Saddam makes weekly phone calls to his wife

The Sunday Times (UK) ^ | 12/14/03 | Marie Colvin

[saquin]

THE second wife of Saddam Hussein and his only surviving son are living in Lebanon under assumed names and receive a telephone call or a letter from the ousted Iraqi dictator at least once a week.

Samira Shahbandar, described by those who know Saddam as being the closest to him of his four wives, said in an interview with The Sunday Times that she had been given permission to live in France and expected to move to Paris next month.

She said that Saddam, who has a $25m price on his head, gave her $5m in cash and a hoard of jewellery and gold, and sent her over the Iraqi border into Syria. From there she travelled to Beirut, where she was provided with a Lebanese passport that gives her name as “Hadija”.

The passport of Saddam’s 21-year-old son Ali, whose arrogant manner suggests that he is used to being obeyed, states his name as “Hassan”. Saddam’s two elder sons Qusay and Uday, who terrorised Iraq, were killed by American forces during a siege of a house in Mosul. Their mother Sajida — the dictator’s first wife — is thought to be in Syria.

Samira, a blonde with hazel eyes who dresses in classic clothes that will not look out of place in affluent areas of Paris, remained a mysterious figure throughout her husband’s years in power.

No photographs of her have been published until today and Qusay and Uday resented her deeply.

She still remains in frequent contact with the fugitive dictator. “If he cannot say something in detail on the telephone, I know I will receive a letter in two to three days giving me an explanation,” she said.

Samira met a representative of The Sunday Times in La Cottage, a restaurant in Ba’albeck, near Beirut. She spoke with affection of Saddam and revealed that he attributed his loss of power to betrayal by his closest aides.

Saddam arrived at her hiding place on April 9, the day Baghdad fell. “He came to me very depressed and sad. He took me to the next room and cried. He knew he had been betrayed,” she said.

“He told me not to be afraid. He kissed Ali and said the same — ‘Don’t be afraid. Take care of your mother. People will bring you things to help’.”

Samira moved between safe houses that Saddam had arranged for her and Ali. Eventually his bodyguards took her to the Syrian border. She saw Saddam there for the last time.

He gave her a briefcase with the dollars, worth £3m, and a heavy box, saying: “This one you can use when you are really in need.” It contained 10kg of gold bars, worth an estimated £85,000.

[Zack Nguyen]

If this report is true, I hope we use this relationship some how to smoke Saddam out. We don't have to get harsh and threatening, but we should find a way to trace the letters, or manipulate this woman to get Hussein's hiding place.

[VRWC_minion]

The why and how are easy and the reason I think its plausible. The problem with the theory is it would be virtually impossible to keep it a secret.

The why would be to gather intelligence, use him to find others, to find the WMD etc. The how would be simply monitoring his movements.

[Normal4me]

This bitch has been given permission to live in Paris, France and they are balking at not being included in contracts for Iraq?!? Stop the earth, I wanna get off now.

[txhurl]

Hell, France offered him exile before the invasion.

[Petronski]

This bitch has been given permission to live in Paris, France and they are balking at not being included in contracts for Iraq?!? Stop the earth, I wanna get off now.

I just had this sudden flash of fantasy: a small contingent of freepers finds out where she lives, flies to Paris, and demonstrates outside her home. Freep the hell out of her!

[Yeti]

So I guess we have to pay to see what they look like?

[Doctor Raoul]

They could have been T-Bills.

In that case, tap all the phones at Citibank, Robert Reich will be calling Saddam any second.

[Tacis]

Saddam's letters are delivered to the local Saudi diplomats who, in turn, get them to the Saudi embassy in Paris. The Saudis get them to her one way or another.

[Luke Skyfreeper]

Samira Shahbandar, described by those who know Saddam as being the closest to him of his four wives, said in an interview with The Sunday Times that she had been given permission to live in France and expected to move to Paris next month.

Of course. But how much of a pension is she going to get from the French government?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[Zack Nguyen]

That's an interesting point. It would be useful to be able to track his movements. However, I would question the morality of such a move. The political backlash, should it be discovered that we knew where Saddam was and let him live while he launched attacks against our soldiers, would be severe to say the least. No, we should kill him on sight, and I think that's what we will do.

[CalKat]

You think it would be cool if the administration knew where Saddam was but let him be until just prior to the election, to help Bush get re-elected? Don't you think that would be playing politics with the war, which Bush has said is improper?

[winker]

Tri-Angulate the signals and then send in the embedded reporters to clean his plough!

[sweetliberty]

Giving him a false sense of security maybe, and then nail him in our own time?

[Monti Cello]

I have a theory that says we know exactly where he is at all times.

I agree with you.

I believe Bush is factoring his re-relection as one of the most important tasks in the war on terrorism. I don't think he harbors any illusions about the depravity of his domestic opponents, and he is all about victory. It will be all the more beautiful to hear the muffled outrage of Dems as Saddam meets his demise next October.

Nothing better than neutralizing a tyrant, and defeating a Democrat at the same time (apologies for the redundancy).

[netmilsmom]

I'm with you. If we are holding back on getting him, we are looking for something else. WMD maybe? As long as we know where he is and track him, we can pick him off at any time.

[org.whodat]

October surprise? :) Damn, would that be cool.

He would be getting american men killed in action for an Octubber surprize and you think it would be cool, are you sick ??

[July 4th]

Do you mean because opposition fighters wouldn't know Saddam's dead? I see your point. But I have also read a fair bit of commentary that if we caught Saddam, it wouldn't be the worst to hold him under wraps for a while. As it is right now, all of the jihadis are coming out of the woodwork to fight. We know who to fight because they're coming to us.

[oceanview]

I agree with you, but for a different reason. We gave him an exile deal, he's calling the wife from Belarus.

[R. Scott]

There has been a lot of $US cash found stashed around, I haven’t heard of T bills, bearer bonds etc. being found, although that is one possibility.