Life 038; Crimes

8216;8216;Comrades, I regret to inform you that our beloved president 8230;8217;8217; Saddam8217;s voice trailed away. He dug a handkerchief from his trouser pocket and dabbed at his eyes.

8216;8216;Comrades, it is time the heroic founder of our glorious republic was allowed to rest. He is an old man now. He has confided in me, his loyal and obedient deputy, that since his wife8217;s death his dearest wish is to spend his last days in his garden surrounded by his grandchildren.8217;8217;

From the far side of the room came an interruption. 8216;8216;Brother leader!8217;8217; the voice called out. Saddam ignored it, preparing to plough on with his stagemanaged performance. 8216;8216;Brother leader, I must insist as a fraternal comrade that I speak.8217;8217; The square figure of the Council8217;s secretary-general, Muhie Abd Al Hussein Mashhadi, eased back in his chair and took a deep breath.

8216;8216;Comrade chairman, surely after so many years of glorious service to our revolution it is unthinkable that our president should stand down. If he is ill, then let him rest until he is better and he can return to his rightful position.8217;8217;

Slowly and deliberately Saddam reached inside his military tunic and extracted a sheet of paper. He held it up to the delegates though all of them were too far away to make out what was typed on it. 8216;8216;Comrades, these are the words of our beloved Hassan Al Bakr.8217;8217; Saddam paused and began to read:

Dear Comrades, my health has recently reached the stage where I can no longer assume responsibility in a manner that satisfies my conscience and is commensurate with the magnitude of the missions with which the command has entrusted me. Therefore, I insist that comrade Saddam Hussein and my comrades respond to my request to be relieved of my responsibilities in the party and the State.

Saddam had staged his palace coup.

He had copied the tactics of one of his political heroes 8212; Joseph Stalin 8212; biding his time until he was ready to ease aside the old guard. Like Stalin, he lost no time in purging any and every possible threat.

He began with the outspoken Mashhadi, who had recklessly questioned his right to remove President Bakr. Mashhadi was accused of being behind 8216;8216;a Zionist plot8217;8217; to take over the country. This invention gave the new president the excuse for a round-up of friend and foe that would once and for all stamp his authority over the Iraqi people. When an extraordinary meeting of senior party figures was convened on July 22, Saddam listened to one of his stooges present fabricated evidence against Mashhadi and 22 others from the Command Council.

As Saddam listened to the names being read out, he began to weep. Around him the people were on their feet chanting, 8216;8216;Hail Saddam,8217;8217; and 8216;8216;Death to the traitors8217;8217;. Then Saddam raised a hand and they fell silent. With a dramatic flourish he produced from his trouser pocket his own list of suspects which he began to read slowly and deliberately while the entire spectacle was filmed. All around the hall bodyguards led away the 66 people whom he named. Within days all would face a firing squad made up of party comrades summoned from all parts of Iraq to 8216;8216;share the responsibility of saving the glorious revolution.8217;8217;

Family At War

SADDAM was in an exuberant mood as he watched a video of two of his senior generals being tortured for their part in a rather clumsy assassination plot in the early 8217;90s. Kamil Saddam8217;s son-in-law sat quietly as Saddam shouted obscenities at the screen and thumped his fist on the desk while the traitors confessed how they planned to fire a rocket at his car as he was leaving the home of his latest mistress. The president whispered to an aide that his mistress should be moved to a new, more discreet address that afternoon and not told why.

Kamil knew this was the moment to interrupt. 8216;8216;Saidi, I visited the nuclear centres at Al Atheer and Tuwaitha today and your scientists are working harder than ever for the sake of the country.8217;8217; Kamil paused for a moment and then said, 8216;8216;I have approved another 220 million for their work.8217;8217;

He watched Saddam8217;s response as he pushed the file across the desk. Saddam adjusted his reading glasses on the end of his nose and for several minutes studied the latest estimates and then scratched his signature on the bottom sheet. Kamil knew as he picked up the paper that his illicit share from these orders was assured and would find its way into one of the many Geneva bank accounts owned by his family.

Saddam knew all about these kickbacks. He trusted nobody but realised he had to rely on someone to carry out his orders. He preferred members of his own family to benefit from his patronage.

