Hussein
Hussein (Hussein Mua'zzam Shah ibni Mahmud Shah Alam) (1776 – September 5, 1835). Sultan of Johor and Singapore (r.1819-1835). Often called Tunku Long, Hussein was the eldest son of Sultan Muhammad III of Riau and Johor. However, Hussein failed to succeed his father in 1812 upon his father’s death. Instead, his younger brother, Abdul Rahman, was proclaimed sultan. In 1819, Hussein was brought to Singapore by Temenggong Abdul Rahman. Both signed a treaty with Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles giving the island to the English. The English recognized Hussein as sultan of Singapore and Johor and gave him a pension. He maintained a residence of Kampong Gelam in Singapore. He shared little in the prosperity of Singapore and had considerable financial difficulties. He died in Melaka, virtually powerless. It was not until 1855 that his son Tunku Ali was recognized as sultan.
Sultan Hussein Mua'zzam Shah ibni Mahmud Shah Alam was the eighteenth ruler of Johor. He is best remembered for his role as a signatory of two treaties with the British which culminated in the founding of modern Singapore; during which he was given recognition as the Sultan of Johor and Singapore in 1819 and the Sultan of Johor in 1824. However, Sultan Hussein's status as the Sultan was no more than as a puppet monarch, at least during the first few years of his reign. Towards the last years of his reign and during the first half of his son's reign as the Sultan of Johor, limited recognition was given by a few nobles and the British were accorded mainly with the purpose of their own economic and political gains.
The Sultan of Johor-Riau, Sultan Mahmud Shah III died in 1812 after reigning for more than fifty years, naming no formal heir to the throne. He left behind two sons with two different women, both of whom were of Buginese extraction. As the older son, Tengku Hussein was first in line for succeeding his father over his younger half-brother, Tengku Abdul Rahman, by primogeniture. Tengku Hussein, however, was away in Pahang at the time of his father's demise.
The Bugis faction, led by the underking Yamtuan Muda Raja Ja'afar supported Tengku Abdul Rahman to succeed the throne and hastily organised a coronation ceremony before Tengku Hussein was able to return. Raja Ja'afar, in exchange for his support for Tengku Abdul Rahman (now Sultan), was appointed as the empire's regent and wielded administrative authority. Tengku Hussein stayed on in Pahang and waited for the monsoon winds to arrive, and was unaware of his brother's installation as the Sultan. Although Raja Ja'afar had written a letter to Tengku Hussein notifying him of Sultan Mahmud's death, the details in the letter were modified to shield Tengku Hussein from his brother's ascension as the Sultan. Correspondence was returned to Lingga that he was installed as the Sultan by Bendahara Tun Ali during his stay in Pahang. Tengku Hussein sailed back to Lingga when the monsoon winds arrived, and was received by Sultan Abdul Rahman who had offered to abdicate in favor of Tengku Hussein, but who quickly backtracked after Raja Ja'afar made threats against Sultan Abdul Rahman.
Questions pertaining to the legitimacy of Sultan Abdul Rahman's reign were raised. The royal regalia were still in the hands of Engku Putri Hamidah, the primary consort of the late Sultan Mahmud Shah III who had stated her choice of seeing Tengku Hussein to succeed to the throne. In addition, Tengku Hussein also had the support of the Temenggong and the Malay nobles, which made the prospect of putting a legitimate successor in place difficult.
Sultan Abdul Rahman devoted himself increasingly to religion. He had delegated all administrative duties to Raja Ja'afar by the time William Farquhar approached the Sultan to secure an alliance with the British in an attempt to reduce Dutch influence in the region.
In 1818, Stamford Raffles was appointed as the governor of Bencoolen on western Sumatra. He was convinced that the British needed to establish a new base in Southeast Asia in order to compete with the Dutch. Many in the British East India Company opposed such an idea but Raffles managed to convince Lord Hastings of the Company, then Governor General of British India, to side with him. With the governor general's consent, he and his expedition set out to search for a new base.
Raffles' expedition arrived in Singapore on January 29, 1819. He discovered a small Malay settlement at the mouth of Singapore River headed by a Temenggung (governor) of Johor. Though the island was nominally ruled by the sultanate, the political situation there was extremely murky. The incumbent Sultan, Tengku Abdul Rahman, was under the influence of the Dutch and the Bugis and would therefore never agree to a British base in Singapore.
Upon learning of these Johor political tensions, Raffles made a deal with Hussein Shah. Their agreement stated that the British would acknowledge Hussein Shah as the legitimate ruler of Johor, and thus Tengku Hussein and the Temenggung would receive a yearly stipend from the British. In return, Tengku Hussein would allow Raffles to establish a trading post in Singapore. This treaty was ratified on February 6, 1819.
With the Temenggung's help, Raffles managed to smuggle Hussein Shah, then living in exile on one of the Riau Islands, back into Singapore. The Dutch were extremely displeased with Raffles' action. Tensions between the Dutch and British over Singapore persisted until 1824 when they signed the Anglo-Dutch Treaty. Under the terms of that treaty, the Dutch officially withdrew their opposition to the British presence in Singapore. The treaty had the effect of carving the Johor Empire into two spheres of influence; modern Johor under the British and the new Sultanate of Riau under the Dutch. The treaty was concluded in London, between the British and the Dutch, effectively breaking up of the Johor-Riau Empire into two.
The British successfully sidelined Dutch political influence by proclaiming Sultan Hussein as the Sultan of Johor and Singapore to acquire legal recognition in their sphere of influence in Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia. The legitimacy of Sultan Hussein's proclamation as the Sultan of Johor and Singapore, was by all accounts not recognised by the Malay rulers and his title only served as a nominal title. Temenggong Abdul Rahman's position, on the other hand, was strengthened as the signing of the treaties detached him from the influence of Raja Ja'afar. The Dutch took the bold initiative of taking the royal regalia from Engku Putri Hamidah by force after hearing of rumours of Sultan Hussein requesting British aid to get hold of the regalia. In November 1822, Sultan Abdul Rahman was installed as the Sultan of Lingga, complete with the royal regalia.
In the later part of his reign, growing British influence pressured some Malay nobles, particularly Bendahara Ali to grant recognition to Sultan Hussein's legitimacy. Sultan Abdul Rahman, who had devoted himself to religion, became contented with his political sphere of influence in Lingga, where his family continued to maintain his household under the administrative direction of Raja Ja'afar who ruled under the auspices of the Dutch. However, unresolved legal ambiguity in the legitimacy various local affairs, such as the status of Johor and Pahang, which was the de jure property of the Dutch-aligned Sultan Abdul Rahman and his successors, remained. The 1824 treaty would not allow Sultan Abdul Rahman to exert political authority over Johor and Pahang.
In the light of these circumstances, the Temenggong and Bendahara began to increasingly exert their independent authority. Also, largely as a result of the strong British influence in the Malay Peninsula, the continuously changing political dynamics gradually relegated these legitimacy disputes. In 1857, the Sultan of Lingga, Sultan Mahmud Muzaffar Shah, who was also de jure head of the royal house of Johor, Pahang and Lingga, made a vociferous claim to his legitimacy as the rightful ruler of these states and briefly sparked off a civil war in Pahang.
Sultan Hussein on his part, did not pursue any active claim to his sovereignty rights over Johor, even after Temenggong Abdul Rahman died in 1825, and even though his successor, Temenggong Ibrahim was still a youth at the time of Temenggong Abdul Rahman's passing. Sultan Hussein spent much of his time at his Singapore residence in Istana Kampong Glam until 1834, when he moved to Malacca. Reports cited that he was a dispirited man, apparently with the lack of power and authority that he should be accorded as the Sultan. Sultan Hussein died in September 1835, and was buried in Tranquera Mosque at the wishes of his Sultanah and Abdul Kadir, a Tamil-Muslim Imam.
Tunku Long see Hussein
Long, Tunku see Hussein
Hussein Mua'zzam Shah ibni Mahmud Shah Alam see Hussein
Hussein (Hussein Mua'zzam Shah ibni Mahmud Shah Alam) (1776 – September 5, 1835). Sultan of Johor and Singapore (r.1819-1835). Often called Tunku Long, Hussein was the eldest son of Sultan Muhammad III of Riau and Johor. However, Hussein failed to succeed his father in 1812 upon his father’s death. Instead, his younger brother, Abdul Rahman, was proclaimed sultan. In 1819, Hussein was brought to Singapore by Temenggong Abdul Rahman. Both signed a treaty with Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles giving the island to the English. The English recognized Hussein as sultan of Singapore and Johor and gave him a pension. He maintained a residence of Kampong Gelam in Singapore. He shared little in the prosperity of Singapore and had considerable financial difficulties. He died in Melaka, virtually powerless. It was not until 1855 that his son Tunku Ali was recognized as sultan.
Sultan Hussein Mua'zzam Shah ibni Mahmud Shah Alam was the eighteenth ruler of Johor. He is best remembered for his role as a signatory of two treaties with the British which culminated in the founding of modern Singapore; during which he was given recognition as the Sultan of Johor and Singapore in 1819 and the Sultan of Johor in 1824. However, Sultan Hussein's status as the Sultan was no more than as a puppet monarch, at least during the first few years of his reign. Towards the last years of his reign and during the first half of his son's reign as the Sultan of Johor, limited recognition was given by a few nobles and the British were accorded mainly with the purpose of their own economic and political gains.
The Sultan of Johor-Riau, Sultan Mahmud Shah III died in 1812 after reigning for more than fifty years, naming no formal heir to the throne. He left behind two sons with two different women, both of whom were of Buginese extraction. As the older son, Tengku Hussein was first in line for succeeding his father over his younger half-brother, Tengku Abdul Rahman, by primogeniture. Tengku Hussein, however, was away in Pahang at the time of his father's demise.
The Bugis faction, led by the underking Yamtuan Muda Raja Ja'afar supported Tengku Abdul Rahman to succeed the throne and hastily organised a coronation ceremony before Tengku Hussein was able to return. Raja Ja'afar, in exchange for his support for Tengku Abdul Rahman (now Sultan), was appointed as the empire's regent and wielded administrative authority. Tengku Hussein stayed on in Pahang and waited for the monsoon winds to arrive, and was unaware of his brother's installation as the Sultan. Although Raja Ja'afar had written a letter to Tengku Hussein notifying him of Sultan Mahmud's death, the details in the letter were modified to shield Tengku Hussein from his brother's ascension as the Sultan. Correspondence was returned to Lingga that he was installed as the Sultan by Bendahara Tun Ali during his stay in Pahang. Tengku Hussein sailed back to Lingga when the monsoon winds arrived, and was received by Sultan Abdul Rahman who had offered to abdicate in favor of Tengku Hussein, but who quickly backtracked after Raja Ja'afar made threats against Sultan Abdul Rahman.
Questions pertaining to the legitimacy of Sultan Abdul Rahman's reign were raised. The royal regalia were still in the hands of Engku Putri Hamidah, the primary consort of the late Sultan Mahmud Shah III who had stated her choice of seeing Tengku Hussein to succeed to the throne. In addition, Tengku Hussein also had the support of the Temenggong and the Malay nobles, which made the prospect of putting a legitimate successor in place difficult.
Sultan Abdul Rahman devoted himself increasingly to religion. He had delegated all administrative duties to Raja Ja'afar by the time William Farquhar approached the Sultan to secure an alliance with the British in an attempt to reduce Dutch influence in the region.
In 1818, Stamford Raffles was appointed as the governor of Bencoolen on western Sumatra. He was convinced that the British needed to establish a new base in Southeast Asia in order to compete with the Dutch. Many in the British East India Company opposed such an idea but Raffles managed to convince Lord Hastings of the Company, then Governor General of British India, to side with him. With the governor general's consent, he and his expedition set out to search for a new base.
Raffles' expedition arrived in Singapore on January 29, 1819. He discovered a small Malay settlement at the mouth of Singapore River headed by a Temenggung (governor) of Johor. Though the island was nominally ruled by the sultanate, the political situation there was extremely murky. The incumbent Sultan, Tengku Abdul Rahman, was under the influence of the Dutch and the Bugis and would therefore never agree to a British base in Singapore.
Upon learning of these Johor political tensions, Raffles made a deal with Hussein Shah. Their agreement stated that the British would acknowledge Hussein Shah as the legitimate ruler of Johor, and thus Tengku Hussein and the Temenggung would receive a yearly stipend from the British. In return, Tengku Hussein would allow Raffles to establish a trading post in Singapore. This treaty was ratified on February 6, 1819.
With the Temenggung's help, Raffles managed to smuggle Hussein Shah, then living in exile on one of the Riau Islands, back into Singapore. The Dutch were extremely displeased with Raffles' action. Tensions between the Dutch and British over Singapore persisted until 1824 when they signed the Anglo-Dutch Treaty. Under the terms of that treaty, the Dutch officially withdrew their opposition to the British presence in Singapore. The treaty had the effect of carving the Johor Empire into two spheres of influence; modern Johor under the British and the new Sultanate of Riau under the Dutch. The treaty was concluded in London, between the British and the Dutch, effectively breaking up of the Johor-Riau Empire into two.
The British successfully sidelined Dutch political influence by proclaiming Sultan Hussein as the Sultan of Johor and Singapore to acquire legal recognition in their sphere of influence in Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia. The legitimacy of Sultan Hussein's proclamation as the Sultan of Johor and Singapore, was by all accounts not recognised by the Malay rulers and his title only served as a nominal title. Temenggong Abdul Rahman's position, on the other hand, was strengthened as the signing of the treaties detached him from the influence of Raja Ja'afar. The Dutch took the bold initiative of taking the royal regalia from Engku Putri Hamidah by force after hearing of rumours of Sultan Hussein requesting British aid to get hold of the regalia. In November 1822, Sultan Abdul Rahman was installed as the Sultan of Lingga, complete with the royal regalia.
