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The Brutes of Baghdad
Philadelphia Daily News ^ | 27MAR03 | Barbara Laker

Posted on 03/28/2003 12:23:46 PM PST by Lancey Howard

Posted on Fri, Mar. 28, 2003

THE BRUTES OF BAGHDAD IF SADDAM RAISED HIS TWO SONS TO BE AS VICIOUS HE IS, THEY'RE DOING HIM PROUD By BARBARA LAKER lakerb@phillynews.com

ONE IS a sadistic playboy who rapes 12-year-old girls and tortures friends for amusement.

The other is a methodical, ruthless enforcer who kills for political power, then has his victims buried in mass graves.

They are Saddam Hussein's infamous sons - two evil brothers with blood on their hands.

The Brutes of Baghdad.

As bombs and missiles chisel away at their father's regime, it's unknown if Odai and Qusai Hussein are dead or alive. But one thing seems certain: They would kill anyone, whether it's thousands of strangers or their closest relatives, to survive.

Qusai, Saddam's youngest son at 36, who controls Iraq's security and intelligence agencies, is probably his father's successor. Odai, 38, was shot at least eight times in 1996 when gunmen sprayed bullets at his car. The once athletic and tall Odai now uses a wheelchair or limps with a cane.

The sons "differ only in that Odai kills people for fun, and Qusai kills people in a very businesslike fashion," former CIA chief R. James Woolsey reportedly said.

Odai, considered the family's most heartless, has at times been called the "Butcher's Boy and" has a private torture chamber known as the "Red Room."

As a young child, he played with disarmed grenades and saw his father deal with political enemies in his torture chamber at the Palace of the End.

In 1988, he murdered his father's trusted food taster, bodyguard and pimp at a party on the Tigris River, according to the May issue of Vanity Fair.

Saddam threw Odai in jail, and eventually forgave him, but the relationship was tarnished. And Odai grew more ruthless.

Over the years, he shot Saddam's beloved half-brother in the leg and crippled him for life. One unfortunate friend died after being held down and forced to drink massive amounts of pure distilled alcohol. Those who crossed him in business were shot in the arm and leg and left to die, defectors told Vanity Fair.

Starting at 20, Odai used his sadistic ways on athletes when Saddam made him head of Iraq's National Olympic Committee and its soccer federation. With young people demoralized by the Iran-Iraq war, Saddam thought Odai could restore national pride through sports.

The March 24 issue of Sports Illustrated describes the brutality that sports stars endured. Latif Yahia, a body double for Odai, told the magazine that a boxer who had been knocked out in the first round was ushered into Odai's office.

"This is how you box?" Odai screamed at the manacled boxer as he threw punch after punch. Odai then jolted him in the chest with an electric prod, shaved his eyebrow, an insult to Muslim men, and told his aide to take him downstairs and finish the job. Yahia never heard of the boxer again.

In 2001, Amnesty International reported that Odai had ordered the hand of a security officer be chopped off after the man was accused of stealing sports equipment that later turned up.

A former soccer player, Sharar Haddar, said Odai dragged him and his teammates over concrete, pulling skin off their backs. They were then yanked through a pit so that sand stuck to their raw skin, and made to jump in a vat of sewage.

The soles of their feet were then beaten, a form of torture and punishment for losing a match.

Iraqi defectors have told British and U.S. officials gruesome tales of rape. Odai, they said, forced teachers in Baghdad's poorest schools to send 12-year-old girls to the palace to be raped.

Odai, defectors say, likes virgins, knowing young girls cannot get married in Iraq after being raped.

"He likes joking with his friends, 'Look at her, after this, she'll be a prostitute,' " one defector told Vanity Fair.

If the girls resist, his bodyguards dangle them over a wooden beam and bash them with a wooden club.

He warns victims not to flinch from the beating, defectors report, or they will have their legs broken. He hits them up to 50 times. When they're writhing in pain and can barely walk, he orders them to dance.

Some business associates who showed up late for a meeting were branded on the buttocks with hot irons.

"This mark is never going to go from your body, so you'll remember me until the day you die," Odai reportedly tells them.

Odai, who also controls the country's media, is the flamboyant one known to drive a red Porsche and wear a $3 million ring. Qusai is the quiet, behind-the-scenes man with three sons who has never given a public speech.

Qusai, now in charge of the Republican Guard, earned his father's respect by helping to suppress a Shiite rebellion soon after the first Gulf War.

He rounded up hundreds and put them in warehouses, defectors say. Men, women and children prisoners were stripped naked. He questioned many himself and they were shot immediately if they didn't cooperate. Most victims were buried in mass graves dug by bulldozers.

He had others tortured. Five years ago, 20 senior army officers were arrested for plotting against Saddam, according to defectors. Qusai had them strung up by their thumbs and lowered into vats of boiling water while he forced other officers to watch. Other reports claim he forced suspected dissidents to watch as their wives and children were gang-raped.

While Qusai may be the second most powerful man in Iraq, it was his flashy brother who delivered the family message when President Bush gave them 48 hours to leave.

Iraqi forces will prevail, Odai bellowed.

The mothers of U.S. soldiers will "weep blood instead of tears."


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: iraqifreedom; odai; odaihussein; oday; qusai; qusaihussein; warlist
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To: Victoria Delsoul
Koran (19:86) "And We shall drive the sinners to Hell, like thirsty cattle driven to water."

Every time I read about another round of bomb blasts in Baghdad, I pray that the tables are turned, that WE are driving the sinners to Hell with "death from the sky". These bast@rds must GO.

