Saddam Stares at Posters of Captured

[Paraphrasing from radio report just heard on way home from Christmas shoppping]

A military witness to Saddam being held stated that on the walls of the white-tiled cell hangs a poster of the 40 captured who were "featured" on the original "55 most-wanted" list for Saddam to stare at all day.

Iraq's most wanted: those captured

Saddam Hussein
Number 1. The United States' main target. Captured alive by US forces during "Operation Red Dawn" in a "spider hole" - a camouflaged cellar - at a farm 10 miles south of the former Iraqi president's birthplace of Tikrit, at 1730 GMT on December 13.

Qusay Saddam Hussein
Number 2. Saddam's second son headed the feared security service and was regarded as his father's eventual successor.

He died with his brother, Uday, on July 22, 2003 following a gun battle with US forces. The two men had been hiding in a villa in Mosul.

Uday Saddam Hussein
Number 3. Saddam's psychotic oldest son was a member of the national assembly and headed the Olympic committee. He had a homicidal temper and a reputation as a rapist and torturer.

He died with his brother, Qusay, on July 22, 2003 following a gun battle with US forces. The two men had been hiding in a villa in Mosul.

Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti
Number 4. Saddam's personal secretary and national security advisor, he is one of the few people the dictator is believed to have trusted completely. He was captured on June 16. Mahmud was considered third in line to power after Saddam and Qusay.

Ali Hasan al-Majid al-Tikriti
Number 5. "Chemical Ali", a first cousin of Saddam, gave the order to gas 5,000 Kurds in the village of Halabja in 1998. He was captured by US forces on August 21, having been previously - and obviously incorrectly - identified as dead by British troops.

Aziz Salih al-Numan
Number 8. Numan was army commander during the 1990-1991 occupation of Kuwait, and is said to have personally overseen the summary execution of those who took part in the Shia uprising after the first Gulf war. He served as a regional chairman of the Ba'ath party. He was arrested near Baghdad on May 22.

Muhammad Hamza Zubaydi
Number 9. He served as a regional commander and former Iraqi deputy prime minister. According to the Iraqi National Congress, he was captured by free Iraqi forces and handed into US custody on April 20.

Jamal Mustafa Abdallah Sultan al-Tikriti
Number 10. A secretary of the Republican Guard and Saddam's only surviving son-in-law, he returned from Syria and surrendered on May 17.

Barzan Abd Ghafur Sulayman al- Tikriti
Number 11. Another of Saddam's relatives and the commander of the elite Republican Guard. He was captured by US forces on July 23.

Muzahim Sa'b Hassan al-Tikriti
Number 12. The Air Defence Force commander was captured on April 23.

Ibrahim Ahmed Mohammed
Number 13. The former chief of staff of the Iraqi armed forces, he was captured in a raid on a village near Saddam's hometown of Tikrit.

Hamid Raja Shalah al-Tikriti
Number 17. The air force commander has been in custody since June 14.

Latif Nusayyif al-Jasim al-Dulaymi
Number 18. Ba'ath Party military bureau deputy chairman. Taken into custody June 9.

Abdul Tawab Mullah Hwaish
Number 19. The minister of military industrialisation oversaw the development of weapons of mass destruction in the 80s. He was taken into custody on May 2.

Jamal Mustafa Sultan al-Tikriti
Number 22. Saddam Hussein's only surviving son-in-law returned from Syria to surrender, and was handed to US forces on April 21. He served as deputy chief of tribal affairs.

Mizban Khidir Hadi
Number 23. Hadi was appointed commander of one of four military regions Saddam established on the eve of the war. Reports say he was captured by US troops on 30 April, although the defence department website puts him in US custody from July 9.

Taha Mohieddin Ma'rouf
Number 24. One of Iraq's vice-presidents and a member of Saddam's Revolutionary Command Council. He was captured on May 1.

Tariq Aziz
Number 25. Saddam's deputy and the international face of Iraq. As the most senior Christian in the administration, he was not part of Saddam's inner circle, which was mostly made up of members of the former president's al-Tikriti clan. However, he may be able to give the US important information about weapons programmes. He is wanted for war crimes against Iran, Kuwait and his own country. Unconfirmed reports suggest that he gave himself up on April 24.

Wahid Hamed Tawiq al-Tikriti
Number 26. Governor of Basrah, and a former special security organisation (SSO) chief. He surrendered to the Iraqi National Congress, who handed him over on April 29.

Sultan Hashim Ahmad
Number 27. Saddam's former defence minister surrendered personally to the US general in charge of forces in northern Iraq, David Petraeus, on September 19 after weeks of negotiations.

Hikmat Mezban Ibrahim al-Azzawi
Number 28. Saddam's finance minister was taken into custody in Baghdad on April 18.

Mahmud Dhiyab al-Ahmad
Number 29. The Iraqi minister of the interior. He has been in custody since July 9.