In the later part of his reign, growing British influence pressured some Malay nobles, particularly Bendahara Ali to grant recognition to Sultan Hussein's legitimacy. Sultan Abdul Rahman, who had devoted himself to religion, became contented with his political sphere of influence in Lingga, where his family continued to maintain his household under the administrative direction of Raja Ja'afar who ruled under the auspices of the Dutch. However, unresolved legal ambiguity in the legitimacy various local affairs, such as the status of Johor and Pahang, which was the de jure property of the Dutch-aligned Sultan Abdul Rahman and his successors, remained. The 1824 treaty would not allow Sultan Abdul Rahman to exert political authority over Johor and Pahang.
In the light of these circumstances, the Temenggong and Bendahara began to increasingly exert their independent authority. Also, largely as a result of the strong British influence in the Malay Peninsula, the continuously changing political dynamics gradually relegated these legitimacy disputes. In 1857, the Sultan of Lingga, Sultan Mahmud Muzaffar Shah, who was also de jure head of the royal house of Johor, Pahang and Lingga, made a vociferous claim to his legitimacy as the rightful ruler of these states and briefly sparked off a civil war in Pahang.
Sultan Hussein on his part, did not pursue any active claim to his sovereignty rights over Johor, even after Temenggong Abdul Rahman died in 1825, and even though his successor, Temenggong Ibrahim was still a youth at the time of Temenggong Abdul Rahman's passing. Sultan Hussein spent much of his time at his Singapore residence in Istana Kampong Glam until 1834, when he moved to Malacca. Reports cited that he was a dispirited man, apparently with the lack of power and authority that he should be accorded as the Sultan. Sultan Hussein died in September 1835, and was buried in Tranquera Mosque at the wishes of his Sultanah and Abdul Kadir, a Tamil-Muslim Imam.
Tunku Long see Hussein
Long, Tunku see Hussein
Hussein Mua'zzam Shah ibni Mahmud Shah Alam see Hussein
Hussein I
Hussein I (Husayn I) (Hussein bin Talal) (Ḥusayn bin Ṭalāl) (November 14, 1935 – February 7, 1999). King of Jordan (r. 1952-1999). Hussein bin Talal was born in Amman, on November 14, 1935, the son of the crown prince of Transjordan, Talal bin Abdullah and Zein al-Sharaf bint Jamil. Hussein was the grandson of King Abdullah bin Husein and was a member of the Hashemite dynasty, an Arabian family that traces its roots to the Prophet Muhammad. After completing his elementary education in Amman, Hussein attended Victoria College in Alexandria, Egypt, and Harrow School in England. He later received his military education at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in England.
On July 20, 1951, Hussein’s grandfather, King Abdullah, was murdered by a Palestinian at the al-Aqsa mosque in al-Quds in Jerusalem. Abdullah and Hussein had traveled to Jerusalem to perform Friday prayers, a regular routine. The Palestinian assassin, fearing that Abdullah might negotiate a peace with the newly-created state of Israel, opened fire on Abdullah and Hussein. Abdullah was killed but the 15 year old Hussein survived, and turned to pursue the gunman. The assassin fired again. However, the bullet was deflected by a medal that Hussein was wearing. Abdullah had just recently given the medal to Hussein and had insisted that his grandson wear it during the prayers. It was this fortuitous insistence, along with the medal, that saved Hussein's life.
On September 6, 1951, Abdullah's eldest son, Talal, assumed the throne. However, within a year, Talal was forced to abdicate due to mental illness. He allegedly suffered from schizophrenia. In August 1952, Talal was declared unfit to rule, and the 16 year old Hussein was named king.
Hussein was proclaimed King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on August 11, 1952. A Regency Council was appointed until King Hussein's formal ascension to the throne on May 2, 1953, when he assumed his constitutional powers after reaching the age of eighteen, according to the Islamic calendar.
From the outset, Hussein faced many challenges to his rule, Jordan (known as Transjordan before 1949) was created by the British after World War I (1914-1918) to reward the Hashemites for supporting Britain against the Ottoman Empire. Because their dynasty had originated outside of Jordan and their authority to rule Jordan had been granted by a foreign power, the country's Hashemite rulers did not enjoy the complete support of their subjects. In addition, the war between the newly declared state of Israel and neighboring Arab nations. During the war, Transjordanian forces had captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Jordan annexed these areas the following year and granted Jordanian citizenship to their inhabitants. West Bank Palestinians, along with the Palestinian refugees from Israel, often came into conflict with the Jordanian government. Furthermore, Jordan was a small country surrounded by much more powerful states, with a poor economy and few natural resources.
Nevertheless, the young king soon surprised his many doubters, surviving numerous assassination attempts and using his considerable diplomatic and political skills to lead Jordan through many crises. Hussein's moderate, pro-Western political views often came under attack from more radical and nationalist Arab leaders such as Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and Syrian president Hafez al-Assad. Much of Jordan's population, especially the Palestinians, called for policies more in line with the other Arab nations. Hussein initially bowed to political pressure, curtailing his country's relationship with Britain and permitting free elections in which more radical parties could gain a political voice.
In 1955, despite strong opposition in Jordan, Hussein decided to join the Baghdad Pact. In March 1956, Hussein sacked the general of the Jordanian army, John Glubb, in response to the strong political pressure being exerted in Jordan. In October of the same year, free elections were held, resulting in the presence of Arab nationalists and communists in the cabinet.
In April of 1957, a military coup, led by his chief of staff, was defeated. Hussein subsequently dissolved the parliament which was led by a pro-Nasser prime minister and introduced martial law. This move strained Jordan's relations with Egypt.
In February of 1958, Hussein became the deputy head of a federation between Jordan and Iraq. In July of 1958, with a coup in Iraq, the federation between Jordan and Iraq was dissolved.
In 1965, Hussein appointed his brother, Hassan, as crown prince.
Rising tensions between Israel and its Arab neighbors led Hussein to restore relations with Egypt in 1964, and in May 1967 the two countries signed a defense pact. When Israel launched a preemptive attack against Egypt and other Arab states in June of that year (a conflict known as the Six Day War). Jordan suffered heavy losses and lost control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem to Israel. The war also resulted in a new influx of Palestinian refugees, setting the stage for further turmoil in Jordan and a new challenge to Hussein's rule.
After the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, he was instrumental in drafting United Nation Security Council Resolution 242, which called on Israel to withdrew from all the Arab lands it occupied in the 1967 war in exchange for peace. This resolution served as the benchmark for all subsequent peace negotiations.
Hussein’s early reign was marked by numerous attempts on his life, and his position was made otherwise difficult by disagreements with more radical Arab leaders, who took exception with his pro-Western policies. After the disastrous Six Day War with Israel in 1967, Arab guerrilla organizations, demanding a Palestinian homeland, gained great strength in Jordan. Hussein, fearing overthrow by the militant guerrillas, opposed them and, in September 1970, a short civil war erupted. Hussein’s army was victorious and expelled the Palestinian forces out of the country in 1971.
With strong support among the refugees, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a political body working to create a state in historic Palestine for Palestinian Arabs, soon became a powerful force within Jordan. Terrorist attacks against Israel by the PLO from their bases in Jordan drew devastating Israeli reprisals on Jordan. In the early 1970s Hussein ordered his army to suppress PLO guerrilla activity in Jordan, and the PLO began calling for Hussein's ouster. Hussein cracked down, and his army eventually forced the PLo out of Jordan. Nevertheless, the Palestinian question continued to dominate Jordanian politics throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
In October 1973, Hussein declined to participate in the Arab war against Israel, partly after receiving advice from the United States. Israel emerged victorious from this war.
In 1974, Hussein relinquished future claims on the Israeli occupied west bank of the Jordan River to the Palestine Liberation Organization.
On June 15, 1978, Hussein married Lisa Najeeb Halaby, who took the crown name of Queen Noor. In September of 1978, Hussein did join the peace process between Israel and Egypt. Instead, during this time, Hussein’s relations with the Soviet Union were strengthened while his relations with the United States were lessened.
In 1985, Hussein reached an agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on a future confederation of a Palestinian state and Jordan.
In July 1988, Hussein ceded all Jordanian claims to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to the PLO.
In November 1989, free elections were held, where the Islamists received 32 out of 80 seats in the Parliament.
In 1990, with the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, Hussein worked hard to find a solution to the crisis, without going to war against Iraq. Hussein defied the West and other allied leaders by refusing to side against Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War. This act of neutrality was allegedly done for internal political reasons after the Ma'an uprising in 1988 that threatened the throne of the King. This act of neutrality also alienated the Jordan from most the Arab world.
In November of 1993, elections were held, leaving the Islamists with fewer seats than four years earlier.
On October 26, 1994, Hussein signed a peace agreement with Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at the border between the two countries. For many historians, this peace agreement was Hussein's greatest accomplishment since it ended forty-six years of hostile relations between the two countries. The 1994 treaty settled long-standing disputes over land and water rights, and the countries pledged cooperation in areas such as trade and tourism. This treaty also led to the resumption of foreign support for Jordan.
As a result of the negotiations over the 1994 treaty, Hussein developed strong ties of friendship with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. In January of 1996, in conjunction with the funeral of Yitzhak Rabin, Hussein made his first official visit to Israel and delivered a powerful speech at the funeral services. In this speech, Hussein said: "My sister, Mrs. Leah Rabin, my friends, I had never thought that the moment would come like this when I would grieve the loss of a brother, a colleague and a friend -- a man, a soldier who met us on the opposite side of a divide whom we respected as he respected us. A man I came to know because I realized, as he did, that we have to cross over the divide, establish a dialogue, get to know each other and strive to leave for those who follow us a legacy that is worthy of them. And so we did. And so we became brethren and friends."
Later, in October of 1996, Hussein visited Yassir Arafat in Jericho.
In November of 1997, Jordanian elections were met with a boycott from the Islamists resulting in a low turnout.
In January of 1999, Hussein appointed his eldest son, Abdullah, as crown prince, and dismissed his brother Hassan. This came at the same time that Hussein began intense medical treatments for cancer.
On February 5, 1999, King Hussein was declared clinically dead, but was kept on life support while his son Abdullah was sworn in as the new ruler.
On February 7, 1999, King Hussein died of complications related to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. At the time of his death, he was one of the longest serving leaders in international politics.
Hussein’s reign was marked by the differences between Palestinian refugees and the Jordanian people. His own politics were, at times, met with strong criticism in Jordan, and strong political control was essential to his survival through nearly fifty years of reign.
Hussein’s reign saw moderate, but steady, economic growth. In the international arena, he was counted as one of the United States' more reliable allies in the Middle East, even though he did not join the United States in its condemnation of Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait in 1990.
On a very basic human level, Hussein's reign was quite beneficial to the Jordanian people. While in 1950, water sanitation and electricity were available to only 10% of Jordanians, at the time of his death 99% of the population had clean water, sanitation and electricity services. In 1960 only 33% of Jordanians were literate, while by 1996, this number had climbed to 85.5%. In 1961, while the average Jordanian received a daily intake of 2198 calories, by 1992 this figure had increased by 37.5% to reach 3022 calories. UNICEF statistics show that between 1981 and 1991. Jordan achieved the world's fastest annual rate of decline in infant mortality -- from 70 deaths per 1000 births in 1981 to 37 per 1000 in 1991, a fall of over 47%.
Hussein authored three books: Uneasy Lies the Head (1962), a book about his childhood and early years as king; My War With Israel (1969); and Mon Metier de Roi (1975).
Hussein was married four times. He divorced his first two wives, while the third was killed in an air crash. His fourth wife, Queen Noor, was the United States born Elizabeth (Liza) Najeeb Halaby (b. 1951). Hussein also had twelve children: Alia, Abdullah, Faisal, Zein, Aisha, Haya, Ali, Abeer, Hamzah, Hashim, Iman, and Raiyah. He also had a large number of grandchildren.
Husayn I see Hussein I
Hussein bin Talal see Hussein I
Husayn bin Talal see Hussein I
Hussein I (Husayn I) (Hussein bin Talal) (Ḥusayn bin Ṭalāl) (November 14, 1935 – February 7, 1999). King of Jordan (r. 1952-1999). Hussein bin Talal was born in Amman, on November 14, 1935, the son of the crown prince of Transjordan, Talal bin Abdullah and Zein al-Sharaf bint Jamil. Hussein was the grandson of King Abdullah bin Husein and was a member of the Hashemite dynasty, an Arabian family that traces its roots to the Prophet Muhammad. After completing his elementary education in Amman, Hussein attended Victoria College in Alexandria, Egypt, and Harrow School in England. He later received his military education at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in England.
On July 20, 1951, Hussein’s grandfather, King Abdullah, was murdered by a Palestinian at the al-Aqsa mosque in al-Quds in Jerusalem. Abdullah and Hussein had traveled to Jerusalem to perform Friday prayers, a regular routine. The Palestinian assassin, fearing that Abdullah might negotiate a peace with the newly-created state of Israel, opened fire on Abdullah and Hussein. Abdullah was killed but the 15 year old Hussein survived, and turned to pursue the gunman. The assassin fired again. However, the bullet was deflected by a medal that Hussein was wearing. Abdullah had just recently given the medal to Hussein and had insisted that his grandson wear it during the prayers. It was this fortuitous insistence, along with the medal, that saved Hussein's life.
On September 6, 1951, Abdullah's eldest son, Talal, assumed the throne. However, within a year, Talal was forced to abdicate due to mental illness. He allegedly suffered from schizophrenia. In August 1952, Talal was declared unfit to rule, and the 16 year old Hussein was named king.
