Uday Hussein

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Uday Saddam
Born	18 June 1964 (1964-06-18) Tikrit, Iraq
Died	22 July 2003 (2003-07-23) (age 39) Mosul, Iraq
Children	None
Parents	Saddam Hussein Sajida Talfah
Relatives	Qusay Hussein, brother

Uday Saddam Hussayn al-Tikriti (June 18, 1964 – July 22, 2003), (Arabic: عُدي صدّام حُسين‎) was the eldest son of Saddam Hussein and his first wife, Sajida Talfah. He was the older brother of Qusay Hussein.

He was for several years seen as the heir apparent of his father. He produced the newspaper Babel and a local Iraqi TV channel called "Al-shabab TV". Following the United States-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, he was killed at age 39 by a secretive combined Special Forces Task Force (Task Force 20) during a brief gunfight in Mosul.

He was briefly married to the daughter of Izzat Ibrahim ad-Douri, who was Vice President and Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council,^[1] but he later divorced her.

[edit] Biography

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Uday Saddam was born in Baghdad to Saddam Hussein and Sajida Talfah while his father was in prison. Although he was of legal age for military service during the Iran–Iraq War, Uday did not volunteer to fight, nor was he conscripted into the Iraqi military, as were most of his countrymen.^{[citation needed]}

Uday graduated from high school almost effortlessly with unusually high marks (almost 100% average for the 6 subjects). Initially, he started his University days in Baghdad University College of Medicine. He only lasted in the Medical College for 3 days then moved to College of Engineering about a kilometer away. Uday earned a degree in engineering from Baghdad University, graduating top of his class of 76 students, after threats were found in the teachers' homes^{[citation needed]}.

Although his status as Saddam's eldest son made him Saddam's prospective successor, Uday fell out of favor with his father.^[2] In October 1988, at a party in honor of Suzanne Mubarak, wife of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Uday murdered his father's personal valet and food taster, Kamel Hana Gegeo (some say at the request of his mother). Before an assemblage of horrified guests, an intoxicated Uday bludgeoned Gegeo with a cane, reputedly administering the coup de grâce with an electric carving knife. Gegeo had recently introduced Saddam to a younger woman, Samira Shahbandar, who later became Saddam's second wife. Uday considered his father's relationship with Shahbandar an insult to his own mother. He furthermore feared losing succession to Gegeo, whose loyalty and fidelity to Saddam Hussein were unquestioned.^[3]

As punishment for the murder, Saddam briefly imprisoned his son. The original sentence was eight years; Uday probably served only three months in a private prison.^[2] In response to personal intervention from King Hussein of Jordan^{[citation needed]}, Saddam released Uday, banishing him to Switzerland as the assistant to the Iraqi ambassador there. He was expelled by the Swiss government after he threatened to stab someone in a restaurant.^{[citation needed]}

Saddam later appointed Uday head of the Iraqi Olympic committee, and subsequently the head of one of Saddam's security organizations. In the former role he tortured athletes who failed to win. ^[2][4][5] Uday seemed proud of his reputation and called himself abu sarhan, Arabic for "father of the wolf."

Uday sustained permanent injuries during an assassination attempt in December 1996.^[2] Struck by eight bullets while driving his Porsche, Uday was initially believed to be paralyzed. Evacuated to Ibn Sina Hospital, he eventually recovered but with a noticeable limp.^[2] Despite repeated operations, however, a bullet remained lodged in his spine and could not be removed due to its location near the spinal cord.^{[citation needed]} In the wake of Uday's subsequent disabilities, Saddam gave his younger brother Qusay increasing responsibility and authority, later designating him as his heir apparent in 2000.^{[citation needed]}

Uday opened accounts with Yahoo! and MSN Messenger, which caused controversy when the accounts violated U.S. trade sanctions against Iraq ^[6].

[edit] Body double

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Uday is known to have used a body double named Latif Yahia.

Yahia attended the same school as Uday when they were children (from approximately age 12 onwards) and it is alleged that he was forcibly recruited^{[citation needed]} and 'groomed' as Uday's double around the same time. It is also claimed that, as he grew older, Yahia underwent extensive plastic surgery to enhance his resemblance to Uday.^{[citation needed]} After surviving eleven assassination attempts targeted at Uday,^{[citation needed]} Yahia successfully fled Iraq in December 1991. Yahia wrote a book detailing his life and the life he lived as Uday's body double in his book I Was Saddam's Son. Yahia's story never received much widespread media coverage [1] until after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

[edit] Allegations of crimes or misconduct

A report released on 20 March 2003, by ABC news detailed several allegations against Uday:

• As head of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, Uday oversaw the imprisonment and torture of Iraqi athletes who were deemed not to have performed to expectations. According to widespread reports, torturers beat and caned the soles of the football players' feet — inflicting intense pain without leaving visible marks on the rest of their bodies. Uday reportedly kept scorecards with written instructions on how many times each player should be beaten after a poor showing.^[7] One defector reported that jailed football players were forced to kick a concrete ball after failing to reach the 1994 World Cup finals. Iraqi National Football team were seen with their heads shaved after failing to achieve a good result in a tournament in 1980s. It was widely circulated that Uday ordered the shaving as part of the punishment. Another defector claimed that athletes were dragged through a gravel pit and subsequently immersed in a sewage tank to induce infection in the victims' wounds.^[8]

Other allegations include:

