THE VITALSHeight: About 6 feet 2.Weight: Around 210 pounds.Maladies: A bad back,which gives him aslight limp. He avoidsbeing filmed walkingto conceal the limp.He is said to need, but refuses to wear, glasses, so his speeches are printed in large letters, a few words per page. He dyes his gray hair black. He has a tat-too — three dots — near his right wrist.

HUSSEIN’S HEROESUncle Khairallah Tulfa,who adopted him. Aformer army officerand ardent Arabnationalist, he wasjailed during WorldWar II by the Britishfor being a Nazi. Hewrote a pamphlettitled “Three whomGod Despises: Jews,Persians and Flies.”

Josef Stalin, above,the Soviet dictator.Hussein has a libraryfull of books aboutStalin. Like Stalin,Hussein has placedgreat power in thehands of his secretpolice.

WORKDAYHe has been known toput in 18-hour days.At meetings, he iscalm and polite and typically listens to his advisers. They al-most always tell him either what he wants to hear, or what he already knows. Hus-sein is reputed to be highly organized.

Bad advice: In 1982,Hussein soughtadvice about dealingwith setbacks in thewar with Iran. Hisminister of healthsuggested Husseinstep down until thewar stopped, thenresume power.Hussein reportedlythanked the minister,then had himarrested. His body,cut into pieces, waslater delivered to theminister’s wife.

HUSSEINTHEAUTHOR

Believed to be the author of“Zabibah and theKing” and “TheFortified Castle.” Non-Iraqis who have seenthe books say thewriting was excessiveand unsophisticated.The novels werepublished under therough equivalent inArabic for“anonymous.”

“Zabibah and theKing,” published in2000, was a best-seller, the Iraqigovernment said.Story line: A sensitive,benign despot loves abeautiful womanmarried to a brutish,vicious husband. Onescene is the rape ofthe woman, whichoccurs Jan. 17, alsothe day U.S. andcoalition forceslaunched the gulf war.

The novel defendstyranny in the serviceof security and isgenerally regarded as

an allegory about thegulf war.

A London-basedArabic newspaper,however, reports that“The Fortified Castle,”published in 2001,has not sold well.Provinces have beentold they must meet asales quota. Hussein’sson Uday bought250,000 copies.

Hussein commission-ed that a Koran behandwritten using hisblood. He donated apint at a time duringthree years.

HIS WORDSSayings are in a white pamphlet, “Saddam Hussein: Great Lessons, Commandments to Strugglers, the Pa-tient and Holy Warriors.”

The sayings are pervasive — onstatues, on schools,

in newspapers, onwalls in government offices. The Muslim call to prayer is broadcast on gov-ernment television five times daily. After every call, a few of Hussein’s sayings are read. Among the 57 sayings:

➤ “Don’t be at-tracted to easy paths because the paths that make your feet bleed are the only way to get ahead in life.”

➤ “Keep your eyes on your enemy and be faster than him.”

➤ “Don’t provoke a snake unless you have the intention and power to cut off its head.”

WEAPONS COLLECTORHussein began hisquest for nuclear andother unconventional weapons in the early 1970s. He used Iraq’s oil wealth to buy the goods. He also invited Arab sci-entists to work in Iraq. Western na-tions courted Hussein as a correc-tive to Soviet influence during the Cold War. That al-lowed Hussein to acquire, among other things, blueprints for chemical weapons from U.S. compa-nies, a nuclear reactor from France and fighter jets from Britain.

AMERICAN CONNECTIONWhen he fled Iraq for Egypt in 1960, Hussein, a young Baath Party op-erative, made several visits to the U.S. Em-bassy in Cairo. In 1968, the United States helped the Baath Party gain power, ousting a government that was leaning toward the

Soviet Union.In 1979, before

invading Iran, Hus-sein is thought to have met with CIA officials in Amman, Jordan.

In 1985, he met with U.S. State Department officials, telling them: “You Americans, you treat the Third World in the way an Iraqi peasant treats his new bride. Three days of honeymoon, and then it’s off to the fields.”

LEISURETIME

Swimming: He typicallyawakes at 3 a.m. andswims. Each of hispalaces andresidences has pools.

Television: He followsthe Iraqi stations hecontrols, CNN, theBBC and Al-Jazeera,the Arabic newsstation.

Movies: He likesmovies aboutassassination andconspiracies. Among

his favorites is “TheGodfather.”

Books: He readsvoraciously: Arab andmilitary history; workson or by WinstonChurchill; subjectsranging from physicsto philosophy. Amonghis favorite authors isErnest Hemingway.

Favorite foods: Likesfish; eats lots of fruitand vegetables.Scientists check hisfare for poison.

Libation: Mateus rose.

THEGODFATHER

In 1979, Hussein called a meeting of the Revolutionary Command Council and several hundred Baath Party mem-bers. With a sad face, he said he had uncovered a Syrian plot to take over the government. Then, the secretary general of the council stepped forward, confessed his role in the plot and began naming names. Armed guards es-corted more than 60 of the fingered peo-ple away as Hussein wept. Then, the audi-ence began clapping and cheering for Hussein. A video of the meeting was shown across Iraq.