Hussein was proclaimed King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on August 11, 1952. A Regency Council was appointed until King Hussein's formal ascension to the throne on May 2, 1953, when he assumed his constitutional powers after reaching the age of eighteen, according to the Islamic calendar.
From the outset, Hussein faced many challenges to his rule, Jordan (known as Transjordan before 1949) was created by the British after World War I (1914-1918) to reward the Hashemites for supporting Britain against the Ottoman Empire. Because their dynasty had originated outside of Jordan and their authority to rule Jordan had been granted by a foreign power, the country's Hashemite rulers did not enjoy the complete support of their subjects. In addition, the war between the newly declared state of Israel and neighboring Arab nations. During the war, Transjordanian forces had captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Jordan annexed these areas the following year and granted Jordanian citizenship to their inhabitants. West Bank Palestinians, along with the Palestinian refugees from Israel, often came into conflict with the Jordanian government. Furthermore, Jordan was a small country surrounded by much more powerful states, with a poor economy and few natural resources.
Nevertheless, the young king soon surprised his many doubters, surviving numerous assassination attempts and using his considerable diplomatic and political skills to lead Jordan through many crises. Hussein's moderate, pro-Western political views often came under attack from more radical and nationalist Arab leaders such as Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and Syrian president Hafez al-Assad. Much of Jordan's population, especially the Palestinians, called for policies more in line with the other Arab nations. Hussein initially bowed to political pressure, curtailing his country's relationship with Britain and permitting free elections in which more radical parties could gain a political voice.
In 1955, despite strong opposition in Jordan, Hussein decided to join the Baghdad Pact. In March 1956, Hussein sacked the general of the Jordanian army, John Glubb, in response to the strong political pressure being exerted in Jordan. In October of the same year, free elections were held, resulting in the presence of Arab nationalists and communists in the cabinet.
In April of 1957, a military coup, led by his chief of staff, was defeated. Hussein subsequently dissolved the parliament which was led by a pro-Nasser prime minister and introduced martial law. This move strained Jordan's relations with Egypt.
In February of 1958, Hussein became the deputy head of a federation between Jordan and Iraq. In July of 1958, with a coup in Iraq, the federation between Jordan and Iraq was dissolved.
In 1965, Hussein appointed his brother, Hassan, as crown prince.
Rising tensions between Israel and its Arab neighbors led Hussein to restore relations with Egypt in 1964, and in May 1967 the two countries signed a defense pact. When Israel launched a preemptive attack against Egypt and other Arab states in June of that year (a conflict known as the Six Day War). Jordan suffered heavy losses and lost control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem to Israel. The war also resulted in a new influx of Palestinian refugees, setting the stage for further turmoil in Jordan and a new challenge to Hussein's rule.
After the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, he was instrumental in drafting United Nation Security Council Resolution 242, which called on Israel to withdrew from all the Arab lands it occupied in the 1967 war in exchange for peace. This resolution served as the benchmark for all subsequent peace negotiations.
Hussein’s early reign was marked by numerous attempts on his life, and his position was made otherwise difficult by disagreements with more radical Arab leaders, who took exception with his pro-Western policies. After the disastrous Six Day War with Israel in 1967, Arab guerrilla organizations, demanding a Palestinian homeland, gained great strength in Jordan. Hussein, fearing overthrow by the militant guerrillas, opposed them and, in September 1970, a short civil war erupted. Hussein’s army was victorious and expelled the Palestinian forces out of the country in 1971.
With strong support among the refugees, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a political body working to create a state in historic Palestine for Palestinian Arabs, soon became a powerful force within Jordan. Terrorist attacks against Israel by the PLO from their bases in Jordan drew devastating Israeli reprisals on Jordan. In the early 1970s Hussein ordered his army to suppress PLO guerrilla activity in Jordan, and the PLO began calling for Hussein's ouster. Hussein cracked down, and his army eventually forced the PLo out of Jordan. Nevertheless, the Palestinian question continued to dominate Jordanian politics throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
In October 1973, Hussein declined to participate in the Arab war against Israel, partly after receiving advice from the United States. Israel emerged victorious from this war.
In 1974, Hussein relinquished future claims on the Israeli occupied west bank of the Jordan River to the Palestine Liberation Organization.
On June 15, 1978, Hussein married Lisa Najeeb Halaby, who took the crown name of Queen Noor. In September of 1978, Hussein did join the peace process between Israel and Egypt. Instead, during this time, Hussein’s relations with the Soviet Union were strengthened while his relations with the United States were lessened.
In 1985, Hussein reached an agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on a future confederation of a Palestinian state and Jordan.
In July 1988, Hussein ceded all Jordanian claims to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to the PLO.
In November 1989, free elections were held, where the Islamists received 32 out of 80 seats in the Parliament.
In 1990, with the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, Hussein worked hard to find a solution to the crisis, without going to war against Iraq. Hussein defied the West and other allied leaders by refusing to side against Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War. This act of neutrality was allegedly done for internal political reasons after the Ma'an uprising in 1988 that threatened the throne of the King. This act of neutrality also alienated the Jordan from most the Arab world.
In November of 1993, elections were held, leaving the Islamists with fewer seats than four years earlier.
On October 26, 1994, Hussein signed a peace agreement with Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at the border between the two countries. For many historians, this peace agreement was Hussein's greatest accomplishment since it ended forty-six years of hostile relations between the two countries. The 1994 treaty settled long-standing disputes over land and water rights, and the countries pledged cooperation in areas such as trade and tourism. This treaty also led to the resumption of foreign support for Jordan.
As a result of the negotiations over the 1994 treaty, Hussein developed strong ties of friendship with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. In January of 1996, in conjunction with the funeral of Yitzhak Rabin, Hussein made his first official visit to Israel and delivered a powerful speech at the funeral services. In this speech, Hussein said: "My sister, Mrs. Leah Rabin, my friends, I had never thought that the moment would come like this when I would grieve the loss of a brother, a colleague and a friend -- a man, a soldier who met us on the opposite side of a divide whom we respected as he respected us. A man I came to know because I realized, as he did, that we have to cross over the divide, establish a dialogue, get to know each other and strive to leave for those who follow us a legacy that is worthy of them. And so we did. And so we became brethren and friends."
Later, in October of 1996, Hussein visited Yassir Arafat in Jericho.
In November of 1997, Jordanian elections were met with a boycott from the Islamists resulting in a low turnout.
In January of 1999, Hussein appointed his eldest son, Abdullah, as crown prince, and dismissed his brother Hassan. This came at the same time that Hussein began intense medical treatments for cancer.
On February 5, 1999, King Hussein was declared clinically dead, but was kept on life support while his son Abdullah was sworn in as the new ruler.
On February 7, 1999, King Hussein died of complications related to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. At the time of his death, he was one of the longest serving leaders in international politics.
Hussein’s reign was marked by the differences between Palestinian refugees and the Jordanian people. His own politics were, at times, met with strong criticism in Jordan, and strong political control was essential to his survival through nearly fifty years of reign.
Hussein’s reign saw moderate, but steady, economic growth. In the international arena, he was counted as one of the United States' more reliable allies in the Middle East, even though he did not join the United States in its condemnation of Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait in 1990.
On a very basic human level, Hussein's reign was quite beneficial to the Jordanian people. While in 1950, water sanitation and electricity were available to only 10% of Jordanians, at the time of his death 99% of the population had clean water, sanitation and electricity services. In 1960 only 33% of Jordanians were literate, while by 1996, this number had climbed to 85.5%. In 1961, while the average Jordanian received a daily intake of 2198 calories, by 1992 this figure had increased by 37.5% to reach 3022 calories. UNICEF statistics show that between 1981 and 1991. Jordan achieved the world's fastest annual rate of decline in infant mortality -- from 70 deaths per 1000 births in 1981 to 37 per 1000 in 1991, a fall of over 47%.
Hussein authored three books: Uneasy Lies the Head (1962), a book about his childhood and early years as king; My War With Israel (1969); and Mon Metier de Roi (1975).
Hussein was married four times. He divorced his first two wives, while the third was killed in an air crash. His fourth wife, Queen Noor, was the United States born Elizabeth (Liza) Najeeb Halaby (b. 1951). Hussein also had twelve children: Alia, Abdullah, Faisal, Zein, Aisha, Haya, Ali, Abeer, Hamzah, Hashim, Iman, and Raiyah. He also had a large number of grandchildren.
Husayn I see Hussein I
Hussein bin Talal see Hussein I
Husayn bin Talal see Hussein I
Hussein, Saddam
Hussein, Saddam (Saddam Husayn) (Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti) (Ṣaddām Ḥusayn ʿAbd al-Majīd al-Tikrītī) (April 28, 1937 – December 30, 2006). President of Iraq (1979-2003).
Saddam was born on April 28, 1937, in Auja (al-Awja), near (13 kilometers from) the city of Tikrit. Tikrit is located 200 kilometers north of Baghdad in an area known as the Sunni Triangle. He was born to a family of shepherds from the al-Begat tribal group. His mother, Subha Tulfah al-Mussallat, named her new born son, Saddam, which in Arabic means "One who confronts." Saddam never knew his father, Hussein 'Abd al-Majid, who disappeared six months before Saddam was born. Shortly after the disappearance, Saddam's thirteen year old brother died of cancer, leaving his mother severely depressed in the final months of the pregnancy. The infant Saddam was sent to the family of his maternal uncle, Khairallah Tulfah, until he was three.
Saddam's mother remarried, and Hussein gained three half-brothers. His stepfather, Ibrahim al-Hassan, treated Saddam harshly after his return. At around ten, Saddam fled the family and returned to live in Baghdad with his uncle, Khairallah Tulfah. Tulfah, the father of Saddam's future wife, was a devout Sunni Muslim. Later in his life, relatives from his native Tikrit would become some of Saddam's closest advisors and supporters. According to Saddam, he learned many things from his uncle, a militant Iraqi nationalist. Under the guidance of his uncle, Saddam attended a nationalistic secondary school in Baghdad. After secondary school, Saddam studied at Iraq's School of Law for three years, prior to dropping out in 1957, at the age of twenty, to join the revolutionary pan-Arab Ba'ath Party, of which his uncle was a supporter. During this time, Saddam apparently supported himself as a secondary school teacher.
During the 1950s and 1960s, revolutionary sentiment was characteristic of the era in Iraq and throughout the Middle East. The stranglehold of the old elites (the conservative monarchists, established families, and merchants) was breaking down in Iraq. Moreover, the populist pan-Arab nationalism of Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt would profoundly influence the young Ba'athist. The rise of Nasser foreshadowed a wave of revolutions throughout the Middle East in the 1950s and 1960s, which would see the collapse of the monarchies of Iraq, Egypt, and Libya. Nasser challenged the British and French, nationalized the Suez Canal, and strove to modernize Egypt and unite the Arab world politically.
In 1956, Saddam joined the Iraqi branch of the Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party. Two years later, army officers led by General Abdul Karim Qassim overthrew Faisal II of Iraq. The Ba'athists opposed the new government. In 1958, Saddam was sentenced to prison for political activities against the regime, and spent six months in prison. In 1959, Saddam participated in a United States backed coup attempt against Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qassim. During the coup, Saddam was shot in his leg by the minister’s bodyguards. Subsequently, he escaped to Syria, and then to Egypt.
While he was in Egypt, Saddam was sentenced to death in absentia (on February 25, 1960) while completing his secondary studies (in 1962).
Army officers with ties to the Ba'ath Party overthrew Qassim in a coup in 1963. On February 8, 1963, Saddam returned to Iraq following the Ramadan revolution and immediately joined the leadership of the Ba’ath Party. Ba'athist leaders were appointed to the cabinet and Abdul Salam Arif became president. Arif dismissed and arrested the Ba'athist leaders later that year. On October 14, 1964, Saddam was arrested as part of Arif's campaign against Ba’ath Party members.
In 1966, while still in prison, Saddam was elected Deputy Secretary General of the Ba’ath Party.
In 1967, Saddam escaped from prison. Saddam subsequently (in 1968) became active in the two Ba’athist coups in July (July 17 and July 30). A bloodless coup led by Saddam's second cousin, Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr overthrew Abdul Rahman Arif. Al-Bakr was named president and Saddam was named his deputy. As Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, Saddam assumed the position of being responsible for internal security. Saddam soon became the regime's most powerful player. According to biographers, Saddam never forgot the tensions within the first Ba'athist government, which informed his measures to promote Ba'ath Party unity as well as his ruthless resolve to maintain power and programs to ensure social stability.
Soon after becoming deputy to the president, Saddam demanded and received the rank of four star general despite his lack of military training. Later in 1968, Saddam also graduated from the College of Law.
Although Saddam was al-Bakr's deputy, he was a strong behind-the-scenes party politician whose formative experiences were in organizing concealed opposition activity. He was adept at outmaneuvering -- and at times ruthlessly eliminating -- political opponents. Although al-Bakr was the older and more prestigious of the two, by 1969, Saddam Hussein clearly had become the moving force behind the party. On November 9, 1969, Saddam was formally elected Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council.
Saddam consolidated power in a nation riddled with profound tensions. Long before Saddam, Iraq had been split along social, ethnic, religious, and economic fault lines: Sunni versus Shi'ite, Arab versus Kurd, tribal chief versus urban merchant, nomad versus peasant. Stable rule in a country rife with factionalism required the improvement of living standards. Saddam moved up the ranks in the new government by aiding attempts to strengthen and unify the Ba'ath Party and taking a leading role in addressing the country's major domestic problems and expanding the party's following.
At the center of this strategy was Iraq's oil. On June 1, 1972, Saddam led the process of nationalizing the oil resources in Iraq, which had been in control by Western companies. A year later, world oil prices rose dramatically as a result of the 1973 energy crisis, and skyrocketing revenues enabled Saddam to expand his agenda.