Kamil, on his father-in-law8217;s instructions, had recently bought 120 million worth of state-owned factories as part of a publicity drive to privatise Iraq8217;s industry. When he told Saddam he couldn8217;t pay, his father-in-law summoned the Revolutionary Command Council and ordered them to gift the factories to Kamil in appreciation for his services to the country.

By far the most grasping of all the family was Uday. He needed to finance his sybaritic lifestyle and behaved as if Iraq belonged to him. He kept over 80 cars in the bombproof garages built within the presidential compound and paid for an armed retinue whose job, apart from protecting him, was to procure women.

When an army officer objected to Uday8217;s attempts to seduce his wife at a party the heir apparent pulled a gun from inside his jacket, shot the man dead and then dragged the woman from the room.

He took to strutting around Baghdad in a military uniform, though he never bothered to spend time in the army, not even during the eight years his country was at war with Iran. When he was 15 Uday had complained to his father that two very senior officers had failed to salute him when he spoke to them. Saddam had the soldiers courtmartialled.

When he developed an interest in football, Uday simply took over Iraq8217;s leading club, Al Rashid, ensuring they won every competition from then on. He regularly burst into the dressing room to harangue the Iraqi national team for its ineptitude and once pistol-whipped one of the trainers who dared to try to stop him slapping a player he blamed for missing a goal. When the team lost a World Cup qualifying match to Kazakhstan, he had the entire squad rounded up and beaten on the soles of their feet.

The Lady Vanishes

The birthday cake was so enormous it required five of Saddam8217;s personal guards to manhandle it into the ballroom. A gaggle of women soldiers, wearing T-shirts with Saddam8217;s face over their combat trousers, led the procession of 300 well-wishers who came in clapping and chanting his name. Saddam, who was sitting alone reading the Koran in this vast amphitheatre, feigned surprise at the intrusion.

There were so many candles on the cake that the decorative icing in the colours of the Iraqi flag began to melt around the edges. Saddam held out both his hands and bowed his head in a masterful show of humility as the chanting became more frenzied. The chorus only stopped when from out of the perspiring crowd stepped Sajidah.

Walking slowly towards her husband, she began to recite a birthday eulogy. The fawning message had been prepared by one of the president8217;s favourite speechwriters and approved by Saddam before it was delivered to his wife for her command performance. The chanting erupted again as Sajidah handed him a golden scimitar and invited him to slice through the multilayered cake, causing more of the icing to spray over the guests.

Sajidah turned to her paid companion and sighed. 8216;8216;I appear to have played my part for another year,8217;8217; she said, as her husband vanished in the distance.

She saw little of him these days. He excused his absences, and his refusal to tell her about where he was staying each night, by the need to safeguard her and the rest of the family from assassination. Sajidah knew better. She had her own courtiers in Baghdad who at obvious risk to themselves had for years been spying on Saddam8217;s infidelities. Most of these affairs Sajidah ignored, but in recent months Saddam had become besotted with Samira Shabander, the wife of the chairman of Iraq Airways. Samira had long been a coveted guest for Baghdad socialites. Her beauty was immediately obvious, with her fashionably cut blonde hair and unerring choice of French couture that accentuated her tall, slender figure.

It wasn8217;t Samira8217;s looks that worried Sajidah. Her concern was the increasing influence Samira seemed to be having over Saddam. Samira was able to persuade him to attend more social functions that the First Lady loathed. Sajidah hated Samira for causing the rift between Saddam and her favourite son, Uday.

Samira had been invited to a party in honour of Suzanne Mubarak, wife of the Egyptian president, in November 1988, which Saddam was hosting in a candle-lit marquee on an island in the middle of the Tigris river. This used to be a favourite picnic spot for Baghdadis. In his early days as vice-president, Saddam would show up in his motor boat and descend on surprised families. Introducing himself, he would hand over bottles of wine and whiskey and then would sit and share their food 8212; without an invitation 8212; almost as if he was a political candidate on the campaign trail. All this changed when he became president, not least because one of his first executive orders was to ban the public from 8216;Pigs Island8217;, which became his private playground.