The traitors were secretly tried and executed. Purges continued, resulting in executions of an estimated several hundred Baath of-ficials and military officers.

HIS IMAGE

It’s pervasive, too. It isin bronze and on bill-boards, banknotes, T-shirts, paintings,watches, clocks andbumper stickers.

He is shown sip-ping tea, in a fedora, wearing sunglasses, in a beret, on a white horse leading people from Babylon to Jerusalem.

Compiled by assistantnation/world editorAzlan Ibrahim, whocan be reached at313- 223-4743 oribrahim@freepress.com

INSIDE HUSSEINHUSSEIN’S65 YEARSApril 28, 1937: Born in Al Awja,a village near Tikrit, Iraq. Hisfather died before Husseinwas born. Because hismother could not afford toraise him, Hussein was sentto live with maternal uncleKhairallah Tulfa, who is alsohis wife’s father. “Saddam”means “one who confronts.”Another Tikrit favorite son:Saladin, born there in 1138.He was the Muslimcommander who defeatedChristian forces during theCrusades and gained controlof Jerusalem.

1955: Moved to Baghdad.

1957: Denied admission to theBaghdad Military Academy.(He did not finish high school.)Joined socialist Baath Party.

1958: Married SajidaKhairallah.

1959: Failed in an attempt toassassinate Iraq’s primeminister; shot in the leg andarrested.

1960: Convicted of the attemptand sentenced to death.Escaped to Syria, then toEgypt.

1962: Completed hissecondary studies, studiedlaw in Cairo, but he did notfinish.

1963: Returned to Iraq after acoup put the Baath Party inpower briefly.

1964: Arrested andimprisoned. Two years later,while still behind bars, he waselected deputy secretarygeneral of Baath Party.

1967: Escaped from prison.

1968: Participated in Baathcoup that ousted Iraqigovernment.

1969: Appointed vicechairman of the RevolutionaryCommand Council, thenation’s top decisionmakingbody, by President AhmadHasan al Bakr, a relative.

1979: Elected president of Iraqand chairman ofRevolutionary CommandCouncil, after forcing Bakr toretire.

1980: Invaded Iran.

1987: Started campaignagainst Iraqi Kurds; 180,000disappeared; 4,000 villagesdestroyed.

1988: Kurdish town of Halabjagassed. Up to 5,000 peopleestimated killed and 10,000injured. Agreed to ceasefirewith Iran.

1990: Invaded Kuwait.

1991: U.S.-led bombing beganin January. Persian Gulf Warended in February.

2002: Re-elected president;election officials said he got100 percent of the vote.

1940

1950

IRAQ

JORDAN

KUWAITSAUDIARABIA

IRAN

Al Awja

SYRIA

TURKEY

Baghdad

In Amman, Jordan, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein chats with ABC News correspondent Barbara Walters in his first American TV interview in 1981.

Associated Press file photo

Married (1958) to Sajida Khairallah, his cousin.He has two sons and three daughters. Reportsof infidelity have been unsubstantiated.

Because clan and family relations arepowerful in Iraqi society, Hussein has givenpositions of power to people from his clan, theAl Khattab. Older son Uday runs numerouscommittees and news media organizations.Uday is known for violent outbursts and hisdrinking. In 1996, gunmen shot Uday,paralyzing him below the waist.

Younger son Qusay heads the securityservices and is seen as a likely heir.

In 1995, two of Hussein’s sons-in-lawdefected to Jordan and revealed secrets onIraq’s weapons programs. In 1996, afterreceiving a pardon from Hussein, they returned to Iraq, where theywere shot and killed in their homes.

➤ An unsubstantiated report of infidelity: Two Hussein scholars say sonUday beat to death his dad’s valet during the late 1980s forarranging a tryst between Hussein and the wife of an Iraqi airlineexec.

FAMILY LIFE

Uday Hussein tells Iraqi TV that the U.S. will pay dearly for a war.

Agence France-Presse

Hussein prays Jan. 17, 1998, on the seventh anniversary of the start of the gulf war.

Iraqi News Agency via Associated Press

Sources for page: PBS (SaidAburish); ABC News; MSNBC;Mark Bowden, the Atlantic May2002; the Iraq Foundation;Reason Online (CharlesFreund); Library of Congress;2002 World Almanac; FreePress research.

1960

1970

1980

1990

2000

DETROIT FREE PRESS | WWW.FREEP.COM 11ATHURSDAY, FEB. 27, 2003

Generally accepted truths about SADDAM HUSSEIN: He has ruled Iraq for some 33 years and has been

its president since 1979. His opponents are dealt with decisively. Iraqi officials and defectors, once part of

his inner circle, as well as government analysts, journalists and academics, reveal more about the dictator:

Hussein, seated center, in 1991. In the back row, from left, are Hussein Kamel; Saddam Kamel and his wife, Hussein’s daughter Rana; Uday Hussein, and Hussein Kamel’s wife,Raghda, Saddam’s eldest daughter. She’s holding Ali,Hussein’s grandson. His former sons-in-law, brothersHussein and Saddam Kamel, were killed in 1996.

Associated Press file photo

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