Saddam Hussein was a bloody and brutal dictator who kept his country of Iraq at war almost constantly after assuming power in 1979. At least one million people died due to the machinations of Saddam. After his regime was toppled by the U.S. invasion of 2003, he wound up on a gallows, his life terminated at the end of a hangman's noose. Saddam invaded neighboring Iran in 1980 and waged war for seven years and 11 months, making it the longest conventional war in the 20th Century. Saddam had hoped to take advantage of what he perceived as the chaos of the Iranian revolution to settle border disputes and suppress his own Shi'ite Muslim population. put together a second coalition army dominated by American and British forces that invaded Iraq in March 2003 to depose the dictator. The invasion was launched on the pretext that he possessed weapons of mass destruction and was in league with al-Qaeda, the terrorist group that had launched the 9/11 attacks on the United States. Both charges were false, but it led to Saddam's capture in December 2003. He was subsequently tried and executed by the Iraqi interim government for the killing of 148 Iraqi Shi'ites in 1982. His death sentence was carried out on December 30, 2006.
Declared himself President upon the resignation of President Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr due to "health problems" (16 July 1979).
At a now-infamous meeting shown on Iraqi television, he had several members escorted out and executed in an "effort" to "cleanse" the Baath Party (22 July 1979).
In an open letter to the American people, Hussein said that the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center were retribution for the death and destruction America has unleashed against foreigners, including the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Gulf War and economic sanctions against Iraq. (18 September 2001).
Had over 20 presidential palaces.
His birthday was formerly an Iraqi national holiday.
Wrote two novels, "Zabibah and the King" and "The Fortified Castle", under the pen name "He Who Wrote It.".
An admirer of Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin.
Ranked 55th on the Forbes Worlds Richest with an estimated worth of $7 billion..
Attended Cairo (Egypt) University School of Law.
An interrogator and torturer at the infamous "Palace of the End", the cellar of the former palace of King Faisal II.
In 1956, he participated in an unsuccessful coup attempt against King Faisal II.
In 1959, he and a group from the radical nationalist movement Baath attempted to assassinate General Abd al-Karim Qasim , who had overthrown King Faisal II. It was unsuccessful, forcing Saddam to go into exile until 9 February, 1963, when Qasim was tortured and killed by Baath army officers after a kangaroo trial broadcast live on Iraqi television.
Waged war against Iran from September 22, 1980 to August 1988. The Iran-Iraq war is estimated to have caused one million casualties including 250,000 Iraqi dead.
Invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990 and made it the 19th province of Iraq.
Favorite movie was The Godfather .
Usually portrayed in US movies by actor Jerry Haleva.
Has a look-alike puppet in the French show "Les guignols de linfo" .
His regime ended publicly, if not officially, on 9 April 2003, when citizens of Baghdad pulled down a statue of him erected to mark his 65th birthday.
Children: Sons Uday Hussein and Qusay Hussein , daughters Raghda, Rana and Hala by first wife, Sajida; son Ali Saddam by second wife, Samira. 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 Saddams heir. Both brothers made a fortune smuggling oil. Saddam ordered Raghdas and Ranas husbands killed in 1996 after they plotted against him. Raghda, Rana and Sajida were placed under house arrest in 1997 when it was suspected they had a role in the 12 December 1996 ambush that nearly killed Uday. Halas husband, Jamal Mustafa Sultan al-Tikriti, surrendered to U.S. troops in April 2003. Uday and Qusai were killed in Mosul during a firefight with United States troops in mid-July 2003.
First wife Sajida is the daughter of Khairallah Tulfah, Saddams uncle and first mentor. Their marriage was arranged when Saddam was 5 and Sajida was 7. However, the two didnt meet until 1958; they were married in Egypt during his exile. While Sajida was officially Iraqs First Lady, Saddam has at least three other wives the Iraqi press kept silent about. His newest wife, Wafa, is the daughter of his last deputy prime minister, Abdul Tawab el-Mulla Howeish.
In July 2003, a $25 million reward was offered for evidence of his whereabouts, his capture, or proof of his death.
His sons, Uday Hussein and Qusay Hussein , were killed along with 2 others in a 6-hour standoff with United States forces at a palatial villa in Mosul, Iraq. (22 July 2003).
Credited as "Himself" in the animated film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut . Photos of the real Hussein (and the voice of Matt Stone ) were used for the animated character.
14 December 2003: Acting on a tip, coalition forces captured the dictator hiding in an underground crawl space on a farm in Adwar, 10 miles from Tikrit.
When climbing out of the "spider hole" where he was hiding, he said to the US troops, "Dont shoot! I am Saddam Hussein! I am the President of the Republic of Iraq and I wish to negotiate!" One of the troops replied, "President Bush sends his regards."
Has been portrayed in movies and TV by actor James Evans of "General Hospital" fame.
In 1980, he was given the key to Detroit, making him an honorary citizen.
On November 5, 2006, he was sentenced to death by hanging for the murders of 148 people in the mostly-Shia town of Dujail in 1982.
Baghdad is determined to force the Mongols of our age to commit suicide,at its gates.
I am not guilty, I am innocent.
We are not intimidated by the size of the armies, or the type of,hardware the US has brought.
We are ready to sacrifice our souls, our children and our families so as,not to give up Iraq. We say this so no one will think that America is,capable of breaking the will of the Iraqis with its weapons.
Who are you and what are you?. . . I need to know.
If you are Iraqi, you know who I am. . . and you know that I do not tire.
I am the president of Iraq and I refuse to answer these questions,because this court is illegitimate.
Politics is when you say you are going to do one thing while intending,to do another. Then you do neither what you said nor what you intended.
Remember the valiant Iraqi peasant and how he shot down an American,Apache with an old weapon.
There is much to be said for having an experienced international jurist,who is entirely unconnected with the allied invaders, on the tribunal.
[About to be hung. An observer shouts "Go to Hell!"] To the Hell that is,Iraq?,The participation if women in some armies in the world is in reality only symbolic. The talk about the role of Zionist women in fighting with the combat units of the enemy in the war of 5 June 1967 was intended more as propaganda than anything real or substantial. It was calculated to intensify and compound the adverse psychological effects of the war by exploiting the backward outlook of large sections of Arab society and their role in the community. The intention was to achieve adverse psychological effects by saying to Arabs that they were defeated, in 1967, by women.
Women make up one half of society. Our society will remain backward and in chains unless its women are liberated, enlightened and educated.