Within just a few years, Iraq was providing social services that were unprecedented among Middle Eastern countries. Saddam established and controlled the "National Campaign for the Eradication of Illiteracy" and the campaign for "Compulsory Free Education in Iraq," and largely under his auspices, the government established universal free schooling up to the highest education levels. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis learned to read in the years following the initiation of the program. The government also supported families of soldiers, granted free hospitalization to everyone, and gave subsidies to farmers. Iraq created one of the most modernized public health systems in the Middle East, earning Saddam an award from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
To diversify the largely oil-based economy, Saddam implemented a national infrastructure campaign that made great progress in building roads, promoting mining, and developing other industries. The campaign revolutionized Iraq's energy industries. Electricity was brought to nearly every city in Iraq, and many outlying areas.
Before the 1970s, most of Iraq's people lived in the countryside, and roughly two-thirds were peasants. However, this number would decrease quickly during the 1970s as the country invested much of its oil profits into industrial expansion. Nevertheless, Saddam focused on fostering loyalty to the Ba'athist government in the rural areas. After nationalizing foreign oil interests, Saddam supervised the modernization of the countryside, mechanizing agriculture on a large scale, and distributing land to peasant farmers. The Ba'athists established farm cooperatives, in which profits were distributed according to the labors of the individual and the unskilled were trained. The government's commitment to agrarian reform was demonstrated by the doubling of expenditures for agricultural development in 1974-1975. Moreover, agrarian reform in Iraq improved the living standard of the peasantry and increased production, though not to the levels Saddam had desired.
Saddam became personally associated with Ba'athist welfare and economic development programs in the eyes of many Iraqis, widening his appeal both within his traditional base and among new sectors of the population. These programs were part of a combination of "carrot and stick" tactics to enhance support in the working class, the peasantry, and within the party and the government bureaucracy.
Saddam's organizational prowess was credited with Iraq's rapid pace of development in the 1970s. Development went forward at such a fevered pitch that two million persons from other Arab countries and Yugoslavia worked in Iraq to meet the growing demand for labor.
In 1975, Saddam signed the Algiers Accord with Iran (which, in part, regulated the border question). Signing the Accord was an act that indicated that Saddam had gained a stronger position than his ally Bakr. In 1976, Saddam rose to the position of general in the Iraqi armed forces, and rapidly became the strongman of the government. As the weak, elderly al-Bakr became unable to execute his duties, Saddam took on an increasingly prominent role as the face of the government both internally and externally. He soon became the architect of Iraq's foreign policy and represented the nation in all diplomatic situations. He was the de facto ruler of Iraq some years before he formally came to power in 1979. He slowly began to consolidate his power over Iraq's government and the Ba'ath party. Relationships with fellow party members were carefully cultivated, and Saddam soon accumulated a powerful circle of support within the party.
In 1979, Saddam assumed the position of president after he had discovered that Bakr had started negotiations on unity between Syria and Iraq. The unification of Syria and Iraq would have led to Syrian President Hafez al-Assad becoming deputy leader of the new nation with al-Bakr as the leader. This would have driven Saddam into obscurity. Saddam acted to secure his grip on power. He forced the ailing al-Bakr to resign on July 16, 1979. Al-Bakr was then stripped of all power and placed under house arrest, while Saddam formally assumed the presidency.
Shortly after assuming the presidency, on July 22, 1979, Saddam convened an assembly of Ba'ath party leaders. During the assembly, which he ordered videotaped, Saddam claimed to have found spies and conspirators within the Ba'ath Party and read out the names of sixty-eight (68) members that he alleged to be spies. These members were labeled "disloyal" and were removed from the room one by one and taken into custody. After the list was read, Saddam congratulated those still seated in the room for their past and future loyalty. The sixty-eight (68) people arrested at the meeting were subsequently put on trial, and twenty-two (22) were sentenced to execution for treason.
Saddam Hussein saw himself as a social revolutionary and a modernizer, following the example of Nasser. To the consternation of Islamic conservatives, Saddam's government gave women added freedoms and offered them high-level government and industry jobs. Saddam also created a Western style legal system, making Iraq the only country in the Persian Gulf region not ruled according to traditional Islamic law (shari'a). Saddam abolished the shari'a law courts, except for personal injury claims.
Domestic conflict impeded Saddam's modernizing projects. The Iraqi society of Saddam Hussein's time was divided along lines of language, religion and ethnicity. Saddam's government rested on the support of the twenty percent (20%) minority of largely working class, peasant, and lower middle class Sunnis, continuing a pattern that dates back at least to the British mandate authority's reliance on them as administrators.
The Shi'a majority were long a source of opposition to the government's secular policies, and the Ba'ath Party was increasingly concerned about potential Shi 'a Islamist influence following the Iranian Revolution of 1979. The Kurds of northern Iraq (who are Sunni Muslims but not Arabs) were also permanently hostile to the Ba'athist party's pan-Arabism. To maintain his regime Saddam tended either to provide them with benefits so as to co-opt them into the regime, or to take repressive measures against them. The major instruments for accomplishing this control were the paramilitary and police organizations. Beginning in 1974, Taha Yassin Ramadan, a close associate of Saddam, commanded the People's Army, which was responsible for internal security. As the Ba'ath Party's paramilitary, the People's Army acted as a counterweight against any coup attempts by the regular armed forces. In addition to the People's Army, the Department of General Intelligence (Mukhabarat) was the most notorious arm of the state security system, feared for its use of torture and assassination. It was commanded by Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Saddam's younger half-brother. Beginning in 1982, foreign observers believed that this department operated both at home and abroad in their mission to seek out and eliminate Saddam's perceived opponents.
Saddam justified Iraqi nationalism by claiming a unique role for Iraq in the history of the Arab world. As president, Saddam made frequent references to the 'Abbasid period, when Baghdad was the political, cultural, and economic capital of the Arab world. He also promoted Iraq's pre-Islamic role as Mesopotamia, the ancient cradle of civilization, alluding to such historical figures as Nebuchadrezzar II and Hammurabi. He devoted resources to archaeological explorations. In effect, Saddam sought to combine pan-Arabism and Iraqi nationalism, by promoting the vision of an Arab world united and led by Iraq.
As a sign of his consolidation of power, Saddam's personality cult pervaded Iraqi society. Thousands of portraits, posters, statues, and murals were erected in his honor all over Iraq. His face could be seen on the sides of office buildings, schools, airports, and shops, as well as on Iraqi currency. Saddam's personality cult reflected his efforts to appeal to the various elements in Iraqi society. He appeared in the costumes of the Bedouin, the traditional clothes of the Iraqi peasant (which he essentially wore during his childhood), and even Kurdish clothing, but also appeared in Western suits, projecting the image of an urbane and modern leader. Sometimes he would also be portrayed as a devout Muslim, wearing full headdress and robe, praying toward Mecca.
In foreign affairs, Saddam sought to have Iraq play a leading role in the Middle East. Iraq signed an aid pact with the Soviet Union in 1972, and arms were sent along with several thousand advisers. However, the 1978 executions of Iraqi Communists, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Soviet hope for increased influence in Iran and a shift of trade toward the West strained Iraqi relations with the Soviet Union, leading to a more Western orientation from 1978 until the Gulf War in 1991. Nevertheless, Saddam continued to receive the majority (70%) of his armaments from the Soviet bloc.
After the oil crisis of 1973, France changed to a more pro-Arab policy and was accordingly rewarded by Saddam with closer ties. Saddam made a state visit to France in 1976, cementing close ties with some French business and conservative political circles. Saddam led Arab opposition to the 1979 Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel. In 1975, he negotiated an accord with Iran that contained Iraqi concessions on border disputes. In return, Iran agreed to stop supporting opposition Kurds in Iraq.
Saddam initiated Iraq's nuclear enrichment project in the 1980s, with French assistance. The first Iraqi nuclear reactor was named by the French "Osirak," a portmanteau formed from "Osiris," the name of the French experimental reactor that served as template and "Irak," the French spelling of "Iraq.". Osirak was destroyed by an Israeli air strike (Operation Opera, because Israel suspected it was going to start producing weapons - grade nuclear material.
At the founding as a modern state in 1920, Churchill had recommended making the Kurds in the northern part of the country independent to protect them from oppression from Baghdad. Saddam did negotiate an agreement in 1970 with separatist Kurdish leaders, giving them autonomy, but the agreement broke down. The result was brutal fighting between the government and Kurdish groups and even Iraqi bombing of Kurdish villages in Iran, which caused Iraqi relations with Iran to deteriorate. After Saddam had negotiated the 1975 treaty with Iran, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi withdrew support for the Kurds, who suffered a total defeat and a subsequent Iraqi campaign in which 200,000 Kurds were deported.
In 1979, Iran's Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was overthrown in the Islamic Revolution, thus giving way to an Islamic republic led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The influence of revolutionary Shi'ite Islam grew apace in the region, particularly in countries with large Shi'ite populations, especially Iraq. Saddam feared that radical Islamic ideas -- hostile to his secular rule -- were rapidly spreading in southern Iraq among the majority Shi'ite population.
There had also been bitter enmity between Saddam and Khomeini. Khomeini having been exiled from Iran in 1964, took up residence in Iraq, at the Shi'ite holy city of An Najaf. There he involved himself with Iraqi Shi'ites and developed a strong, worldwide religious and political following. Under pressure from the Shah, who had agreed to a rapprochement between Iraq and Iran in 1975, Saddam agreed to expel Khomeini in 1978.
After Khomeini gained power, skirmishes between Iraq and revolutionary Iran occurred for ten months over the sovereignty of the disputed Arvandrud/Shatt al-Arab waterway, which divides the two countries. During this period, Saddam Hussein continually maintained that it was in Iraq's interest not to engage with Iran, and that it was in the interests of both nations to maintain peaceful relations. However, in a private meeting with Salah Omar Al-Ali, Iraq's permanent ambassador to the United Nations, he revealed that he intended to invade and occupy a large part of Iran within months. Iraq invaded Iran, first attacking Mehrabad Airport of Tehran and then entering the oil-rich Iranian land of Khuzestan, which also has a sizeable Arab minority, on September 22, 1980, and declared it a new province of Iraq. United States policy was to support neither side and discourage other countries from doing so during this time.
In the first days of the war, there was heavy ground fighting around strategic ports as Iraq launched an attack on Khuzestan. After making some initial gains, Iraq's troops began to suffer losses from human wave attacks by Iran. By 1982, Iraq was on the defensive and looking for
for ways to end the war. At this point, Saddam asked his ministers for candid advice. Health Minister Riyadh Ibrahim suggested that Saddam temporarily step down to promote peace negotiations. Ibrahim's chopped up body was delivered to his wife the next day.
Iraq soon found itself bogged down in one of the longest and most destructive wars of attrition of the twentieth century. During the war, Iraq used chemical weapons against Iranian forces fighting on the southern front and Kurdish separatists who were attempting to open up a northern front in Iraq with the help of Iran. These chemical weapons were developed by Iraq from materials and technology supplied primarily by West German companies.
Saddam reached out to other Arab governments for cash and political support during the war, particularly after Iraq's oil industry severely suffered at the hands of the Iranian navy in the Persian Gulf. Iraq successfully gained some military and financial aid, as well as diplomatic and moral support, from the Soviet Union, China, France, and the United States, which together feared the prospects of the expansion of revolutionary Iran's influence in the region. The Iranians, claiming that the international community should force Iraq to pay war reparations to Iran, refused any suggestions for a cease fire. They continued the war until 1988, hoping to bring down Saddam's secular regime and instigate a Shi'ite rebellion in Iraq.
On March 16, 1988, the Kurdish town of Halabja was attacked with a mix of mustard gas and nerve agents, killing 5,000 civilians, and maiming, disfiguring, or seriously debilitating 10,000 more. The attack occurred in conjunction with the 1988 al-Anfal campaign designed to reassert central control of the mostly Kurdish population of areas of northern Iraq and defeat the Kurdish peshmerga rebel forces. Prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, United States began to maintain that Saddam ordered the attack to terrorize the Kurdish population in northern Iraq, but Saddam's regime claimed, at the time, that Iran was responsible for the attack and United States analysts, at the time, did not definitively reject the claim until several years later.
In 1988, with the help of the United States Navy in the Persian Gulf, Iraq was able to regain territory lost to Iran between 1984 and 1986. In July, the war against Iran ended, without changes to the Iran-Iraq borders. The bloody eight-year war ended in a stalemate. There were hundreds of thousands of casualties, perhaps upwards of 1.7 million died on both sides. Both economies, previously healthy and expanding, were left in ruins.
Saddam borrowed a tremendous amount of money from other Arab states during the 1980s to fight Iran and was stuck with a war debt of roughly $75 billion. Faced with rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure, Saddam desperately sought out cash once again, this time for postwar reconstruction. The desperate search for foreign credit would eventually humiliate the strongman who had long sought to dominate Arab nationalism throughout the Middle East.
The end of the war with Iran served to deepen latent tensions between Iraq and its wealthy neighbor Kuwait. Saddam saw his war with Iran as having spared Kuwait from the imminent threat of Iranian domination. Since the struggle with Iran had been fought for the benefit of the other Gulf Arab states as much as for Iraq, he argued, a share of Iraqi debt should be forgiven. Saddam urged the Kuwaitis to forgive the Iraqi debt accumulated in the war, some $30 billion, but the Kuwaitis refused, claiming that Saddam was responsible to pay off his debts for the war he started.
Also to raise money for postwar reconstruction, Saddam pushed oil-exporting countries to raise oil prices by cutting back oil production. Kuwait refused to cut production. In addition to refusing the request, Kuwait spearheaded the opposition in OPEC to the cuts that Saddam had requested. Kuwait was pumping large amounts of oil, and thus keeping prices low, when Iraq needed to sell high-priced oil from its wells to pay off a huge debt.
