SADDAM HUSSEIN Saddam Hussein Al-Bakr, popularly known as Saddam Hussein, took power of Iraq in his
hand on 16th July, 1979, when the then president Ahmad Hassan Al-Bakr resigned due to ill health.
From the day one his authoritarian and dictatorial style of governance saw Iraq many changes from decade old systems of western dependency, and the Bath party to which he belongs was cleansed of other leaders, who were thought to be hindrance to him.
He had four wives married in different times from 1963 to 2003. the table shows the detail of his spouses in his life
Spouse
Wafa Howeish (2003 - 30
December 2006) (his death)
Nidal al-Hamdani (1990 - 30 December 2006) (his death)
Samira Shabander (1986 - 30 December 2006) (his death) 1 child
Sajida Talfah (5 May 1963 - 30 December 2006) (his death) 5 children
Known for his ruthless governance, he killed, not only his opponents, also some of his close relatives for making his existence trouble free. After the terrorist attack on Pentagon and World Trade Centre, he justified the act as vengeance to American atrocities all over the world
His birthday April 28, was a declared national holiday in Iraq. Born in 1937 and he was sentenced to death on November 5th 2006 by the special court formed for his trial, and was hanged on 30th December, 2006. Thus an era of a modern
dictator came to an end pathetically.
He waged a war with Iran for eight years 1980 to 1988, in which about one million people died. Iraq’s casualty was 250,000.
His infamous decision of capturing Kuwait in 1990 made him the target of the western power that had an eye on his vast reserve of oil. Iraq still stands at number two in terms of known reserve of oil, only after Saudi Arabia. August 2, 1990 heinvaded Kuwait and captured it without any resistance.He could manage to retain power after Iraqi forces were thrown out of Kuwait by the allied force led by United States. But the US invasion of Iraq that happened after the terrorist attack in US, Saddam’s regime fell and he had to go underground to evade capture. Finally he was caught from a hidden underground crawl space at Adwar near Tikrit in miserable condition.
Saddam made huge wealth from his presidential power. He was adjudged the world’s 55th richest man in 2000 with 7 billion dollars.
He possessed more than 20 presidential palaces. He admired Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin.
‘Zabibah and the King’, and ‘The Fortified Castle’ two novels he wrote under the pen name ‘He who wrote it’.
He is a Sunni Muslim that constituted 37% of Iraq’s population. He attended the University School of Law at Cairo, Egypt.
He participated in an unsuccessful coup attempt against King Faisal II in 1956.
He worked in the ‘Palace of the End’ of King Faisal II as interrogator and torturer.
His favorite movie was ‘The Godfather’.
Five children he had from his first wife Sajida; sons – Uday, and Qusay, daughters – Raghda, Rana, and Hala. From the second wife Samira, he had one son – Ali Saddam. Both his sons were powerful in his regime, and were known for their erratic behaviors. Both of them were killed in a firefight with US troops in 2003 at Mosul.
Saddam killed husbands of all three daughters suspecting them plotting against him.
His last wife Wafa was the daughter of his deputy prime minister Abdul Tawab el-Mulla Howeish.
His famous personal quote reads, “
You Americans, you treat the third world the way an Iraqi peasant treats his new bride. Three days of honeymoon, and then it’s off to the fields.” He said this in 1985.