• Allegedly kidnapping young Iraqi women from the streets in order to rape them.^[2] Uday was known to intrude on parties and otherwise "discover" women whom he would later rape. Time published an article in 2003 detailing his sexual brutality.^[2][9] In one such instance, he accosted a young woman who was walking with her husband, where Uday said her husband was a nobody, despite him wearing a uniform showing him to be a captain in the Iraqi Army. Uday then ordered his men to grab the girl, to which her husband struck Uday in defense of his wife, and was apprehended by Uday's bodyguards. The wife was raped and later murdered, and the husband was sentenced to death for "high treason against Saddam".^{[citation needed]}
• Alleged self-indulgence in an era of widespread privation. When U.S. troops captured his mansion in Baghdad, they found a personal zoo stocked with lions and cheetahs; an underground parking garage for his collection of luxury cars; paintings glorifying him and his mother with Saddam (which was known to have infuriated his father); Cuban cigars inscribed with his name; and millions of dollars worth of fine wines, liquor and heroin. An HIV testing kit was also found among his personal effects.^[7] He amassed hundreds of millions of US dollars by running facade corporations illegally trading with Iran (although, at that time, UN restrictions did not allow foreign trading. Only later, Iraq was allowed to import certain commodities such as food and medical supplies legally under the UN Oil-For-Food programme).

• Usage of an iron maiden on persons running foul of him.^[10]
• Allegedly Uday beat an army officer unconscious when the man refused to allow him to dance with his wife; the man later died of his injuries. Uday also shot and killed an army officer who did not salute him.^[8]
• Uday purchased or stole approximately 1,200 luxury vehicles, including a Rolls-Royce Corniche valued at over $200,000. Uday is reported to have arrived at a polling station during a referendum on his father's regime in a pink Rolls-Royce.^[11]
• According to a new report, Hussein plotted in 2000 to assassinate a leader of an Iraqi opposition group. The report states Uday wanted to kill Ahmed Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress.^[12]

[edit] Death

House of Uday and Qusay in Mosul, Iraq destroyed by US forces, July 31 2003

On 22 July 2003, Task Force 20, aided by troops of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division, had a showdown with Uday, Qusay and Qusay's 14-year-old son Mustapha during a raid on a home in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. He had been the Ace of Hearts on the most-wanted Iraqi playing cards (with Qusay being the Ace of Clubs). Acting on a tip from an unidentified Iraqi, the blocking element from the 101st Airborne Division provided security while the Task Force 20 operators attempted to apprehend the inhabitants of the house. After U.S. troops hotwired Uday's Lamborghini^{[citation needed]}, he revealed himself, upon which a gunfight ensued. The assault element withdrew to request backup. As many as 200 American troops, later aided by OH-58 Kiowa helicopters and an A-10 "Warthog", surrounded and fired upon the house. After approximately four hours of battle, soldiers entered the house and found four bodies, including the Hussein brothers' bodyguard.

On 23 July 2003, the American command said that dental records had conclusively identified two of the dead men as Saddam Hussein's sons. They also announced that the informant (possibly the owner of the villa in Mosul in which the brothers were killed) would receive the combined $30 million award previously offered for their apprehension.^[13]

Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division and US Special Forces (Task Force 20) watch as a TOW missile strikes the side of a house occupied by Uday and Qusay Hussein in Mosul, on 22 July 2003

Furthermore, the owner of the villa, Nawaf az-Zaydan, who is distantly related to Saddam, was granted U.S. citizenship and permitted to depart from Iraq. Locals said Zeidan had tipped off United States forces that Saddam's sons were staying there. In what was likely an act of revenge, on 5 June 2004, Zeidan's brother Salaah al-Zeidan was killed, and three of his male relatives (including an eight-year-old boy) traveling in the same vehicle were wounded by unknown assassins

The Bush Administration was criticized^{[citation needed]} for displaying a double standard — publishing photos of the dead brothers despite condemning Saddam for releasing images of American prisoners of war. ^[14] The U.S. military's response was to point out that these men were no ordinary combatants and to express hope that confirmation of the deaths would bring closure to the Iraqi people. When photos of Americans killed at Nasiriyah [in March 2003] were published, U.S generals declared it was a violation of the Geneva Convention^[15].

Uday was buried in a cemetery near Tikrit alongside Qusay and Qusay's son Mustapha.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• GlobalSecurity.org: Uday Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti
• DesertVoice.net: Saddam's sons
• BBC News: Saddam pounces on son's newspaper, 20 November 2002
• BBC News: Saddam's son steps into debate, 14 November 2002
• BBC News: Saddam's rival sons, 10 September 2002
• BBC News: Saddam sons 'dead', 23 July 2003
• Wired.com article on Uday's Yahoo! email address and password, 11 November 2002
• Album of Photos taken of the raid that killed Uday et al. --Militaryphotos.net
• Hussein family graves^{[dead link]}
• Revenge for killing Saddam's sons

v • d • e Saddam Hussein Biography Human rights record · Relations with the United States · Relationship with Al-Qaeda (timeline) · Rumours of death · Alleged shredder · Capture · Interrogation · Trial · Execution Books Zabibah and the King · The Fortified Castle · Men and the City · Begone, Demons Family Father: Hussein 'Abid al-Majid · Mother: Subha Tulfah al-Mussallat · Wives: Sajida Talfah, Samira Shahbandar, Nidal al-Hamdani, and Wafa el-Mullah al-Howeish · Uncle and Father-in-Law: Khairallah Talfah · Sons: Uday, Qusay, and Ali · Daughters: Rana, Raghad, and Hala

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (August 2007)