Meanwhile, Saddam showed disdain for the Kuwait-Iraq boundary line. One of the few articles of faith uniting the political scene in a nation rife with sharp social, ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic divides was the belief that Kuwait had not right to even exist in the first place. For at least half a century, Iraqi nationalists were espousing emphatically the belief that Kuwait was historically an integral part of Iraq, and that Kuwait had only come into being through the maneuverings of British imperialism.
The colossal extent of Kuwait oil reserves also intensified tensions in the region. The oil reserves of Kuwait (with a population of a mere two million next to Iraq's 25) were roughly equal to those of Iraq. Taken together, Iraq and Kuwait sat on top of some twenty percent (20%) of the world's known oil reserves. Saudi Arabia, by comparison, holds twenty-five percent (25%).
Saddam further alleged that the Kuwait slant drilled oil out of wells that Iraq considered to be within its disputed border with Kuwait. Given that, at the time, Iraq was not regarded as a pariah state, Saddam was able to complain about the alleged slant drilling to the United States State Department. Although this had continued for years, Saddam now needed oil money to stem a looming economic crisis. Saddam still had an experienced and well-equipped army, which he used to influence regional affairs. He later ordered troops to the Iraq-Kuwait border.
As Iraq-Kuwait relations rapidly deteriorated, Saddam was receiving conflicting information about how the United States would respond to the prospects of an invasion. For one, Washington had been taking measures to cultivate a constructive relationship with Iraq for roughly a decade. The United States also sent billions of dollars to Saddam to keep him from forming a strong alliance with the Soviets. United States ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie met with Saddam in an emergency meeting on July 25, 1990, where the Iraqi leader stated his intention to continue talks. United States officials attempted to maintain a conciliatory line with Iraq, indicating that while President Bush and Secretary of State James Baker did not want force used, they would not take any position on the Iraq-Kuwait boundary dispute and did not want to become involved. However, United States officials did not given any explicit statement of approval of, acceptance of, or foreknowledge of the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq. Later, Iraq and Kuwait met for a final negotiation session, which failed. Saddam then sent his troops into Kuwait.
On August 2, 1990, Saddam invaded and annexed the emirate of Kuwait. United States president George Herbert Walker Bush responded cautiously for the first several days after the invasion. On the one hand, Iraq, prior to this point, had been a virulent enemy of Israel and was allied with the Soviets implying that they might support him. On the other hand, Kuwait was considered an ally, and Iraq's earlier control of twenty percent of the world's crude oil reserves (doubled by the invasion) meant that American interests were heavily invested in the region, and the invasion triggered fears that the price of oil, and therefore the world economy, was at stake. The United Kingdom was also concerned. Britain had a close historical relationship with Kuwait, dating back to British colonialism in the region, and also benefitted from billions of dollars in Kuwaiti investment.
Cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union made possible the passage of resolutions in the United Nations Security Council giving Iraq a deadline to leave Kuwait and approving the use of force if Saddam did not comply with the timetable. American officials feared that Iraq would retaliate against oil-rich Saudi Arabia, a close ally of Washington since the 1940s, for the Saudis' opposition to the invasion of Kuwait. Accordingly, the United States and a group of allies, including countries as diverse as Egypt, Syria and Czechoslovakia, deployed massive amounts of troops along the Saudi border with Kuwait and Iraq in order to deter the Iraqi army, the largest in the Middle East.
During the period of negotiations and threats following the invasion, Saddam raised the subject of the Palestinian problem by promising to withdraw his forces from Kuwait if Israel would relinquish the occupied territories in the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the Gaza Strip. Saddam's proposal further split the Arab world, pitting American and Western supported Arab states against the Palestinians. The allies ultimately rejected any connection between the Kuwait crisis and Palestinian issues.
Saddam ignored the Security Council deadline. with the unanimous consent of the Security Council, an American led coalition launched round the clock missile and aerial attacks on Iraq, beginning January 16, 1991. Israel, though subjected to attack by Iraqi missiles, refrained from retaliating in order not to provoke Arab states into leaving the coalition. A ground force comprised largely of American and British armored and infantry divisions ejected Saddam's army from Kuwait in February 1991 and occupied the southern portion of Iraq asfar as the Euphrates. Before leaving, Saddam ordered Kuwaiti oil fields set ablaze.
On March 6, 1991, referring to the conflict, President Bush announced: "What is at stake is more than one small country, it is a big idea -- a new world order, where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind: peace and security, freedom, and the rule of law."
In the end, the over-manned and ill-equipped Iraqi army proved unable to compete on the battlefield with the highly mobile coalition land forces and their overpowering air support. 175,000 Iraqis were taken prisoner and casualties were estimated at approximately 20,000 according to United States data, with other sources pinning the number as high as 100,000. as part of the cease-fire agreement, Iraq agreed to abandon all chemical and biological weapons and allow United Nations observers to inspect the sites. United Nations trade sanctions would remain in effect until Iraq complied with all terms.
In the aftermath of the fighting, social and ethnic unrest among Shi'a Muslims, Kurds, and dissident military units threatened the stability of Saddam's government. Uprisings began in the Kurdish north and Shi 'a southern and central parts of Iraq, but were quelled in short order. In 2005, the BBC reported that as many as 30,000 were killed during those 1991 rebellions.
The United States, after urging the Iraqi people to rise up and overthrow Hussein, did nothing to assist those who did. Further playing into the plans of Hussein, the United States unwittingly loosened rules on helicopter flights in the no-fly zones allowing Hussein's remaining military force to easily put down the rebellions. The United States ally Turkey opposed any prospect of Kurdish independence, and the Saudis and other conservative Arab states feared an Iran-style Shi'a revolution. Saddam, having survived the immediate crisis in the wake of defeat and a car crash, which left a small scar on his face and a injury on a finger, was left firmly in control of Iraq. Although the country never recovered either economically or militarily from the Persian Gulf War, Saddam routinely trumpeted the survival of his regime as "proof" that Iraq had won the war against America. This stance earned Saddam a great deal of popularity in many sectors of the Arab world.
Hussein increasingly portrayed himself as a devout Muslim, in an effort to co-opt the conservative religious segments of society. Elements of shari'a were re-introduced, such as the 2001 edict imposing the executions for sodomy, rape, and prostitution, the legalization of honor killings, and the ritual phase "Allahu Akbar" ("God is Great"), was added to the Iraq national flag in Saddam Hussein's handwriting.
Relations between the United States and Iraq remained tense following the Gulf War. In April 1993, the Iraqi Intelligence Service allegedly attempted to assassinate former President George Herbert Walker Bush during a visit to Kuwait. Kuwaiti security forces apprehended a group of Iraqis at the scene of an alleged bombing attempt. On June 26, 1993, the United States launched a missile attack targeting Baghdad intelligence headquarters in retaliation for the alleged assassination attempt.
The United Nations sanctions placed upon Iraq when it invaded Kuwait were not lifted, blocking Iraqi oil exports. This caused immense hardship in Iraq and virtually destroyed the Iraqi economy and state infrastructure. Only smuggling across the Syrian border and humanitarian aid (the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme) ameliorated the humanitarian crisis. Limited amounts of income from the United Nations started flowing into Iraq through the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme.
United States officials continued to accuse Saddam Hussein of violating the terms of the Gulf War's cease fire, by developing weapons of mass destruction and other banned weaponry, refusing to give out adequate information on these weapons, and violating the United Nations imposed sanctions and no-fly zones. Isolated military strikes by United States and British forces continued on Iraq sporadically, the largest being Operation Desert Fox in 1998. Charges of Iraqi impediment to United Nations inspection of sites thought to contain illegal weapons were claimed as the reasons for crises between 1997 and 1998, culminating in intensive United States and British missile strikes on Iraq, December 16-December 19, 1998. After two years of intermittent activity, United States and British warplanes struck harder at sites near Baghdad in February, 2001.
Saddam's support base of Tikriti tribesmen, family members, and other supporters were divided after the war. In the following years, this contributed to the government's increasingly repressive and arbitrary nature. Domestic repression inside Iraq grew worse, and Saddam's sons, Uday Hussein and Qusay Hussein, became increasingly powerful and carried out a private reign of terror. They likely had a leading hand when, in August 1995, two of Saddam Hussein's sons-in-law (Hussein Kamel and Saddam Kamel), who held high position in the Iraqi military, defected to Jordan. Both were killed after returning to Iraq the following February.
Iraqi cooperation with United Nations weapons inspection teams was questioned on several occasions during the 1990s and UNSCOM chief weapons inspector Richard Butler withdrew his team from Iraq in November 1998 citing Iraqi non-cooperation, without the permission of the United Nations, although a United Nations spokesman subsequently stated that "the bulk of" the Security Council supported the move. Iraq accused Butler and other UNSCOM officials of acting as spies for the United States. This was supported by reports in the Washington Post and the Boston Globe, citing anonymous sources, which said that Butler had known of and cooperated with a United States electronic eavesdropping operation that allowed intelligence agents to monitor military communications in Iraq. After a crisis ensued and the United States contemplated military action against Iraq, Saddam resumed cooperation. The inspectors returned, but were withdrawn again on December 16. Butler had given a report to the United Nations Security Council on December 15, 1998, in which he expressed dissatisfaction with the level of compliance. Three out of five of the Permanent Members of the United Nations Security Council subsequently objected to Butler's withdrawal. Butler reported that United States Ambassador Peter Burleigh, acting on instructions from Washington, suggested he pull his team from Iraq in order to protect them from the forthcoming United States and British airstrikes.
Saddam continued to loom large in American consciousness as a major threat to Western allies such as Israel and oil-rich Saudi Arabia, to Western oil supplies from the Gulf states, and to Middle East stability generally. United States President Bill Clinton, maintained economic sanctions, as well as air patrols in the "Iraqi no-fly zones".
In the 1990s, the United Nations imposed sanctions on Iraq, in order to force the country to scale down its military forces as was agreed upon in the peace agreement after the war of 1991. The sanctions soon resulted in a sharp decline in the Iraqi economy, a scarcity of food and depleted public health services, but did not result in an internally weakened Saddam Hussein. Indeed, in 1994, new Iraqi military activities were staged near Kuwait, but international pressure made Saddam cease and desist.
During the late 1990s, after many years of international sanctions against Saddam and Iraq, world opinion began to change. While sentiments were strongly against Iraq in the beginning, more and more commentators pointed to the fact that Iraq did not scale down its military forces but that rather the sanctions only led to hardship on the Iraqi people. Despite the hardships endured by the Iraqi people, Saddam was stronger than ever. Thus, for many the sanctions were increasingly seen as being a failure.
In October 1998, President Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act. The act called for "regime change" in Iraq and authorized the funding of opposition groups. Following the issuance of a United Nations report detailing Iraq's failure to cooperate with inspections, Clinton authorized Operation Desert Fox, a three-day air strike to hamper Saddam's weapons production facilities and hit sites related to weapons of mass destruction.
Several journalists have reported on Hussein's ties to anti-Israeli and Islamic terrorism prior to 2000. Hussein was also known to have had contacts with Palestinian terrorist groups. Early in 2002, Hussein told Faroq al-Kaddoumi, head of the Palestinian political office, he would raise the sum granted to each family of Palestinians who die as suicide bombers in the uprising against Israel to $25,000 instead $10,000. Some news reports detailed links to terrorists, including Carlos the Jackal, Abu Nidal, Abu Abbas, and Osama bin Laden. However, no conclusive evidence of any kind, linking Hussein and bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization was ever produced by any United States government official. It was the official assessment of the United States Intelligence Community that contacts between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda over the years did not lead to a collaborative relationship. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence was able to find evidence of only one such meeting, as well as evidence of two occasions "not reported prior to the war, in which Saddam Hussein rebuffed meeting requests from an al-Qa'ida operative. The Intelligence Community found no other evidence of meetings between al-Qa'ida and Iraq." The Senate Committee concluded that while there was no evidence of any Iraqi support of al-Qaeda, there was convincing evidence of hostility between the two entities.
The United States political atmosphere following the September 11, 2001 attacks, bolstering the influence of the more militant faction in the White House and on Capitol Hill. In his January 2002, State of the Union message to Congress, United States president George Bush raised the spectre of an "axis of evil" comprising Iran, North Korea, and Iraq, further charging the Iraqi regime with plotting to "develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for over a decade," and continuing to "flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror." This thinly veiled declaration of intent to unseat Saddam Hussein and his government was in many ways the beginning of the campaign to win the minds and support of people of the United States and the world towards this goal.
On October 15, 2002, Iraq held an election where there were no other candidates than Saddam Hussein, where all ballots were shown to election officials before being cast and where all ballots were counted by regime officials. The election showed that there was a turnout of one hundred percent and that one hundred percent of the votes were cast for Saddam.
As the prospect for war with the United States loomed, on February 24, 2003, Saddam gave an interview to CBS News anchor Dan Rather -- his first interview with an American reporter in more than a decade. CBS aired the taped three hour interview on February 26, 2003.
With the intent to avoid an all out war, the United States made at least two failed attempts to kill Hussein using targeted air strikes with so-called smart bombs. However, using faulty intelligence, a strike was made on a site where Hussein was not present causing far reaching implications in original invasion strategic and tactical planning. This notwithstanding, the Iraqi military and government completely collapsed within three weeks of the March 20 beginning of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and by early April, Coalition forces led by the United States occupied much of Iraq. With resistance to invading forces largely neutralized, it was apparent Saddam's control over Iraq was lost. When Baghdad fell to the coalition forces on April 9, Saddam was still seen in videos purportedly in the Baghdad suburbs surrounded by supporters.
