A Legacy Of Saddam Hussein That No One Knows What To Do About

Iraqi Imams view the 605-page qur'an written using 24 litres of former dictator Saddam Hussein's own blood donated over a number of years. Photograph: Scott Peterson/Getty Images

Qur'an Etched In Saddam Hussein's Blood Poses Dilemma For Iraq Leaders -- The Guardian

As country debates whether to destroy everything connected to former dictator, Shia-led regime remains sensitive about relics.

It was etched in the blood of a dictator in a ghoulish bid for piety. Over the course of two painstaking years in the late 1990s, Saddam Hussein had sat regularly with a nurse and an Islamic calligrapher; the former drawing 27 litres of his blood and the latter using it as a macabre ink to transcribe a Qur'an. But since the fall of Baghdad, almost eight years ago, it has stayed largely out of sight - locked away behind three vaulted doors. It is the one part of the ousted tyrant's legacy that Iraq has simply not known what to do with.

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My Comment: If "it is haraam [forbidden]" .... then destroy it. But Iraqi politics is not that simple, and I expect this legacy of Saddam Hussein to be around for a very very long time.

Using Social Networking To Find And Capture Saddam Hussein (Part One Of A Five Part Series)

Searching For Saddam -- Slate

A five-part series on how the U.S. military used social networking to capture the Iraqi dictator.

Traffic had slowed to a crawl in Baghdad's Azamiyah district as drivers stopped to ogle the president. It was April 2003, and Saddam Hussein cheerily greeted his subjects as a few bodyguards tried to keep the crowd at bay. Someone handed Saddam a bewildered baby, which he hoisted up in the air a few times and handed back. When he reached a white sedan, Saddam climbed onto the hood to survey the sea of loyalists.

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My Comment: I have been waiting a few years for an article/series like this one. Part 1 is today, and this is a must read.

On a side note, the power of social networking in war cannot be underestimated, and Slate has been successful in revealing this in this series. If someone has the contacts and background, one should look at how social networking can .... and probably is .... unraveling the Taliban leadership in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. I am sure that such an article will be just as interesting.

Saddam Planned 2006 Prison Escape: Lawyer's Memoirs

Saddam Hussein

From AFP:

AMMAN — Deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein planned to escape from his US-run prison in 2006 with the help of loyalists, including former bodyguards, according to a book written by one of his lawyers.

"Saddam's plan to escape prison was supposed to take place in the summer of 2006, with the backing of the Iraqi resistance and a special force of bodyguards," Khalil al-Dulaimi wrote in "Saddam Hussein Out of US Prison: What Happened."

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My Comment: Saddam Hussein and his supporters were certainly delusional .... I guess that is why he and many of his followers are dead right now.

In Letters From Jail, Saddam Hussein Alleged Torture, Complained Of Sleepless Nights

Saddam Hussein at trial in Baghdad in December 2006. Solic / Getty Images

From The New York Daily News:

WASHINGTON - Immediately after U.S. troops captured Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraq's brutal ex-dictator turned into a crybaby over "beatings" by a "detention gang" and sleepless nights amid screams of torture victims.

Saddam poured out his complaints "to whom it may concern" in two Christmas 2003 letters, handwritten in Arabic, which he gave to his U.S. military jailers, the Daily News has learned.

Read more: "In letters from jail, Saddam Hussein alleged torture, complained of sleepless nights" - http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/05/05/2009-05-05_in_letters_from_jail_saddam_hussein_alleged_torture_complained_of_sleepless_nigh.html#ixzz0EeFqCNI4&A

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My Comment: Saddam Hussein's complaints will pale to what he is going to experience in Hell.