Saddam was ‘fond of’ Bin Laden Baghdad, Iraq Press, March 24, 2004 – The ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein highly admired Osama Bin Laden. The leader of the terrorist group al-Qaeda was declared “the man of the year” in 2002 in Iraq on direct orders from Saddam Hussein, the country’s most influential newspaper has revealed. Azzaman daily said Saddam Hussein wanted “exploit and garner support” of Bin Laden’s loyalists, according to an official document it obtained recently. The document is a letter Saddam Hussein had sent to his then Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf asking him to declare Bin Laden...