special security organization charged with hiding weapons of mass destruction, Hani al-Latif Tulfah, obviously will be a major prize for the coalition if he?s captured.
Along with al-Majid, Aziz Salih Numan, the second governor of occupied Kuwait, tops the list for crimes committed there. Under his rule, torture was at its height, hundreds of Kuwaitis were ?disappeared? and the oilfields were burned for pure vengeance.
Mohammed hamza al-Zubaidi is notorious for his role in crushing the Shiite uprisings. So is the vice chairman of the Baath Party?s Revolution Command Council, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who savagely suppressed the rebellion in An Nasiriya. But Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, who led the columns blasting their way into the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, damaging some of the most sacred shrines of Islam, is for some reason not included on the hit list. Nor is Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, the Iraqi Christian whose erudite English has made him one of the most familiar spokesmen for the regime on the international scene. Obviously it does them no good in Saddam?s eyes to be exempted, and that may have been done intentionally as a U.S. ploy to divide the regime.
Because, at the end of the day, Saddam?s inner circle is not just united by criminal complicity and family ties, it?s held together with fear. Unlike Osama bin Laden, whose support is built around his example and his teachings, however misguided, Saddam terrorizes everyone around him into obedience. When Saddam took absolute control of the country in 1979, one of his first acts was to execute rivals in his party. At a videotaped meeting, the names of dozens were read aloud. They were led away to be killed immediately as Saddam shouted, ?Get out! Get out!? Sitting in the front row of that meeting were Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Taha Yassin Ramadan and Tariq Aziz. When Saddam said the list was finished, they broke into tears.