Ayad Futayyih Khalifa al-Rawi
Number 30. Quds force chief of staff. He has been in custody since June 4.

Zuhayr Talib Abd al-Saffar al-Naqib
Number 31. A general who headed military intelligence, he surrendered voluntarily to US forces in Baghdad on April 23.

Amir al-Saadi
Number 32. Saddam Hussein's top scientific adviser surrendered in Baghdad on April 12. He liased with UN weapons inspectors in Iraq.

Amer Mohammed Rashid
Number 33. General Rashid was involved in the development of Iraq's weapons programme, and was later appointed minister of oil. His wife, Dr Rihab Taha, nicknamed Dr Germ in the west, wanted for her role in biological weapons development, was captured on May 12. General Rashid surrendered on April 29.

Hussam Muhammad Amin al-Yasin
Number 34. The head of the national monitoring directorate and a former minister of the interior. In custody since April 27.

Muhammed Mahdi al-Salih
Number 35. The Iraqi minister of trade has been in custody since April 23.

Watban Ibrahim al-Hassan
Number 37. Saddam's half-brother was turned over to the US military on April 13. He was interior minister until 1995, but was then removed by Saddam. He remained a presidential adviser.

38) Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti
Number 38. US special forces in Baghdad captured another of Saddam's half-brothers on April 16. Barzan ran Iraq's intelligence service from 1979 to 1983, and was Iraq's ambassador to the UN from 1988 to 1997.

Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash
Number 39. The only woman in the top ranks of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party, she has been called "Mrs Anthrax" due to her alleged role in developing Iraq's clandestine biological weapons programme. A US-trained microbiologist, Ammash was the trade bureau chairwoman and former dean of Baghdad University's College of Science. Her father, a former Iraqi minister of defence, is presumed to have been murdered by Saddam Hussein. Ammash handed herself in to coalition forces on May 4.

Samir Abdulaziz al-Najm
Number 42. Iraqi Kurds near Mosul handed the Ba'ath party regional command chairman for east Baghdad to US-led forces on April 17.

Humam Abdul-Khaleq Abdul-Ghafur
Number 43. Saddam's minister of higher education and scientific research was taken into custody by US-led troops on April 19.

Sayf al-Din al-Mashhadani
Number 46. The central Ba'ath party regional chairman for al-Muthanna governorate. In custody since May 24.

Fadil Mahmud Gharib
Number 47. The central Ba'ath party chairman for the Babil governorate. In custody since May 15.

Uglah Abid Saqir al-Kubaysi
Number 50. The central Ba'ath party regional chairman for the Maysan governorate, he has been in custody since May 20.

Ghazi Hamud al-Adib
Number 51. Ba'ath party chairman and regional commander. In coalition custody since May 6. US central command gave no details of whether he was caught or gave himself up.

Adil abdallah Mahdi al-Duri al-Tikriti
Number 52. The Ba'ath party's regional chairman for the Dhi Qar governorate has been in custody since May 15.

Sa'd Abdul-Majid al-Faisal al-Tikriti
Number 55. The Ba'th party's regional chairman for the Salah al-Din governorate, he has been in US custody since May 24.

Before the media spins this thing out of control trying to portray Hussein as just some old man in a holding cell, the following is a chilling reminder of the true nature of this monster:

On July 18, 1979, he invited all the members of the Revolutionary Command Council and hundreds of other party leaders to a conference hall in Baghdad. He had a video camera running in the back of the hall to record the event for posterity. Wearing his military uniform, he walked slowly to the lectern and stood behind two microphones, gesturing with a big cigar. His body and broad face seemed weighted down with sadness. There had been a betrayal, he said. A Syrian plot. There were traitors among them. Then Saddam took a seat, and Muhyi Abd al-Hussein Mashhadi, the secretary-general of the Command Council, appeared from behind a curtain to confess his own involvement in the putsch. He had been secretly arrested and tortured days before; now he spilled out dates, times, and places where the plotters had met. Then he started naming names. As he fingered members of the audience one by one, armed guards grabbed the accused and escorted them from the hall. When one man shouted that he was innocent, Saddam shouted back, "Itla! Itla!"—"Get out! Get out!" (Weeks later, after secret trials, Saddam had the mouths of the accused taped shut so that they could utter no troublesome last words before their firing squads.) When all of the sixty "traitors" had been removed, Saddam again took the podium and wiped tears from his eyes as he repeated the names of those who had betrayed him. Some in the audience, too, were crying—perhaps out of fear. This chilling performance had the desired effect. Everyone in the hall now understood exactly how things would work in Iraq from that day forward. The audience rose and began clapping, first in small groups and finally as one. The session ended with cheers and laughter. The remaining "leaders"—about 300 in all—left the hall shaken, grateful to have avoided the fate of their colleagues, and certain that one man now controlled the destiny of their entire nation. Videotapes of the purge were circulated throughout the country.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.