As the United States forces were occupying the Republican Palace and other central landmarks and ministries on April 9, Saddam Husseing emerged from his command bunker beneath the Al A'Zamiyah district of northern Baghdad and greeted excited members of the local public. The walkabout was captured on film and broadcast several days after the event on Al-Arabiya Television and was also witnessed by ordinary people who corroborated the date afterwards. He was accompanied by bodyguards and other loyal supporters including at least one of his sons and his personal secretary.
After the walkabout, Saddam returned to his bunker and made preparations for his family. According to his eldest daughter, Raghad Hussein he was, by this point, aware of the "betrayal" of a number of key figures involved in the defense of Baghdad. There was a lot of confusion between Iraqi commanders in different sectors of the capital and communication between them and Saddam and between Saddam and his family were becoming increasingly difficult.
Meanwhile the Americans had started receiving rumors that Saddam was in Al A'Zamiyah and at dawn on April 10, 2003, they dispatched three companies of Marines to capture or kill him. As the Americans closed in, and realizing that Baghdad was lost, Saddam arranged for cars to collect his eldest daughters, Raghad and Rana, and drive them to Syria. His wife Sajida Talfah and youngest daughter Hala had already left Iraq several weeks prior. After this he changed out of his uniform and with only two bodyguards to guard him, left Baghdad in a plain white Oldsmobile and made his way to a specially prepared bunker in Dialah on the northern outskirts of the city.
Saddam stayed in the Dialah bunker for three weeks as Baghdad and the rest of Iraq were occupied by United States forces. Initially, he and his entourage used satellite telephones to communicate with each other. As this became more risky they resorted to sending couriers with written messages. One of these couriers was reported to have been his own nephew. However, their cover was given away when one of the couriers was captured and Saddam was forced to evacuate the Dialah bunker and resorted to changing location every few hours. There were numerous sightings of him in Beiji, Baquba and Tikrit to the north of Baghdad over the next few months as he shuttled between safe houses disguised as a shepherd in a plain taxi. How close he came to being captured during this period may never be made public. Sometime in the middle of May he moved to the countryside around his home town of Tikrit.
Saddam Hussein was at the top of the United States list of most wanted Iraqis, and many of the other leaders of the Iraqi government were arrested, but extensive efforts to find him had little effect. In June, in a joint raid by special operations forces and the First Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment of the First 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Saddam's personal secretary Abid Hamid Mahmud, the Ace of Diamonds in the Most Wanted Deck of Cards and number 4 on the Most Wanted list after Saddam and his two sons Uday and Qusay, was captured. Documents discovered with Abid enabled intelligence officers to work out who was who in Saddam's circle. Manhunts were launched nightly throughout the Sunni triangle. Safe houses and family homes were raided as soon as any tip came in that someone in Saddam's circle might be in the area.
In July 2003, in an engagement with American forces after a tip-off from an Iraqi informant, Saddam's sons were cornered in a house in Mosul and shot to death in a firefight.
The raids and arrests of people known to be close to the former President drove him deeper underground. Once more the trail was growing colder. In August, the United States military released photofits of how Saddam might be disguising himself in traditional garb, even without his signature mustache. By the early autumn, the Pentagon had also formed a secret unit -- Taskforce 121. Using electronic surveillance and undercover agents, the CIA and Special Forces scoured Iraq for clues.
By the beginning of November, 2003, Saddam was under siege. His home town and powerbase were surrounded and his faithful bodyguards targeted and then arrested one by one by the Americans. Protests erupted in several towns in the Sunni triangle. Meanwhile some Sunni Muslims showed their support for Saddam.
On December 12, Mohamed Ibrahim Omar al-Musslit was unexpectedly captured in Baghdad. Mohamed had been a key figure in the President's special security organization. His cousin Adnan had been captured in July by the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment in Tikrit. It appears Mohamed had taken control of Saddam on the run, the only person who knew where he was from hour to hour and who was with him. According to United States sources, it took just a few hours of interrogation for him to crack and betray Saddam.
Within hours Colonel James Hickey (1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division) together with United States Special Operations Forces launched Operation Red Dawn and under cover of darkness made for the village of Ad-Dawr on the outskirts of Tikrit. The informer had told United States forces that the former president would be in one of two groups of buildings on a farm codenamed Wolverine 1 and Wolverine 2.
On December 13, 2003, citing Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) of Iran was first to report the apprehension and arrest of Saddam Hussein. These reports were soon confirmed by other members of the Iraq Interim Governing Council, United States military sources, and by British prime minister Tony Blair. In a Baghdad press conference with the United States civil administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, Hussein's capture was formally announced, leading with, "Ladies and gentlemen, we got him!" Bremer went on to report the time as approximately 8:30 pm local time, on December 13, in an underground "spider hole" at a farmhouse in ad-Dawr near his home town Tikrit, in what was called Operation Red Dawn.
The video footage presented by Bremer showed Hussein in full beard with longer than usual, disheveled hair. He was described as being in good health, "talkative and co-operative." DNA testing was used to further confirm the captive's identity. Members of the Governing Council visiting with Hussein following his capture reported him as unrepentant and believing of himself as having been a "firm, but just ruler." It later emerged that the information leading to his capture was obtained from a detainee under interrogation.
According to United States military sources, immediately following Saddam's December 13th capture, Saddam was hooded, his hands bound and he was taken by a military HMMWV vehicle to an awaiting helicopter and flown to the United States base adjacent to one of his former palaces in Tikrit. There he was paraded about before jubilant United States soldiers with a series of photographs taken of the spectacle. He was then loaded again onto a helicopter and flown to the main United States base at Baghdad International Airport where he was transferred to the Camp Cropper facility. He was then officially photographed and received medical attention and was groomed. The following day, Saddam was visited in his cell by members of the Iraqi Governing Council with Ahmed Chalabi and Adnan Pachachi among them. It is believed he remained there in high security during most of the time of his detention.
Held in custody by United States forces at Camp Cropper in Baghdad, on June 30, 2004, Saddam Hussein and eleven senior Baathist officials were handed over legally (though not physically) to the interim Iraqi government to stand trial for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. A few weeks later, he was charged by the Special Tribunal with crimes committed against the inhabitants of Dujail in 1982, following a failed assassination attempt against him. Specific charges included the murder of 148 people, torture of women and children and the illegal arrest of 399 others.
Saddam's trial was marked by Saddam's contesting the court's authority and maintaining that he was still the President of Iraq. Additionally, several of Saddam's lawyers were assassinated or were threatened. Furthermore, midway through the trial, the chief presiding judge was replaced after accusations of bias were leveled.
On November 5, 2006, Saddam Hussein was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging. Hussein's half brother, Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court in 1982, were convicted of similar charges as well. The verdict and sentencing were both appealed but subsequently affirmed by Iraq's Supreme Court of Appeals. Just twenty-five days later, the sentence was delivered with Hussein being executed by hanging on December 30, 2006.
However, even Saddam's death proved to be divisive. He was hanged on the first day of Eid ul-Adha, on December 30, 2006, at approximately 6:10 am. The execution was carried out at "Camp Justice," an Iraqi army base in Kazimain, a neighborhood of northeast Baghdad. Prime minister Nouri al-Maliki launched an investigation to determine who leaked a video filmed on a witness's cellphone during the execution of Saddam in which Saddam was taunted moments before his death. The video circulated widely on the internet and was broadcast by Al-Jazeera television. Saddam's execution and the way it was conducted provoked anger among Sunni Muslims, who took to the streets in mainly peaceful demonstrations across the country.
Saddam was buried at his birthplace of Al-Awja in Tikrit, Iraq, two miles from his sons Uday and Qusay Hussein.
Saddam's relationships with his family members were complex. He empowered and favored his sons as leaders of Iraq. He allegedly forcibly married a woman after coercing her husband to divorce her. He married another woman as well and is said to have cared for friendly family members, but he would punish family members he distrusted.
Saddam married Sajida Talfah in 1963. Sajida is the daughter of Khairallah Talfah, Hussein's uncle and mentor. Their marriage was arranged for Hussein at age five when Sajida was seven. However, the two never met until their wedding. They were married in Egypt during Saddam's exile. Together they had two sons, Uday and Qusay, and three daughters, Rana, Raghad and Hala. 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 heir presumptive. Both brothers were said to have made fortunes for themselves smuggling oil.
On December 12, 1996, there was an assassination attempt on Uday. Uday, Saddam's oldest son, was crippled in an assassination attempt. Sajida (Saddam's wife), Raghad and Rana (Uday's sisters) were all placed under house arrest due to suspicions of their involvement in the assassination attempt. General Adnan Khairallah Tuffah, Sajida's brother and childhood friend of Hussein, was allegedly executed due to his growing popularity.
Hussein's two sons Uday and Qusay were both killed in a violent six hour gun battle against United States forces on July 22, 2003. Still photos of their badly shot up bodies were taken and widely distributed to convince any skeptics that the brothers were dead.
Saddam was also married to two other women: Samira Shahbandar (rumored to have been Saddam's favorite), whom he married in 1986 after forcing her husband to divorce her, and Nidal al-Hamdani, the general manager of the Solar Energy Research Center in the Council of Scientific Research, whose husband was apparently also persuaded to divorce his wife. There have apparently been no political issues from these latter two marriages. Hussein's third son, Ali, is from his marriage to Samira.
In August 1995, Rana and her husband Hussein Kamel al-Majid and Raghad and her husband, Saddam Kamel al-Majid, defected to Jordan, taking their children with them. They returned to Iraq when they received assurances that Saddam would pardon them. Within three days of their return in February 1996, both of the Majid brothers were attacked and killed in a gunfight with other clan members who considered them traitors. Saddam had made it clear that although pardoned, they would lose all status and would not receive any protection.
Hussein's daughter Hala married Jamal Mustafa Sultan al-Tikriti, the deputy head of Iraq's Tribal Affairs Office. Neither was known to be involved in politics. Jamal surrendered to United States troops in April 2003. Another cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, infamously known as "Chemical Ali," was accused of ordering the use of poison gas in 1988, and was captured by the American forces of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
In August 2003, Saddam's daughters Raghad and Rana received sanctuary in Amman, Jordan.
Saddam Hussein was Sunni Muslim and his position in the Sunni territories (central Iraq and Baghdad) was unrivalled. For most of his tenure, Saddam's rule was influenced by the Gordian Knot of the Persian Gulf: He was not the most desired leader of Iraq, but he was the only one perceived by the West to be able to keep Iraq united and as a buffer against Iran.
From the beginning, Saddam's presidency was oppressive with regards to his opposition. Many of those who opposed Saddam were killed at Saddam's behest. Nevertheless, Saddam was tactful to show respect for Shi'a shrines and to allow for their improvement. Additionally, Saddam was, for a long period of time, known for his efforts at modernizing Iraq, its infrastructure, the position of women, and education.
Saddam Husayn see Hussein, Saddam
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti see Hussein, Saddam
Husayn, Saddam see Hussein, Saddam
Tikriti, Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al- see Hussein, Saddam
Tikriti, Saddam Husayn 'Abd al-Majid al- see Hussein, Saddam
Iraq soon found itself bogged down in one of the longest and most destructive wars of attrition of the twentieth century. During the war, Iraq used chemical weapons against Iranian forces fighting on the southern front and Kurdish separatists who were attempting to open up a northern front in Iraq with the help of Iran. These chemical weapons were developed by Iraq from materials and technology supplied primarily by West German companies.
Saddam reached out to other Arab governments for cash and political support during the war, particularly after Iraq's oil industry severely suffered at the hands of the Iranian navy in the Persian Gulf. Iraq successfully gained some military and financial aid, as well as diplomatic and moral support, from the Soviet Union, China, France, and the United States, which together feared the prospects of the expansion of revolutionary Iran's influence in the region. The Iranians, claiming that the international community should force Iraq to pay war reparations to Iran, refused any suggestions for a cease fire. They continued the war until 1988, hoping to bring down Saddam's secular regime and instigate a Shi'ite rebellion in Iraq.
On March 16, 1988, the Kurdish town of Halabja was attacked with a mix of mustard gas and nerve agents, killing 5,000 civilians, and maiming, disfiguring, or seriously debilitating 10,000 more. The attack occurred in conjunction with the 1988 al-Anfal campaign designed to reassert central control of the mostly Kurdish population of areas of northern Iraq and defeat the Kurdish peshmerga rebel forces. Prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, United States began to maintain that Saddam ordered the attack to terrorize the Kurdish population in northern Iraq, but Saddam's regime claimed, at the time, that Iran was responsible for the attack and United States analysts, at the time, did not definitively reject the claim until several years later.
In 1988, with the help of the United States Navy in the Persian Gulf, Iraq was able to regain territory lost to Iran between 1984 and 1986. In July, the war against Iran ended, without changes to the Iran-Iraq borders. The bloody eight-year war ended in a stalemate. There were hundreds of thousands of casualties, perhaps upwards of 1.7 million died on both sides. Both economies, previously healthy and expanding, were left in ruins.
Saddam borrowed a tremendous amount of money from other Arab states during the 1980s to fight Iran and was stuck with a war debt of roughly $75 billion. Faced with rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure, Saddam desperately sought out cash once again, this time for postwar reconstruction. The desperate search for foreign credit would eventually humiliate the strongman who had long sought to dominate Arab nationalism throughout the Middle East.
The end of the war with Iran served to deepen latent tensions between Iraq and its wealthy neighbor Kuwait. Saddam saw his war with Iran as having spared Kuwait from the imminent threat of Iranian domination. Since the struggle with Iran had been fought for the benefit of the other Gulf Arab states as much as for Iraq, he argued, a share of Iraqi debt should be forgiven. Saddam urged the Kuwaitis to forgive the Iraqi debt accumulated in the war, some $30 billion, but the Kuwaitis refused, claiming that Saddam was responsible to pay off his debts for the war he started.