41 posted on 03/28/2003 10:36:17 PM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: Lancey Howard
LOL, I don't blame you.
42 posted on 03/28/2003 10:46:30 PM PST by Victoria Delsoul
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To: Lancey Howard
Now why is it that this does not make it into the media? Isn't this something that can really be exploited? Wouldn't this give great ratings? Maybe if CNN want to get Foxnews out of the competence how about doing a special on this dark side of the peaceful and sovereign nation of Iraq? Not only leftists but stupid too.
43 posted on 03/28/2003 10:56:58 PM PST by Minty
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To: Minty
Like I said earlier, this story was a full pager in one of America's most liberal newspapers, page 5 of the Philadelphia daily News, complete with a color photo of Saddam's sons laughing and smoking cigars (True! I wish it was available to post.)

This story was written by one of the Daily News' own reporters. It was not a wire story or a syndicated column, but it SHOULD BE.

The reporter's email address is shown near the top of the story, and I intend to congratulate her for having the guts and the decency to so articulately expose the EVIL we are battling.
44 posted on 03/28/2003 11:11:25 PM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: Lancey Howard
Could you refer that info to the guys at Fox maybe they will want to interview the author in their programs? What the heck maybe MSNBC and CNN too. Not that I think they will do a thing. Also keep this story ping for a while so that it gets to be seen, and email to everyone in our lists.
45 posted on 03/28/2003 11:23:32 PM PST by Minty
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To: Minty
bttt
46 posted on 03/28/2003 11:37:30 PM PST by TheLion
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To: Lancey Howard
Think these kids were abused by Saddam? /sarcasm
47 posted on 03/28/2003 11:38:17 PM PST by TheLion
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To: sweetliberty; nicmarlo; Budge
Ping!
48 posted on 03/28/2003 11:39:14 PM PST by TheLion
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To: Lancey Howard

Here's Odai Hussein - couldn't find a picture of his brother.

49 posted on 03/28/2003 11:54:57 PM PST by DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet ("Eleven. Exactly. One louder." - Nigel Tufnel)
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To: DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet

Just had to spell it differently - Qusay Hussein.

50 posted on 03/28/2003 11:59:11 PM PST by DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet ("Eleven. Exactly. One louder." - Nigel Tufnel)
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To: Thorondir
. Its only moral equivalence can be found in Aztec canibal religions and the murderous Indian Thuggee cult.

In fact, near eastern paganism was shot through with human sacrifice of the most brutal sort. The worship of baal and molech involved immolating children. Part of the reason Carthago delenda est was that their practice of human sacrifice was so brutal and disgusting as to repulse even the Romans, for whom crucifixion was a usual means of punishment.

mohammedanism is said to be an offshoot of near eastern paganism.

51 posted on 03/29/2003 12:13:26 AM PST by ArrogantBustard (What the #@!! is a quagmire, anyway?)
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To: Minty
Could you refer that info to the guys at Fox maybe they will want to interview the author in their programs? What the heck maybe MSNBC and CNN too. Not that I think they will do a thing. Also keep this story ping for a while so that it gets to be seen, and email to everyone in our lists.

Thanks for your kind post.
I don't see how anybody who knows what kind of evil is embodied by the Saddam regime could possibly advocate detante with these people. We HAD to go in there. Leaving these people alone would have been like leaving Hitler's regime alone.

52 posted on 03/29/2003 12:55:32 AM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: TheLion
What of Saddam's grandchildren? Some of them must be teenagers by now. I have heard nothing about them, but how can we be certain the regime is gone forever unless every last one of his demon seed is destroyed?
53 posted on 03/29/2003 7:01:16 AM PST by sweetliberty ("To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.")
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To: Lancey Howard
The "war protestors" say we should leave these people alone.

In the interest of fairness, what are the chances they even know about the extent of the butchery? Some of the "human shields" who went there had a change of heart, realizing that they had no idea what we were dealing with. While many of these protesters are motivated by nothing more than hatred of the president and others are serving a political agenda, there are doubtless those who really believe in their pacifism and are just ignorant of the evil we are confronting. The answer? Spread the word at every opportunity.

54 posted on 03/29/2003 7:06:14 AM PST by sweetliberty ("To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.")
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To: Lancey Howard
"if what is in this article is what is known, there must be 100 times as much that is not known."

Once the regime is completely defeated, a lot of Iraqis will start talking and we will be hearing a lot more of these stories. The liberals and the anti-war Bush protesters will be exposed for the fools and defenders of evil that they are.

55 posted on 03/29/2003 7:12:48 AM PST by sweetliberty ("To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.")
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To: Victoria Delsoul
"The rise of Islam has brought misery and near annihilation to entire populations which were not Islamic."

Not only that, but they have brought ongoing conflict to every nation where they have taken up residence, which is why I am so concerned that we are placating them and giving them a voice in the U.S.

56 posted on 03/29/2003 7:20:25 AM PST by sweetliberty ("To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.")
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To: Minty
"Maybe if CNN want to get Foxnews out of the competence how about doing a special on this dark side of the peaceful and sovereign nation of Iraq?"

Kinda makes you wonder what percentage of their financial support comes from this evil regime.

57 posted on 03/29/2003 7:23:06 AM PST by sweetliberty ("To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.")
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To: sweetliberty
The answer? Spread the word at every opportunity.

BUMP

58 posted on 03/29/2003 7:38:42 AM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: Victoria Delsoul
But I'm sure the "peaceful" Muslims skip over those 800 incitements to hatred and violence, completely ignoring them and only concentrating on the "peaceful" sections, yeah right/sarcasm off
59 posted on 03/29/2003 8:18:20 AM PST by Frank_2001
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To: sweetliberty
I believe they are bed partners.
60 posted on 03/29/2003 9:29:52 AM PST by Minty
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