InsIde The
BruTal
World
of saddam
Straight from the mouths of those who knew him, a
new drama series unlocks the secret world of one of the
20th century’s greatest tyrants. By Jonathan Crocker
addam hussein wakes at
about 3am and takes a swim.
his back hurts and swimming
soothes it. You’d never know
he has a slipped disc, because
he never shows his limp. You’d
never know he has grey hair
because he dyes it black.
You’d never know he needs reading glasses,
because his aides print his speeches in huge
letters, just a few lines on each page.
Saddam sleeps for only four or five hours.
Because when he shuts his eyes, he has to
trust those around him. And that is the one
thing the Great Uncle cannot do.
“i think that was the single most fascinating,
destructive thing about him,” says Alex
holmes, director of the four-part hBo and
BBc two drama house of Saddam. “Saddam
had a complete incapacity to trust anyone.
And the closer somebody was to him, the
more fearful he was of them.”
Built on two years of research and
interviews, holmes’s uniquely intimate portrait
of Saddam’s inner circle paints an operatic
true-life drama. “we spoke to people who’d
been in government with him, right through to
members of his staff, cooks, a cleaner, and his
security,” says holmes. “And Saddam emerged
as a far more complex, more shocking
individual. Born into incredible poverty,
he overcame his sense of inadequacy by
determining never to be in a weak position. this
is what motivated so much of his brutality.”
The dicTaTor’s ‘family’
Unlocking the doors to Saddam’s inner
circle to find a violent family drama of power,
ambition, betrayal and fear, house of Saddam
Saddam took his sons,
Uday (left) and Qusay, to
prisons when they were young
26 / www.ShortLiSt.com
has been dubbed “the Sopranos in iraq”. it’s
a sweet sell, but a cleaner fit is the Godfather.
And those who knew him claimed he loved the
saga. Easy to see why: Don Vito corleone is
a patriarch who builds a mighty family empire
from nothing, driven on by ruthlessness and
fate. “with the importance of family alongside
power and politics, there’s a direct parallel
between Saddam’s regime and a mafia
organisation,” explains holmes. “his brothers,
uncles and cousins were really the core of
his regime because he thought these were
the people he could trust.”
men like Saddam’s youngest half-brother,
Barzan ibrahim, head of the notorious
“Saddam was a man willing to do
what others flinched from. In some
ways, this was the core of his success”
state-security system that was feared for its
use of torture and assassination. ‘chemical Ali’
was Saddam’s other half-brother, who
slaughtered up to 200,000 Kurds using
poisonous gas. Saddam’s cousin, hussein
Kamel, married Saddam’s daughter and
created the Great Uncle’s personal guard.
But if those walking the corridors of the
house of Saddam thought they were safer
than the thousands of iraqis being murdered
in the streets, they were wrong. “they knew
where his weaknesses were,” says holmes.
“So they became the greatest threat. often,
the most horrific things were what Saddam
could do to the inner circle. this was a man
who had the power of life and death over those
around him as well as the iraqi population.”
And so it went for hussein Kamel, killed
after defecting then returning to Saddam’s
family. “the murder of his son-in-law was
shocking – this was a man who he had grown
up with. they’d spent their entire childhood
together. And yet, for political reasons, he was
prepared to have him killed. that was scary,
this ruthless commitment that nothing should
be allowed to threaten his dream of greatness.”
Saddam’s palaces – and there were more
than 20 of them – flowed with fountains
and pools. in the deserts of iraq, water is
a symbol of power. As Saddam’s paranoia
grew, blood flowed just as freely.
After suffering early losses in the war with
iran, Saddam asked his ministers for advice.
health minister riyadh ibrahim suggested
Saddam temporarily step down to encourage
peace negotiations. Bits of ibrahim’s
dismembered body were delivered to his wife
the next day. when one of his generals was
overheard bad-mouthing the dictator, a simple
execution was deemed too lenient. Before
killing him, Saddam had his tongue cut out,
his son executed, his home bulldozed and his
wife and other children left on the street.
“Not only this, but Saddam prided himself
on his ability to carry out the violence himself,”
says holmes. “in some ways, this was the core
of his success. he was a man willing to do what
others flinched from.” when he seized power
in 1979, Saddam forced top party members
to help execute more than 20 of their ‘traitor’
colleagues. when it came to Adnan hamdani,
the official who had been his close friend for the
last decade, Saddam pulled the trigger himself.
having done so, he then visited hamdani’s
family and paid his condolences. condolences,
not apologies. the distinction was clear.
casT in his image
Saddam’s son Uday once boasted that he and
his brother Qusay had been taken to prisons
by their father to witness executions and
To view a Ceros magazine you need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser and have the flash player 8 or higher installed. To install the latest flash player, click the icon above, install the flash plugin and then click here to refresh this page.