Also to raise money for postwar reconstruction, Saddam pushed oil-exporting countries to raise oil prices by cutting back oil production. Kuwait refused to cut production. In addition to refusing the request, Kuwait spearheaded the opposition in OPEC to the cuts that Saddam had requested. Kuwait was pumping large amounts of oil, and thus keeping prices low, when Iraq needed to sell high-priced oil from its wells to pay off a huge debt.
Meanwhile, Saddam showed disdain for the Kuwait-Iraq boundary line. One of the few articles of faith uniting the political scene in a nation rife with sharp social, ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic divides was the belief that Kuwait had not right to even exist in the first place. For at least half a century, Iraqi nationalists were espousing emphatically the belief that Kuwait was historically an integral part of Iraq, and that Kuwait had only come into being through the maneuverings of British imperialism.
The colossal extent of Kuwait oil reserves also intensified tensions in the region. The oil reserves of Kuwait (with a population of a mere two million next to Iraq's 25) were roughly equal to those of Iraq. Taken together, Iraq and Kuwait sat on top of some twenty percent (20%) of the world's known oil reserves. Saudi Arabia, by comparison, holds twenty-five percent (25%).
Saddam further alleged that the Kuwait slant drilled oil out of wells that Iraq considered to be within its disputed border with Kuwait. Given that, at the time, Iraq was not regarded as a pariah state, Saddam was able to complain about the alleged slant drilling to the United States State Department. Although this had continued for years, Saddam now needed oil money to stem a looming economic crisis. Saddam still had an experienced and well-equipped army, which he used to influence regional affairs. He later ordered troops to the Iraq-Kuwait border.
As Iraq-Kuwait relations rapidly deteriorated, Saddam was receiving conflicting information about how the United States would respond to the prospects of an invasion. For one, Washington had been taking measures to cultivate a constructive relationship with Iraq for roughly a decade. The United States also sent billions of dollars to Saddam to keep him from forming a strong alliance with the Soviets. United States ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie met with Saddam in an emergency meeting on July 25, 1990, where the Iraqi leader stated his intention to continue talks. United States officials attempted to maintain a conciliatory line with Iraq, indicating that while President Bush and Secretary of State James Baker did not want force used, they would not take any position on the Iraq-Kuwait boundary dispute and did not want to become involved. However, United States officials did not given any explicit statement of approval of, acceptance of, or foreknowledge of the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq. Later, Iraq and Kuwait met for a final negotiation session, which failed. Saddam then sent his troops into Kuwait.
On August 2, 1990, Saddam invaded and annexed the emirate of Kuwait. United States president George Herbert Walker Bush responded cautiously for the first several days after the invasion. On the one hand, Iraq, prior to this point, had been a virulent enemy of Israel and was allied with the Soviets implying that they might support him. On the other hand, Kuwait was considered an ally, and Iraq's earlier control of twenty percent of the world's crude oil reserves (doubled by the invasion) meant that American interests were heavily invested in the region, and the invasion triggered fears that the price of oil, and therefore the world economy, was at stake. The United Kingdom was also concerned. Britain had a close historical relationship with Kuwait, dating back to British colonialism in the region, and also benefitted from billions of dollars in Kuwaiti investment.
Cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union made possible the passage of resolutions in the United Nations Security Council giving Iraq a deadline to leave Kuwait and approving the use of force if Saddam did not comply with the timetable. American officials feared that Iraq would retaliate against oil-rich Saudi Arabia, a close ally of Washington since the 1940s, for the Saudis' opposition to the invasion of Kuwait. Accordingly, the United States and a group of allies, including countries as diverse as Egypt, Syria and Czechoslovakia, deployed massive amounts of troops along the Saudi border with Kuwait and Iraq in order to deter the Iraqi army, the largest in the Middle East.
During the period of negotiations and threats following the invasion, Saddam raised the subject of the Palestinian problem by promising to withdraw his forces from Kuwait if Israel would relinquish the occupied territories in the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the Gaza Strip. Saddam's proposal further split the Arab world, pitting American and Western supported Arab states against the Palestinians. The allies ultimately rejected any connection between the Kuwait crisis and Palestinian issues.
Saddam ignored the Security Council deadline. with the unanimous consent of the Security Council, an American led coalition launched round the clock missile and aerial attacks on Iraq, beginning January 16, 1991. Israel, though subjected to attack by Iraqi missiles, refrained from retaliating in order not to provoke Arab states into leaving the coalition. A ground force comprised largely of American and British armored and infantry divisions ejected Saddam's army from Kuwait in February 1991 and occupied the southern portion of Iraq asfar as the Euphrates. Before leaving, Saddam ordered Kuwaiti oil fields set ablaze.
On March 6, 1991, referring to the conflict, President Bush announced: "What is at stake is more than one small country, it is a big idea -- a new world order, where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind: peace and security, freedom, and the rule of law."
In the end, the over-manned and ill-equipped Iraqi army proved unable to compete on the battlefield with the highly mobile coalition land forces and their overpowering air support. 175,000 Iraqis were taken prisoner and casualties were estimated at approximately 20,000 according to United States data, with other sources pinning the number as high as 100,000. as part of the cease-fire agreement, Iraq agreed to abandon all chemical and biological weapons and allow United Nations observers to inspect the sites. United Nations trade sanctions would remain in effect until Iraq complied with all terms.
In the aftermath of the fighting, social and ethnic unrest among Shi'a Muslims, Kurds, and dissident military units threatened the stability of Saddam's government. Uprisings began in the Kurdish north and Shi 'a southern and central parts of Iraq, but were quelled in short order. In 2005, the BBC reported that as many as 30,000 were killed during those 1991 rebellions.
The United States, after urging the Iraqi people to rise up and overthrow Hussein, did nothing to assist those who did. Further playing into the plans of Hussein, the United States unwittingly loosened rules on helicopter flights in the no-fly zones allowing Hussein's remaining military force to easily put down the rebellions. The United States ally Turkey opposed any prospect of Kurdish independence, and the Saudis and other conservative Arab states feared an Iran-style Shi'a revolution. Saddam, having survived the immediate crisis in the wake of defeat and a car crash, which left a small scar on his face and a injury on a finger, was left firmly in control of Iraq. Although the country never recovered either economically or militarily from the Persian Gulf War, Saddam routinely trumpeted the survival of his regime as "proof" that Iraq had won the war against America. This stance earned Saddam a great deal of popularity in many sectors of the Arab world.
Hussein increasingly portrayed himself as a devout Muslim, in an effort to co-opt the conservative religious segments of society. Elements of shari'a were re-introduced, such as the 2001 edict imposing the executions for sodomy, rape, and prostitution, the legalization of honor killings, and the ritual phase "Allahu Akbar" ("God is Great"), was added to the Iraq national flag in Saddam Hussein's handwriting.
Relations between the United States and Iraq remained tense following the Gulf War. In April 1993, the Iraqi Intelligence Service allegedly attempted to assassinate former President George Herbert Walker Bush during a visit to Kuwait. Kuwaiti security forces apprehended a group of Iraqis at the scene of an alleged bombing attempt. On June 26, 1993, the United States launched a missile attack targeting Baghdad intelligence headquarters in retaliation for the alleged assassination attempt.
The United Nations sanctions placed upon Iraq when it invaded Kuwait were not lifted, blocking Iraqi oil exports. This caused immense hardship in Iraq and virtually destroyed the Iraqi economy and state infrastructure. Only smuggling across the Syrian border and humanitarian aid (the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme) ameliorated the humanitarian crisis. Limited amounts of income from the United Nations started flowing into Iraq through the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme.
United States officials continued to accuse Saddam Hussein of violating the terms of the Gulf War's cease fire, by developing weapons of mass destruction and other banned weaponry, refusing to give out adequate information on these weapons, and violating the United Nations imposed sanctions and no-fly zones. Isolated military strikes by United States and British forces continued on Iraq sporadically, the largest being Operation Desert Fox in 1998. Charges of Iraqi impediment to United Nations inspection of sites thought to contain illegal weapons were claimed as the reasons for crises between 1997 and 1998, culminating in intensive United States and British missile strikes on Iraq, December 16-December 19, 1998. After two years of intermittent activity, United States and British warplanes struck harder at sites near Baghdad in February, 2001.
Saddam's support base of Tikriti tribesmen, family members, and other supporters were divided after the war. In the following years, this contributed to the government's increasingly repressive and arbitrary nature. Domestic repression inside Iraq grew worse, and Saddam's sons, Uday Hussein and Qusay Hussein, became increasingly powerful and carried out a private reign of terror. They likely had a leading hand when, in August 1995, two of Saddam Hussein's sons-in-law (Hussein Kamel and Saddam Kamel), who held high position in the Iraqi military, defected to Jordan. Both were killed after returning to Iraq the following February.
Iraqi cooperation with United Nations weapons inspection teams was questioned on several occasions during the 1990s and UNSCOM chief weapons inspector Richard Butler withdrew his team from Iraq in November 1998 citing Iraqi non-cooperation, without the permission of the United Nations, although a United Nations spokesman subsequently stated that "the bulk of" the Security Council supported the move. Iraq accused Butler and other UNSCOM officials of acting as spies for the United States. This was supported by reports in the Washington Post and the Boston Globe, citing anonymous sources, which said that Butler had known of and cooperated with a United States electronic eavesdropping operation that allowed intelligence agents to monitor military communications in Iraq. After a crisis ensued and the United States contemplated military action against Iraq, Saddam resumed cooperation. The inspectors returned, but were withdrawn again on December 16. Butler had given a report to the United Nations Security Council on December 15, 1998, in which he expressed dissatisfaction with the level of compliance. Three out of five of the Permanent Members of the United Nations Security Council subsequently objected to Butler's withdrawal. Butler reported that United States Ambassador Peter Burleigh, acting on instructions from Washington, suggested he pull his team from Iraq in order to protect them from the forthcoming United States and British airstrikes.
Saddam continued to loom large in American consciousness as a major threat to Western allies such as Israel and oil-rich Saudi Arabia, to Western oil supplies from the Gulf states, and to Middle East stability generally. United States President Bill Clinton, maintained economic sanctions, as well as air patrols in the "Iraqi no-fly zones".
In the 1990s, the United Nations imposed sanctions on Iraq, in order to force the country to scale down its military forces as was agreed upon in the peace agreement after the war of 1991. The sanctions soon resulted in a sharp decline in the Iraqi economy, a scarcity of food and depleted public health services, but did not result in an internally weakened Saddam Hussein. Indeed, in 1994, new Iraqi military activities were staged near Kuwait, but international pressure made Saddam cease and desist.
During the late 1990s, after many years of international sanctions against Saddam and Iraq, world opinion began to change. While sentiments were strongly against Iraq in the beginning, more and more commentators pointed to the fact that Iraq did not scale down its military forces but that rather the sanctions only led to hardship on the Iraqi people. Despite the hardships endured by the Iraqi people, Saddam was stronger than ever. Thus, for many the sanctions were increasingly seen as being a failure.
In October 1998, President Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act. The act called for "regime change" in Iraq and authorized the funding of opposition groups. Following the issuance of a United Nations report detailing Iraq's failure to cooperate with inspections, Clinton authorized Operation Desert Fox, a three-day air strike to hamper Saddam's weapons production facilities and hit sites related to weapons of mass destruction.
Several journalists have reported on Hussein's ties to anti-Israeli and Islamic terrorism prior to 2000. Hussein was also known to have had contacts with Palestinian terrorist groups. Early in 2002, Hussein told Faroq al-Kaddoumi, head of the Palestinian political office, he would raise the sum granted to each family of Palestinians who die as suicide bombers in the uprising against Israel to $25,000 instead $10,000. Some news reports detailed links to terrorists, including Carlos the Jackal, Abu Nidal, Abu Abbas, and Osama bin Laden. However, no conclusive evidence of any kind, linking Hussein and bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization was ever produced by any United States government official. It was the official assessment of the United States Intelligence Community that contacts between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda over the years did not lead to a collaborative relationship. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence was able to find evidence of only one such meeting, as well as evidence of two occasions "not reported prior to the war, in which Saddam Hussein rebuffed meeting requests from an al-Qa'ida operative. The Intelligence Community found no other evidence of meetings between al-Qa'ida and Iraq." The Senate Committee concluded that while there was no evidence of any Iraqi support of al-Qaeda, there was convincing evidence of hostility between the two entities.
The United States political atmosphere following the September 11, 2001 attacks, bolstering the influence of the more militant faction in the White House and on Capitol Hill. In his January 2002, State of the Union message to Congress, United States president George Bush raised the spectre of an "axis of evil" comprising Iran, North Korea, and Iraq, further charging the Iraqi regime with plotting to "develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for over a decade," and continuing to "flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror." This thinly veiled declaration of intent to unseat Saddam Hussein and his government was in many ways the beginning of the campaign to win the minds and support of people of the United States and the world towards this goal.
On October 15, 2002, Iraq held an election where there were no other candidates than Saddam Hussein, where all ballots were shown to election officials before being cast and where all ballots were counted by regime officials. The election showed that there was a turnout of one hundred percent and that one hundred percent of the votes were cast for Saddam.
As the prospect for war with the United States loomed, on February 24, 2003, Saddam gave an interview to CBS News anchor Dan Rather -- his first interview with an American reporter in more than a decade. CBS aired the taped three hour interview on February 26, 2003.