Swathed in a long, red silk evening gown that clung to her figure, Samira was at his side when Saddam arrived late at the party. Pushing their way through Saddam8217;s usual sycophantic throng, the couple made their way towards Mrs Mubarak. He turned looking for Samira and, reaching out, he pulled her closer to him, saying to Mrs Mubarak, 8216;8216;May I introduce you to the First Lady of Iraq?8217;8217;

Word of Samira8217;s introduction to Mrs Mubarak reached Uday within minutes from an acolyte who was only too ready to pass on this gossip in full expectation of a reward. The emissary was disappointed this time as Uday slapped him across the face and pulled his pistol from the leather should holster. 8216;8216;Tell me what she was doing there, you dog, or so help me I will kill you and every one of your family.8217;8217;

Uday tore out of the room and jumped in his white Mercedes sportscar, his bodyguards struggling to keep up with him in a posse of identical vehicles as he recklessly weaved through the evening traffic towards the island. As he drove, Uday weighed up his options for revenge. He could not get close enough to his father since Saddam had some months before prudently ordered his guards to disarm his son before he was allowed in to see him. It would give him the greatest pleasure to kill Samira but she would be in bed with his father by now and so was out of his reach for the moment.

Uday8217;s arrogance had evaporated by the time he was dragged in front of his father, whose face was contorted with rage. Uday8217;s hangover was beginning to bite and foolishly he affected astonishment to receive such a brutal summons from the presidential bodyguard. He didn8217;t get to finish the sentence.

Saddam slapped him hard across the mouth. 8216;8216;You have disgraced the honour of your family. What gives you the right to behave like this?8217;8217; Saddam screamed with such ferocity that purple veins pulsated at his temples. Before Uday could make his protest Saddam turned his back on his son and walked out of the room shouting, 8216;8216;Get the vermin out of my sight for ever.8217;8217;

Uday was frogmarched to a waiting car and driven to Abu Gharaib prison. On the way, he first tried to bribe his captors to let him go and when that failed he spat out various threats. Before the convoy had reached the prison gates news of his arrest had been passed to his mother.

Normally she would not dare try to see her husband without first making an appointment. But tonight Sajidah, still wearing her nightdress under a fur coat, brushed past startled palace staff until her progress was impeded by the two sentries who stood outside the bombproof entrance to her husband8217;s private complex.

Most of it, including Saddam8217;s private cinema and swimming pool in the 11-room bunker, was underground. Sajidah guessed that her rival would also still be inside there. She stood shrieking at the two guards who looked across at each other wondering what to do. Saddam had been expecting her and was now determined not to give in on his decision to execute his son for murder. He deliberately kept Sajidah waiting another hour while he had his nails manicured and his hair trimmed by his personal hairdresser, so that by the time she was shown into the room her rage was such she could barely speak.

8216;8216;How could you do this to our son?8217;8217; Sajidah said in her high-pitched voice. Saddam was unmoved by her arguments and looked away. He only lost his temper when Sajidah insulted her rival, Samira, whom she blamed for this entire affair. At the mention of his mistress8217;s name the expression on Saddam8217;s face changed and he simply stood up and left the room, warning Sajidah, 8216;8216;Hold your tongue, woman, and be mindful who you are talking to.8217;8217; Realising her mistake, Sajidah attempted a more conciliatory tone but her husband simply carried on walking.

Sajidah8217;s efforts on Uday8217;s behalf were unceasing. She even persuaded Jordan8217;s King Hussein, then a close confidante of Saddam, to pilot his own plane to Baghdad to plead for clemency for Uday. Saddam met the king and was polite, but remained noncommittal. Finally, Sajidah managed to get her brother-in-law, Barzan Tikriti, to offer to take the errant Uday to Switzerland as a nominal first secretary at the Iraq embassy, arguing exile from his self-indulgent life in Baghdad would be as great a punishment as any.

Uday presumed he could behave in Switzerland as he did in Baghdad and when a languid blonde in a silver dress took his fancy he simply marched on to the floor of the discotheque and began pulling her away. When her boyfriend tried to stop him, Uday produced a gun and began waving it above his head as the dance floor emptied. Before he could do any mortal damage, two policemen appeared in the club.

Barzan had to use up a good many of his diplomatic favours to persuade the Swiss authorities that his nephew had immunity. He assured them that several extremely lucrative orders would be placed with Swiss firms in the next few weeks.

