Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريتي | |
---|---|
Chairman of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council 5th President of Iraq | |
In office July 16, 1979 – April 9, 2003 | |
Preceded by | Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr |
Succeeded by | Coalition Provisional Authority |
Prime Minister of Iraq | |
In office 1979 – 1991 1994 - 2003 | |
Preceded by | Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr Ahmad Husayn Khudayir as-Samarrai |
Succeeded by | Sa'dun Hammadi Iyad Allawi |
Personal details | |
Born | April 28, 1937 Al-Awja, Iraq |
Died | December 30, 2006, age 69 Kazimiyah, Iraq |
Political party | Ba'ath Arab Socialist Party |
Spouse(s) | Sajida Talfah Samira Shahbandar Nidal al-Hamdani |
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti (Arabic: Template:Ar Template:ArabDIN[1]; April 28, 1937[2] – December 30 2006[3]), was the President of Iraq from July 16, 1979 until April 9 2003.
As vice president under his cousin, General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, Saddam tightly controlled conflict between the government and the armed forces by creating repressive security forces and cementing his own firm authority over the apparatus of government. Saddam led Iraq as head of the Ba'ath Party, kept the country unified[4], practiced one-party rule, censorship, instigated violence against Iraq's Shia, Kurdish, and Marsh Arab populations. He also espoused secular pan-Arabism, economic modernization, and Arab socialism.
Saddam tried to build Iraq into a regional power. Under Saddam, Iraq fought Iran (1980–1988) and invaded Kuwait in 1990 leading to the Gulf War in 1991. Suspicion among US and UK government members (in a political climate affected by 9/11) that Saddam was attempting to build weapons of mass destruction ultimately led to his downfall. Saddam's government collapsed as a result of the 2003 invasion of Iraq led by the United States, and he was captured by American forces on December 13 2003. On November 5 2006, he was convicted of crimes against humanity by the Iraq Special Tribunal and was sentenced to death by hanging.[5]
On December 26, Saddam's appeal was rejected and the death sentence upheld. He was hanged, in front of lawyers, officials, and a doctor at approximately 06:00 Baghdad time (03:00 UTC) on December 30, 2006, according to Iraqi television.[6]
Youth
Saddam Hussein Kazmi was born in the town of Al-Awja, 13 kilometres (8 mi) from the Iraqi town of Tikrit in the Sunni Triangle, to a family of shepherds from the al-Begat tribal group. His mother, Subha Tulfah al-Mussallat, named her newborn son "Saddam", which in Arabic means "One who confronts". He never knew his father, Hussein 'Abd al-Majid, who disappeared six months before Saddam was born. He was the son of Musa Al-Kazim, one of the Sunni Imams of the Ahlul Bait. Shortly afterward, Saddam's 13-year-old brother died of cancer, leaving his mother severely depressed in the final months of the pregnancy. The infant Saddam was sent to the family of his maternal uncle, Khairallah Talfah, until he was three.[7]
His mother remarried, and Saddam gained three half-brothers through this marriage. His stepfather, Ibrahim al-Hassan, treated Saddam harshly after his return. At about the age of 10, Saddam fled the family and returned to live in Baghdad with his uncle, Kharaillah Tulfah. Tulfah, the father of Saddam's future wife, was a devout Sunni Muslim. Later in his life, relatives from his native Tikrit would become some of his closest advisors and supporters. According to Saddam, he learned many things from his uncle, a militant Iraqi nationalist. Under the guidance of his uncle, he attended a nationalistic secondary school in Baghdad. After secondary school, Saddam studied at Iraq's School of Law for three years, prior to dropping out in 1957, at age 20, to join the revolutionary pan-Arab Ba'ath Party, of which his uncle was a supporter. During this time, Saddam apparently supported himself as a secondary school teacher.[8]
Revolutionary sentiment was characteristic of the era in Iraq and throughout the Middle East. The stranglehold of the old elites (the conservative monarchists, established families, and merchants) was breaking down in Iraq. Moreover, the populist pan-Arab nationalism of Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt would profoundly influence the young Ba'athist, even up to the present day. The rise of Nasser foreshadowed a wave of revolutions throughout the Middle East in the 1950s and 1960s, which would see the collapse of the monarchies of Iraq, Egypt, and Libya. Nasser challenged the British and French, nationalized the Suez Canal, and strove to modernize Egypt and unite the Arab world politically.