With the intent to avoid an all out war, the United States made at least two failed attempts to kill Hussein using targeted air strikes with so-called smart bombs. However, using faulty intelligence, a strike was made on a site where Hussein was not present causing far reaching implications in original invasion strategic and tactical planning. This notwithstanding, the Iraqi military and government completely collapsed within three weeks of the March 20 beginning of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and by early April, Coalition forces led by the United States occupied much of Iraq. With resistance to invading forces largely neutralized, it was apparent Saddam's control over Iraq was lost. When Baghdad fell to the coalition forces on April 9, Saddam was still seen in videos purportedly in the Baghdad suburbs surrounded by supporters.
As the United States forces were occupying the Republican Palace and other central landmarks and ministries on April 9, Saddam Husseing emerged from his command bunker beneath the Al A'Zamiyah district of northern Baghdad and greeted excited members of the local public. The walkabout was captured on film and broadcast several days after the event on Al-Arabiya Television and was also witnessed by ordinary people who corroborated the date afterwards. He was accompanied by bodyguards and other loyal supporters including at least one of his sons and his personal secretary.
After the walkabout, Saddam returned to his bunker and made preparations for his family. According to his eldest daughter, Raghad Hussein he was, by this point, aware of the "betrayal" of a number of key figures involved in the defense of Baghdad. There was a lot of confusion between Iraqi commanders in different sectors of the capital and communication between them and Saddam and between Saddam and his family were becoming increasingly difficult.
Meanwhile the Americans had started receiving rumors that Saddam was in Al A'Zamiyah and at dawn on April 10, 2003, they dispatched three companies of Marines to capture or kill him. As the Americans closed in, and realizing that Baghdad was lost, Saddam arranged for cars to collect his eldest daughters, Raghad and Rana, and drive them to Syria. His wife Sajida Talfah and youngest daughter Hala had already left Iraq several weeks prior. After this he changed out of his uniform and with only two bodyguards to guard him, left Baghdad in a plain white Oldsmobile and made his way to a specially prepared bunker in Dialah on the northern outskirts of the city.
Saddam stayed in the Dialah bunker for three weeks as Baghdad and the rest of Iraq were occupied by United States forces. Initially, he and his entourage used satellite telephones to communicate with each other. As this became more risky they resorted to sending couriers with written messages. One of these couriers was reported to have been his own nephew. However, their cover was given away when one of the couriers was captured and Saddam was forced to evacuate the Dialah bunker and resorted to changing location every few hours. There were numerous sightings of him in Beiji, Baquba and Tikrit to the north of Baghdad over the next few months as he shuttled between safe houses disguised as a shepherd in a plain taxi. How close he came to being captured during this period may never be made public. Sometime in the middle of May he moved to the countryside around his home town of Tikrit.
Saddam Hussein was at the top of the United States list of most wanted Iraqis, and many of the other leaders of the Iraqi government were arrested, but extensive efforts to find him had little effect. In June, in a joint raid by special operations forces and the First Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment of the First 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Saddam's personal secretary Abid Hamid Mahmud, the Ace of Diamonds in the Most Wanted Deck of Cards and number 4 on the Most Wanted list after Saddam and his two sons Uday and Qusay, was captured. Documents discovered with Abid enabled intelligence officers to work out who was who in Saddam's circle. Manhunts were launched nightly throughout the Sunni triangle. Safe houses and family homes were raided as soon as any tip came in that someone in Saddam's circle might be in the area.
In July 2003, in an engagement with American forces after a tip-off from an Iraqi informant, Saddam's sons were cornered in a house in Mosul and shot to death in a firefight.
The raids and arrests of people known to be close to the former President drove him deeper underground. Once more the trail was growing colder. In August, the United States military released photofits of how Saddam might be disguising himself in traditional garb, even without his signature mustache. By the early autumn, the Pentagon had also formed a secret unit -- Taskforce 121. Using electronic surveillance and undercover agents, the CIA and Special Forces scoured Iraq for clues.
By the beginning of November, 2003, Saddam was under siege. His home town and powerbase were surrounded and his faithful bodyguards targeted and then arrested one by one by the Americans. Protests erupted in several towns in the Sunni triangle. Meanwhile some Sunni Muslims showed their support for Saddam.
On December 12, Mohamed Ibrahim Omar al-Musslit was unexpectedly captured in Baghdad. Mohamed had been a key figure in the President's special security organization. His cousin Adnan had been captured in July by the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment in Tikrit. It appears Mohamed had taken control of Saddam on the run, the only person who knew where he was from hour to hour and who was with him. According to United States sources, it took just a few hours of interrogation for him to crack and betray Saddam.
Within hours Colonel James Hickey (1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division) together with United States Special Operations Forces launched Operation Red Dawn and under cover of darkness made for the village of Ad-Dawr on the outskirts of Tikrit. The informer had told United States forces that the former president would be in one of two groups of buildings on a farm codenamed Wolverine 1 and Wolverine 2.
On December 13, 2003, citing Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) of Iran was first to report the apprehension and arrest of Saddam Hussein. These reports were soon confirmed by other members of the Iraq Interim Governing Council, United States military sources, and by British prime minister Tony Blair. In a Baghdad press conference with the United States civil administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, Hussein's capture was formally announced, leading with, "Ladies and gentlemen, we got him!" Bremer went on to report the time as approximately 8:30 pm local time, on December 13, in an underground "spider hole" at a farmhouse in ad-Dawr near his home town Tikrit, in what was called Operation Red Dawn.
The video footage presented by Bremer showed Hussein in full beard with longer than usual, disheveled hair. He was described as being in good health, "talkative and co-operative." DNA testing was used to further confirm the captive's identity. Members of the Governing Council visiting with Hussein following his capture reported him as unrepentant and believing of himself as having been a "firm, but just ruler." It later emerged that the information leading to his capture was obtained from a detainee under interrogation.
According to United States military sources, immediately following Saddam's December 13th capture, Saddam was hooded, his hands bound and he was taken by a military HMMWV vehicle to an awaiting helicopter and flown to the United States base adjacent to one of his former palaces in Tikrit. There he was paraded about before jubilant United States soldiers with a series of photographs taken of the spectacle. He was then loaded again onto a helicopter and flown to the main United States base at Baghdad International Airport where he was transferred to the Camp Cropper facility. He was then officially photographed and received medical attention and was groomed. The following day, Saddam was visited in his cell by members of the Iraqi Governing Council with Ahmed Chalabi and Adnan Pachachi among them. It is believed he remained there in high security during most of the time of his detention.
Held in custody by United States forces at Camp Cropper in Baghdad, on June 30, 2004, Saddam Hussein and eleven senior Baathist officials were handed over legally (though not physically) to the interim Iraqi government to stand trial for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. A few weeks later, he was charged by the Special Tribunal with crimes committed against the inhabitants of Dujail in 1982, following a failed assassination attempt against him. Specific charges included the murder of 148 people, torture of women and children and the illegal arrest of 399 others.
Saddam's trial was marked by Saddam's contesting the court's authority and maintaining that he was still the President of Iraq. Additionally, several of Saddam's lawyers were assassinated or were threatened. Furthermore, midway through the trial, the chief presiding judge was replaced after accusations of bias were leveled.
On November 5, 2006, Saddam Hussein was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging. Hussein's half brother, Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court in 1982, were convicted of similar charges as well. The verdict and sentencing were both appealed but subsequently affirmed by Iraq's Supreme Court of Appeals. Just twenty-five days later, the sentence was delivered with Hussein being executed by hanging on December 30, 2006.
However, even Saddam's death proved to be divisive. He was hanged on the first day of Eid ul-Adha, on December 30, 2006, at approximately 6:10 am. The execution was carried out at "Camp Justice," an Iraqi army base in Kazimain, a neighborhood of northeast Baghdad. Prime minister Nouri al-Maliki launched an investigation to determine who leaked a video filmed on a witness's cellphone during the execution of Saddam in which Saddam was taunted moments before his death. The video circulated widely on the internet and was broadcast by Al-Jazeera television. Saddam's execution and the way it was conducted provoked anger among Sunni Muslims, who took to the streets in mainly peaceful demonstrations across the country.
Saddam was buried at his birthplace of Al-Awja in Tikrit, Iraq, two miles from his sons Uday and Qusay Hussein.
Saddam's relationships with his family members were complex. He empowered and favored his sons as leaders of Iraq. He allegedly forcibly married a woman after coercing her husband to divorce her. He married another woman as well and is said to have cared for friendly family members, but he would punish family members he distrusted.
Saddam married Sajida Talfah in 1963. Sajida is the daughter of Khairallah Talfah, Hussein's uncle and mentor. Their marriage was arranged for Hussein at age five when Sajida was seven. However, the two never met until their wedding. They were married in Egypt during Saddam's exile. Together they had two sons, Uday and Qusay, and three daughters, Rana, Raghad and Hala. 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 heir presumptive. Both brothers were said to have made fortunes for themselves smuggling oil.
On December 12, 1996, there was an assassination attempt on Uday. Uday, Saddam's oldest son, was crippled in an assassination attempt. Sajida (Saddam's wife), Raghad and Rana (Uday's sisters) were all placed under house arrest due to suspicions of their involvement in the assassination attempt. General Adnan Khairallah Tuffah, Sajida's brother and childhood friend of Hussein, was allegedly executed due to his growing popularity.
Hussein's two sons Uday and Qusay were both killed in a violent six hour gun battle against United States forces on July 22, 2003. Still photos of their badly shot up bodies were taken and widely distributed to convince any skeptics that the brothers were dead.
Saddam was also married to two other women: Samira Shahbandar (rumored to have been Saddam's favorite), whom he married in 1986 after forcing her husband to divorce her, and Nidal al-Hamdani, the general manager of the Solar Energy Research Center in the Council of Scientific Research, whose husband was apparently also persuaded to divorce his wife. There have apparently been no political issues from these latter two marriages. Hussein's third son, Ali, is from his marriage to Samira.
In August 1995, Rana and her husband Hussein Kamel al-Majid and Raghad and her husband, Saddam Kamel al-Majid, defected to Jordan, taking their children with them. They returned to Iraq when they received assurances that Saddam would pardon them. Within three days of their return in February 1996, both of the Majid brothers were attacked and killed in a gunfight with other clan members who considered them traitors. Saddam had made it clear that although pardoned, they would lose all status and would not receive any protection.
Hussein's daughter Hala married Jamal Mustafa Sultan al-Tikriti, the deputy head of Iraq's Tribal Affairs Office. Neither was known to be involved in politics. Jamal surrendered to United States troops in April 2003. Another cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, infamously known as "Chemical Ali," was accused of ordering the use of poison gas in 1988, and was captured by the American forces of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
In August 2003, Saddam's daughters Raghad and Rana received sanctuary in Amman, Jordan.
Saddam Hussein was Sunni Muslim and his position in the Sunni territories (central Iraq and Baghdad) was unrivalled. For most of his tenure, Saddam's rule was influenced by the Gordian Knot of the Persian Gulf: He was not the most desired leader of Iraq, but he was the only one perceived by the West to be able to keep Iraq united and as a buffer against Iran.
From the beginning, Saddam's presidency was oppressive with regards to his opposition. Many of those who opposed Saddam were killed at Saddam's behest. Nevertheless, Saddam was tactful to show respect for Shi'a shrines and to allow for their improvement. Additionally, Saddam was, for a long period of time, known for his efforts at modernizing Iraq, its infrastructure, the position of women, and education.
Saddam Husayn see Hussein, Saddam
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti see Hussein, Saddam
Husayn, Saddam see Hussein, Saddam
Tikriti, Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al- see Hussein, Saddam
Tikriti, Saddam Husayn 'Abd al-Majid al- see Hussein, Saddam
Hydari, Akbar
Hydari, Akbar (Akbar Hydari) (Nawab Hydar Nawaz Jung Bahadur) (1869-1942). Social reformer. Also known as Nawab Hydar Nawaz Jung Bahadur, a title earned in Hyderabad state service, Hydari was a member of the extended Tyabji family of Bombay. He began his career in the Indian Finance Service, later moving to Hyderabad, where he served as accountant general and finance secretary (1905-1911), home secretary (1911-1920), finance member (1921-1937), and finally president of the executive council, the equivalent of prime minister (1937-1941). Throughout his life, he was active in social reform and educational causes. He proposed the foundation of Osmania University in Hyderabad, India’s first vernacular medium university, in which Urdu was the languaged of instruction. He was a supporter of close co-operation between the nizam and the British and attended the London Round Table Conferences in 1930 to 1931 as a representative of Hyderabad.
Akbar Hydari see Hydari, Akbar
Nawab Hydar Nawaz Jung Bahadur see Hydari, Akbar
Bahadur, Nawab Hydar Nawaz Jung see Hydari, Akbar
Hydari, Akbar (Akbar Hydari) (Nawab Hydar Nawaz Jung Bahadur) (1869-1942). Social reformer. Also known as Nawab Hydar Nawaz Jung Bahadur, a title earned in Hyderabad state service, Hydari was a member of the extended Tyabji family of Bombay. He began his career in the Indian Finance Service, later moving to Hyderabad, where he served as accountant general and finance secretary (1905-1911), home secretary (1911-1920), finance member (1921-1937), and finally president of the executive council, the equivalent of prime minister (1937-1941). Throughout his life, he was active in social reform and educational causes. He proposed the foundation of Osmania University in Hyderabad, India’s first vernacular medium university, in which Urdu was the languaged of instruction. He was a supporter of close co-operation between the nizam and the British and attended the London Round Table Conferences in 1930 to 1931 as a representative of Hyderabad.
Akbar Hydari see Hydari, Akbar
Nawab Hydar Nawaz Jung Bahadur see Hydari, Akbar
Bahadur, Nawab Hydar Nawaz Jung see Hydari, Akbar
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