Such is the perversity of the Hussein family that having banished his son, Saddam now welcomed him back as a hero. He appointed him leader of the Youth Federation and encouraged the compliant Iraqi press to rejoice in Uday8217;s homecoming.

Heirs Apparent

Uday hated the increasing influence of his brother. Qusay along with General Abed Hamid Mahmoud, Saddam8217;s brother-in-law and long-time private secretary, were now the only two men in Iraq who knew the president8217;s whereabouts at all times. Qusay was also one of the few told about his father8217;s third marriage in 1996 to a young engineering graduate, Nidal Hamdani.

Like his father, Uday was always on the prowl for young women. On the evening of 12 December 1996 some of his friends arranged a 8216;girl party8217;, as they liked to call it, in a fashionable corner of Baghdad. His cousin accidentally let slip details of the rendezvous to a junior Iraqi officer who had waited years for a chance to avenge the murder of his uncle, a respected general. The uncle8217;s mistake was to get drunk and criticise Saddam8217;s handling of the war against Iran. For this he was tortured and had his tongue sliced off and was then shot. Eight years later his nephew saw his opportunity.

The officer tipped off an underground student group, Al Nahdah. Knowing the time of the party and the house where Uday was heading, they decided to ambush him at a crossroads. Four gunmen with Kalashnikovs and four clips of ammunition sheltered in doorways, ready to attack Uday8217;s car whichever road he took.

For once Uday had decided not to drive himself and was slouched in the passenger seat listening to his tape deck. As the Mercedes slowed at the crossroads, the first gunman ran to the driver8217;s window and fired. One of the men standing on the other side of the road, realising Uday was not driving, screamed a warning to his colleagues and sprinted to the far side of the car, spraying bullets as he ran. Many of the bullets bounced off the armour-plated doors, but Uday was hit eight times in the abdomen and legs. He was bleeding heavily and his driver was dead when the last assassin poked his gun through the shattered window. Uday was at his mercy but the Kalashnikov jammed.

Uday was rushed to the Ibn Sina hospital inside the presidential compound. One of the first to reach him was his father. When Saddam saw Uday unconscious and covered in blood, he pulled at Uday8217;s shirt and shouted, 8216;8216;Get up! We the family of Saddam never die.8217;8217;

Surgeons operated for hours on Uday8217;s legs. Though they saved his life, the doctors doubted he would ever walk again. When he recovered consciousness days later and was told he was paralysed from the waist down, Uday picked up his gun and began firing wildly, killing one of his own guards.

It was weeks before doctors dared tell him that his injuries meant that he was impotent. Uday cursed them and to prove them wrong he ordered his guards to bring him a nurse who had attracted his interest. The frightened young woman was ordered to strip and forced on top of Uday. When he couldn8217;t perform he lashed out at the nurse and tried to strangle her. Bodyguards pulled her away and she fled from the room crying.

Exasperated by the increasingly corrupt and violent behaviour of his closest relatives, Saddam ordered a family summit. Family members were to go to Uday8217;s bedside. They presumed the summons was to lift Uday8217;s morale. None of them knew what lay in store. Sajidah turned up wearing a headscarf and dark glasses and looked surprised to see so many there. It was at that moment that Saddam made his appearance.

Without saying a word to his stricken son, he shouted at the family group, 8216;8216;Your craving for other people8217;s property is the talk of Iraq. It has got to stop.8217;8217;

Nobody made a murmur.

Saddam turned first on his cousin, Ali Hasan Al Majeed. 8216;8216;You made me invade Kuwait and when you were there you looted half the valuables that went missing from that country.8217;8217;

The general said nothing.

His next target was his half-brother, Sabawi. 8216;8216;You call yourself the director of security services, and yet you8217;re drunk half the time. You8217;re never in your office before 11 am, and when you are there you8217;re always half asleep.8217;8217;

One by one Saddam berated them. Finally, turning to his crippled son, he asked him, 8216;8216;Are you a politician, a trader, a people8217;s leader or a playboy?8217;

By the end only one figure had escaped his tirade, Qusay. As Saddam barged out of the room Uday eased himself back on his pillows and glowered at his brother. Qusay was now the heir apparent.

Extracted with permission from Time Warner Books. Shyam Bhatia is senior editor at rediff.com and Daniel McGrory writes for The Times, London.