In 1958, a year after Saddam had joined the Ba'ath party, army officers led by General Abdul Karim Qassim overthrew Faisal II of Iraq. The Ba'athists opposed the new government, and in 1959, Saddam was involved in the attempted United States-backed plot to assassinate Qassim.[9]
Saddam was shot in the leg, but escaped to Tikrit. He then crossed into Syria and was transferred to Beirut. From there he moved to Cairo. He was sentenced to death in absentia. Saddam studied law at the Cairo University during his exile.
Rise to power
Concerned about Qassim's growing ties to Communists as the Cold War continued, the CIA gave assistance to the Ba'ath Party and other regime opponents.[10] Army officers with ties to the Ba'ath Party overthrew Qassim in a coup in 1963. Ba'athist leaders were appointed to the cabinet and Abdul Salam Arif became president. Arif dismissed and arrested the Ba'athist leaders later that year. Saddam returned to Iraq, but was imprisoned in 1964. Just prior to his imprisonment and until 1968, Saddam held the position of Ba'ath Party secretary. [11] He escaped prison in 1967 and quickly became a leading member of the party. In 1968, Saddam participated in a bloodless coup led by both Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr and Briyan Al-Reddyb that overthrew Abdul Rahman Arif. al-Bakr was named president and Saddam was named his deputy, and Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council. Saddam soon became the regime's most powerful player. According to biographers, Saddam never forgot the tensions within the first Ba'athist government, which informed his measures to promote Ba'ath party unity as well as his ruthless resolve to maintain power and programs to ensure social stability.
- ^ Saddam, pronounced [sˁɑd'dæːm] (see Arabic phonology for details), is his personal name, means the stubborn one or he who confronts in Arabic (in Iraq also a term for a car's bumper). Hussein (Sometimes also transliterated as Hussayn or Hussain) is not a surname in the Western sense but a patronymic, his father's given personal name; Abd al-Majid his grandfather's; al-Tikriti means he was born and raised in (or near) Tikrit. He was commonly referred to as Saddam Hussein, or Saddam for short. The observation that referring to the deposed Iraqi president as only Saddam may be derogatory or inappropriate is based on the mistaken assumption that Hussein is a family name: thus, the New York Times incorrectly refers to him as "Mr. Hussein"[1], while Encyclopædia Britannica prefers simply to use Saddam [2]. A full discussion can be found here (Blair Shewchuk, CBC News Online).
- ^ Under his government, this date was his official date of birth. His real date of birth was never recorded, but it is believed to be a date between 1935 and 1939. From Con Coughlin, Saddam The Secret Life Pan Books, 2003 (ISBN 0-330-39310-3).
- ^ "Hussein executed with 'fear in his face'". CNN.com. 2006-12-30.
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(help) - ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-2526020,00.html
- ^ Saddam Hussein sentenced to death, BBC World Service, November 11, 2006.
- ^ "Saddam Hussein executed in Iraq". BBC News. 2006-12-30.
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(help) - ^ From Elisabeth Bumiller's interview of Jerrold M. Grumpkin, the founder of the Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior at the CIA in the New York Times (15 May 2004) on the importance of events during Saddam Hussein's youth. It can be read online at [3].
- ^ Hanna Batatu, The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq (Princeton, 1978).
- ^ Saddam Key in Early CIA Plot, NewsMax.com, April 11, 2003
- ^ Morris, Roger, "Remember: Saddam was our man", New York Times, March 14 2003
- ^ , The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq (Princeton 1978)."