Me too.
Posted on 03/22/2003 11:46:12 AM PST by wretchard
House leader sees 'I am not the President'
Saddam 'double'
Posted: 11:50 PM (Manila Time) | Mar. 22, 2003
By Juliet Labog-Javellana
Inquirer News Service
WHEN he was allowed an audience with Saddam Hussein nearly seven years ago, Speaker Jose de Venecia was ushered into one of the Iraqi President's elegant palaces in Baghdad -- and met a "double."
"Hello, Mr. President," De Venecia said, extending his hand to the man with the moustache and wearing military fatigues.
The appearance of the Saddam look-alike was part of the elaborate security that surrounded the reclusive Iraqi leader, now under siege by US-led forces.
De Venecia would not meet the real Saddam until later in the day, 160 kilometers away in his hometown of Tikrit, after several changes of vehicles and a circuitous route across the desert north of Baghdad.
The Speaker was then on a mercy mission, sent by then President Fidel Ramos to ask Saddam for clemency for three Filipinos sentenced to 15 to 25 years in a jail in Iraq for murder and robbery.
The meeting took place in Saddam's palatial home along the Tigris River on April 27, 1996.
The Iraqi leader "evoked awe and fear," De Venecia said. "I could see that he commanded a lot of power."
He spoke "in measured words" through an interpreter, and was "very soft-spoken, very serene, very calm."
Because there were no flights to Iraq, De Venecia and his party -- his wife Gina and aide de camp Col. Adelo Andayan, Ambassador Rafael Seguis and Seguis' predecessor JV Cruz, and Lanao del Sur Rep. Pangalian Balindong-traveled to Baghdad by land for 11 hours from Amman, Jordan.
In Amman, De Venecia was met by his Jordanian counterpart and was feted in a reception by Prince Mohammad Bin Talal, younger brother of the Jordan king at that time, King Hussein.
When he told the Prince of his mission in Iraq, De Venecia was warned by his host: "Please don't go there, [Saddam] just killed his two sons-in-law."
The sons-in-law reportedly had a falling out with Saddam and lived in Amman. They were persuaded to return to Baghdad but were killed as soon as they crossed the border.
After traveling for five hours, De Venecia and his party reached the Iraqi border where two Mercedes Benzes waited to ferry them to a palace serving as a guest house in Baghdad.
De Venecia was told that Saddam would receive him the next day. In the meantime, he was taken to the Iraqi National Assembly where he met an old friend, Speaker Saadoon Hamadi.
Iraqi protocol officers awakened him at 5 a.m. the next day and said Saddam was ready to receive him. He was also told that he had to come alone.
"I was somewhat frightened and I remembered the sons-in-law," De Venecia said. "So I told my wife, 'You just stay here and pray for me. If I don't come back, you know where to look for me.'"
He was whisked into a waiting Mercedes and taken to the palace where he met the Saddam double.
After partaking of tea and dates, he was taken to yet another palace in Baghdad. "I was happy this time because my friend Saadoon met me. He was grinning and he introduced me to Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohamed Al-Sahaf," De Venecia said.
Again they changed vehicles and went off, heading north across rolling desert hills for the next seven hours.
Beautiful palace
In Tikrit, they arrived at a "beautiful palace" with marble floors. They took an elevator to the meeting room several floors below, where Saddam was seated with an interpreter.
After pleasantries, De Venecia presented President Ramos' letter seeking clemency for Alberto Nibungco, Reynaldo Ramos and Roberto Capiral, who had then already served 10 years in prison for cases involving fellow Filipinos in Iraq.
"Because you've come all the way [from your country], I will release these three by my constitutional authority. I want your visit to be fruitful," Saddam said.
De Venecia thought the 10-minute meeting allowed him was over. But Saddam asked him to stay on for more than an hour.
They discussed the political and economic situation in Asia, including China under Deng Xiaoping, Indonesia under Suharto, as well as the dismantling of monopolies and large-scale privatization policy of Presidents Ramos and Corazon Aquino.
"I told him, 'You have a big problem in the United Nations because of the sanctions,'" De Venecia said. "I told him that no matter how difficult, he should accept the UN oil-for-food program for the sake of his people."
De Venecia said he was elated to know that Saddam would accept the oil-for-food program a few days later.
"I am keeping our people together through these difficult times and I expect to lead them out of these trials and adversities," Saddam told De Venecia in expressing hope that the UN economic sanctions would be lifted.
When the Speaker got back to the Philippine Embassy in Baghdad late that day, the three Filipino workers were there waiting with his wife and the Filipino diplomats.
De Venecia knew he had struck a friendship with Saddam, whom he, then a businessman, first met at a reception line in the 1970s.
Until 1985, De Venecia headed Landoil, a construction company that built houses for the Iraqi oil company in Basra and Baghdad.
De Venecia told the Inquirer that he had no doubt the US-led war on Iraq would succeed. But he is convinced that Saddam "will die fighting."
"He can still avoid all of this if he goes on global TV and says he's prepared to call a truce and negotiate a political settlement. But this should be based on full and total disarmament," De Venecia said.
"I hope that he will be enlightened by a blinding shaft of light, like St. Paul on the way to Damascus."
Atmospherically, the man has the air of an absolute monarch, with his sudden outbursts of cruely and generosity. He uses fear and flattery alternately. It is easy to see how such a man could evoke both terror and fierce loyalty in his subordinates, in the way Chingis Khan or Tamerlane did.
The most interesting part of this story is how the Saddam contrived to have the narrator's only Iraqi acquaintance, Saadoon Hamadi, present at the meeting. It shows a very competent focus on detail and a devotion to the craft of intelligence operations to a degree probably incomprehensible to the former President Clinton.
Objectively, I would say that both the UN and its hotel coffee-shot based inspectors would have been totally overmatched by Saddam Hussein.
The fight between Bush and Saddam is interesting from the point of view of conflicting characteristics. One is a CEO-style leader. The other is, and always has been, an operator.
The ability of human beings to ignore reality is truly astonishing.
This reminds me of the top Nazis who were convinced after Hitler's death that they could negotiate a peace settlement which would leave them in power.
Me too.
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