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War on terror: Saddam’s son ran Olympic HQ torture cell
The Sunday Times ^ | November 24, 2002 | Jon Swain

Posted on 11/23/2002 4:07:26 PM PST by MadIvan

A LONDON-BASED human rights organisation will file a complaint this week with the International Olympic Committee against Saddam Hussein’s elder son Uday, saying he has punished some of Iraq’s top sportsmen with beatings, harassment and electric shock torture. It claims he once made a group of athletes crawl on newly poured asphalt while they were hit with a cable.

Among the allegations is a charge that in the basement of Iraq’s lavish Olympic committee headquarters in Baghdad, Uday ran a 30-cell prison for sportsmen and others who had offended him. He allegedly used its warehouses for smuggling in contravention of United Nations sanctions.

“It is inconceivable that a national Olympic committee that maintains its own prison and torture chambers could remain a member in good standing of the Olympic movement,” the organisation Indict says in is formal complaint.

Uday’s “extreme and outrageous” violations of the Olympic charter, including violations of human rights, threaten the integrity of the Olympic movement and warrant severe penalties, including Iraq’s suspension from the International Olympic Committee, the group says. Indict’s dossier includes documents, video footage, sworn statements and photographs. The organisation was set up in 1997 with the aim of bringing Saddam and other Iraqi leaders before an international court on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. It is headed by Ann Clwyd, the Labour MP.

Some of the most compelling evidence Indict has gathered comes from a Kurdish athlete who cannot be named for fear of reprisals. In a sworn statement he tells how he was called in by the finance officer of his sport’s federation a few days before he was due to travel to a tournament outside Iraq and asked to sign a blank cheque. A few days later he was arrested and taken to a prison run by Saddam’s Fedayeen force, headed by Uday. He was told that the official who asked him to sign the cheque had accused him of insulting Uday.

After 20 days of torture he was taken to another prison in the desert, where he was tortured for 18 hours every day, he says. While there, he saw other prisoners being tortured and killed. Two were thrown off a 75ft high bridge.

The prisoners he met there included a bodyguard who saved Uday’s life when he was shot in 1996, a newspaper editor who had failed to attend an Olympic committee meeting, a zookeeper accused of letting two lion cubs die and an executive from Uday’s television station who had allowed a 20-second gap after a broadcast of slogans before Saddam’s photograph appeared on screen. The athlete was eventually moved to another jail and freed. He is seeking asylum outside Iraq.

Another complainant is Latif Yahia Latif Al-Salihi, who was recruited to be Uday’s double in October 1987. After the Iraqi football team lost a match in 1988, he said, an enraged Uday attacked him with an electric shock baton. He was subjected to similar treatment at Baghdad airport over the greeting of a foreign Olympic delegation. Uday believed he was not taking his duties seriously enough.

In 1989, Al-Salihi said, he was present when the Iraqi football team was brought to the Olympic committee headquarters after a poor performance. The players had their heads shaved and were beaten with baseball bats. The next year, Uday’s girlfriend was captain of a female basketball team competing in university cup finals, he said. The team lost and she blamed her teammates. Uday ordered that the women’s heads be shaved.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: iraq; iraqiathletes; olympics; psychotic; torture; uday
Perhaps the whingeing, anti-war lefties need to be reminded that this is the fellow who holds the keys to the kingdom and the chemical, biological and nuclear arsenal once Saddam dies. And we should leave it alone?

Regards, Ivan


1 posted on 11/23/2002 4:07:26 PM PST by MadIvan
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To: Toirdhealbheach Beucail; TopQuark; TexKat; Iowa Granny; vbmoneyspender; America's Resolve; ...
Bump!
2 posted on 11/23/2002 4:07:39 PM PST by MadIvan
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To: MadIvan
One can only imagine the tearfully ecstatic demonstrations clogging the streets of Bagdhad the moment these monsters are finally gone!
3 posted on 11/23/2002 4:16:09 PM PST by Gritty
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To: Gritty
One can only imagine the tearfully ecstatic demonstrations clogging the streets of Bagdhad the moment these monsters are finally gone!

I agree, but there are a whole bunch more evil scum bags in their political party. Disarm them, and turn them over to the people.

4 posted on 11/23/2002 4:32:53 PM PST by Mark17
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To: MadIvan
Good thing the Cubs don't play in Baghdad.
5 posted on 11/23/2002 4:40:46 PM PST by Neanderthal
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To: MadIvan
Maybe The United Kingdom and the United States should consider banishment to Iraq for any street thugs, newspaper editors, or politicians who oppose toppling that dictatorship.
6 posted on 11/23/2002 4:46:39 PM PST by Cultural Jihad
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To: MadIvan
The images of Benito Mussolini hanging upside down continue to run back and forth across my mind...
7 posted on 11/23/2002 5:00:13 PM PST by Vidalia
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To: Vidalia
Mee too - except in my mind it's not Mussolini and his wife, but the 'toons.
8 posted on 11/23/2002 5:24:12 PM PST by 11B3
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To: Cultural Jihad
"Maybe The United Kingdom and the United States should consider banishment to Iraq for any street thugs, newspaper editors, or politicians who oppose toppling that dictatorship."

Outstanding suggestion! I'd love to see some of these Muslim/Saddam apologists having to live with these savages.

9 posted on 11/23/2002 5:33:59 PM PST by holyscroller
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To: Gritty
One can only imagine the tearfully ecstatic demonstrations clogging the streets of Bagdhad the moment these monsters are finally gone!

And the tearfully mournful lamentations clogging the streets of Berkeley at the same time.

10 posted on 11/23/2002 6:10:06 PM PST by A_perfect_lady
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To: MadIvan
Sign on Iraqi Olympic Training Center bulletin board (in Arabic):

Notice to all athletes:

The Beatings Will Continue Until Performance Improves

Signed, Uday

11 posted on 11/23/2002 6:32:52 PM PST by Stefan Stackhouse
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To: Stefan Stackhouse
He was just trying to "whip" them into shape. The wimps. What was their performance like at the Olympics? Did it help? Or were there any Iraqi athletes left to compete after this extreme training program? Maybe this could catch on and be a new show in the west, "Extreme Olympic-Style Training" with your host, Uday.
12 posted on 11/23/2002 6:57:37 PM PST by Contra
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