Posted on 07/24/2004 2:57:30 PM PDT by Straight Vermonter
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Torture equipment used by Saddam Hussein's slain son, Odai, to punish underperforming Iraqi athletes was displayed Saturday at a Baghdad sports stadium in advance of the opening of the Olympics next month in Athens.
Journalists were shown medieval-style torture equipment, including an "iron maiden-like" casket with metal spikes fixed to the inside that athletes had been forced into and chain whips with steel barbs the size of tennis balls attached to the end.
"During the old regime, Odai was looking for results and he wanted winners. He didn't like second place," Talib Mutan, an Iraqi Olympics Committee official, told Associated Press Television News.
"If the athletes didn't come in first, they were punished. And he would punish the people around the athletes, their managers and coaches included," Mutan said.
Odai, who ran the Olympic committee while his father ruled Iraq, and his younger brother Qusai were killed in a fierce gunbattle with U.S. forces a year ago in the northern city of Mosul.
Mutan said athletes who earned Odai's wrath were tortured in various ways, through beatings, sleep deprivation and being forced to walk barefoot over hot asphalt during Iraq's searing summer.
The official said suggestions had been made to display the torture equipment in a museum, but there had been no final decision.
The International Olympic Committee reinstated Iraq's national Olympic committee in February after it was suspended following the fall of Saddam's regime in 2003, enabling Iraqi athletes to compete at this year's Summer Games.
Thanks.
"Mutan said athletes who earned Odai's wrath were tortured in various ways, through beatings, sleep deprivation and being forced to walk barefoot over hot asphalt during Iraq's searing summer."
What, no panties on their heads? Pikers!
Pictures?
It's a pity some of that stuff won't be displayed in Boston in this week. If only one liberal could be convinced removing Saddam was worth it...
How great for this year's Iraqi athletes to be able to compete for pure sport and fun instead of to avoid torture! I sincerely hope some of them do well!
Yeah boy. Things were soooo much better under Saddam.
Yo! Caption-A-Rama pix candidates over here.
Excellent, they will make the thread better and some can now copy these links to friends in Email to help against liberals.
Very nice job, I appreciate it a whole bunch, thanks.
Neither do the dim-wit voters. I've seen many of them on other bb's and they flat don't care what Hussein and his henchmen did to their own. (I know. It boggles my mind.) They just hate Bush. Period. Plain and simple.
Poor ole Sadam., Fightened by viewing THE WIZARD OF OZ as a small child, he turned to a life of socialist, malevolent dictatorship.
Just one time, it might be a real pleasure for the Iraqi team to lose at the Olympics. They go, get their clocks cleaned, come home and know that their families are safe and they can say, 'Dang. Have to work harder for it next time.'
Impossible. If he/she could be convinced he/she would not be a liberal. None so blind as one who will not see.
An estimated 35 Iraqis per day killed by Saddam over 35 years; lemme see, that's 447,125 people. That ought to have been worth saving in the next 35 years, during a good portion of which the fun-loving Hussein brothers would have exercised unchecked power.
Yawn...wake me up when they find a panties-on-head machine that was used by Uday.
If he didn't have a panties-on-head machine, tell those athletes to quit whining.
Thanks for a great post. Dimocraps - fear this - it is the truth and you can't hide it!
My local Demopuke liberal newspaper is still pushing the Abu Ghraib story. Will they ever give up? The only place I've ever seen info about Saddam's son torturing Olympic athletes is here on FR.
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