Posted on 04/20/2003 3:14:36 PM PDT by MadIvan
THE secrets of Saddam Hussein’s overseas business networks have been uncovered in the records of his eldest son, Uday, whose diary also reveals that he spied on his father.
British Intelligence got its hands on some of Uday’s prolific collection of records before looters could make off with them. They are hopeful that the diaries will identify businessmen in Britain who helped to keep the regime in Baghdad afloat.
A vain and temperamental figure, Uday insisted that every order he gave should be meticulously recorded in his office diaries, whether it be the Hollywood videos that he wanted to watch or the young women his aides had to procure.
Jealous of his younger brother, Qusay, who was his father’s favourite, the diaries reveal that Uday had embarked on a dangerous scheme of revenge by setting up a business empire to rival Saddam’s, which involved blackmailing and threatening some of the former Iraqi leader’s own emissaries.
He had spies in his father’s office and, just like Saddam, his diaries show how ruthless he was at playing off political rivals against each other, plotting against military commanders and using torture and murder to scare his own family, as well as close aides.
The diaries show that he had discovered the identities of businessmen working abroad who were used by his father to flout United Nations sanctions. Some are understood to have homes and bank accounts in Britain.
Inevitably, for a man regarded as a cruel playboy, his diaries devote a lot of space to his pornographic pursuits. While that will make compelling reading for investigators, of more value to them is the insight that these records give into how the regime maintained control for 30 years.
Uday clearly shared Saddam’s obsession with writing everything down. Some of this incriminating material was snatched by looters, although fortunately there was too much to carry and US troops reached this compound in time to save vital files.
Some of the records now in British hands could prove to be embarrassing to influential figures in the Arab world. There are notes from members of royalty from the Gulf and ministers in the emirates, who were meant to be sworn enemies of Iraq and yet here they were arranging business deals or hunting trips with Uday.
Some of Uday’s e-mails, which are also faithfully kept in these records, illustrate how he had paid informers working in sensitive departments of governments in the region.
It is, however, Uday’s own brutal behaviour that first catches the attention in these diaries. Never a day goes by without him threatening at least one of his key aides. He threatens in one note to have one of his three personal chefs shot because a meal was unsatisfactory.
The diaries were compiled in immaculate handwriting by Jassem Sabah Aly, his most-trusted aide, who apparently left them behind as he abandoned his office in what has been called Uday’s “love palace”. Aly never refers to his employer by name, calling him al-Ustaz (respected teacher).
The contents of the diaries show how much sex was a driving force in Uday’s life, more so in latter years as he tried to refute popular stories in Baghdad that he was left crippled and impotent after a botched assassination attempt.
There are photos of naked women, presumably some of his conquests. He pursues young women he has seen around the capital and orders them to be brought to his eight-bedroom palace. Some appear eager to volunteer their services. One, named as Nasrine Azizi, is described by the staff member sent to procure her as “a virgin, lovely and cute. She is ready to come to you.” The message continues that her mother is keen to offer her favours as well.
There are several photographs of the girl thought to be Uday’s latest wife. She is said to be a cousin and, from her picture, she can be no more than 15 or 16. He is 39. She is seen standing in her bridal gown between Saddam and his first wife, Uday’s mother, Sajida, who has rarely been seen in recent years. Sajida is a much plumper figure than in previous photographs, with her hair dyed blonde. The most striking thing about this family snap is that while Saddam is grinning, the bride looks terrified.
Uday is careful not to be photographed standing beside his bride, who, from pictures with the in-laws, is clearly taller than her husband. Her voluminous dress hides his legs, adding to speculation he is unable to stand or walk properly.
Even though he has recently married, Uday’s lusts apparently remained unsatisfied. He gives instruction for staff to “examine the girls for colon disease” before they are brought to him and demands that after these women shower at least twice, “the bathrooms must be sterilised”.
For all his obsession with sex, doubts remain about his own prowess. On the ground floor of this palace was what looks like a modern hospital ward, with a surgical bed, which is thought to be where he slept. There are various surgical instruments to help him to walk and a locked medicine cabinet stuffed with drugs including Prozac, lithium and saline fluid. Each treatment he was given is faithfully recorded.
On the top floor was what appears to have been his bride’s bedroom, decorated in white and gold, and heavy gilt furnishings with wardrobes full of expensive clothes and lingerie. None of this survived when the looters arrived.
The house was also stripped clean of the copious amounts of alcohol that Uday kept, the records of which are listed in the diaries.
To show how obsessive he was, he gave his three chefs — Johnny, Amar and Maran — marks of out ten for every dish they prepared, from the bananas mashed in milk that he insisted on for breakfast to other favoured delicacies such as Indian curries, boiled fish, snails and sheep’s testicles.
In one entry Uday details a recipe that he wants to be prepared and tells the cook: “If the quality is not good enough you will suffer.”
Every day there is a list of videos that he wants to be delivered. One of the last entries was for Behind Enemy Lines, Ocean’s Eleven, Vanilla Sky and Doctor Zhivago.
A staff member was beaten and jailed for failing to put a fresh box of tissues in one of his cars. He ordered the glasses to be changed daily in the cocktail cabinets of his fleet of luxury cars, parked in an underground garage close by. They, too, have been stolen, including his prized Rolls Royce Silver Shadows, two London taxis and a customised golf cart with gold fittings.
There is no honor among thieves.
If a man cannot take a joint shower with her woman, how can he have sex with her? Sex is a much more intimate activity than sharing a shower.
He's so sick that he's acting completely irrationally.
It gives me the creeps that a man who takes the time to write in his journal that he wore the "Blue Shorts" to bed on such and such a night, makes decisions purporting to represent ME in the US Senate...and then has the chutzpah to declare that he "doesn't have enough information" to make a decision on the Estrada nomination.
I think the "scalp medication" may be some sort of topical lobotomy.
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