Why this guy is even allowed to use writing utensils is beyond me.
Saddam Begins Memoirs from Behind Bars
Saddam Hussein has decided to write his memoirs while he languishes in an Iraqi jail awaiting trial after more than two decades of being responsible for brutal abuses.
According to Giovanni di Stefano, who is a member of Mr Hussein’s legal team, the former writer of allegorical novels better known as Iraq’s dictator resolved in recent weeks to start writing his biography.
Yeah, because eating three square meals a day, napping and watching TV is soooo strenuous.
Mr di Stefano promised: “There will be quite considerable detail. The Americans [holding him] are relaxed about it and we’ve seen some of the translation.
The Americans are relaxed about it. Wonderful. Someone fire those guys and bring in the soldiers from Abu Gharib.
Do not expect a confession. In his first appearance before an Iraqi judge in July last year, Mr Hussein, looking old and tired, was as defiant as ever, rejecting the courts jurisdiction and defending his 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Mr Hussein is writing about his childhood in Iraq, his early exile to Egypt and his misguided military adventures.
A wacky affair, to be sure. Hijinks abound!
I think I’m gonna be sick.
He will try to embarrass the great powers that once saw him as a useful buffer against the expansionist ambitions of Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution. In particular, says Mr di Stefano, he will tell how France and Britain double-crossed him by also helping Iran’s Islamic republic during its eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s.
Saddam, the victim. No story there.
There have been reports that Mr Hussein has been writing poetry in his jail cell.
Roses are red, violets are blue
When I get out of this prison cell I’m gonna kill you (Tariq)
Uh, with mustard gas
According to Mr di Stefano, since his capture in December 2003, he has also been watching more television than he is used to.
He purportedly enjoys TV Land reruns of I Love Lucy, and Desperate Housewives.
Puhleeze…can someone tell me why this murderer has a television in his cell? He probably has a frickin iPod too.
One programme his American guards were most insistent that he should see was the recent inauguration of Jalal Talabani, Iraq’s new president, one of the main leaders of the Kurdish minority oppressed under the Ba’athist regime.
Now that’s one show they can loop over and over again.
Iraq’s deposed president already likes to think of himself as an accomplished writer and a great novelist. Before the 2003 Iraq war, those books most widely praised by Iraq’s state propaganda and, hence, most closely read by western intelligence agencies were assumed to have been the leader’s work.
Signed “a book by its writer”, the novels are now believed to have been inspired by Mr Hussein but in fact written by a committee working for him.
Why is this surprising? The guy didn’t lift a finger…he had everyone doing everything for him.
In Zabibah and the King, released to Baghdad’s book shops in 2001, a king is portrayed as misunderstood by his people. His love for a young woman was seen by local reviewers as a metaphor representing the king’s attachment to his country.
Plans to publish Mr Hussein’s fourth and final novel, the story of an Arab who defeats his American and Jewish enemies, were shattered when the Americans invaded Iraq in 2003 and deposed him.
The book was found in the ruins of the information ministry building after the end of the war.
Its rightful resting place.
All of this drives me crazy. First there were stories about his frustrations with captivity, and now this. Saddam the writer. Gimme a break.
Someone keep Judith Regan away from his prison cell.
My Life by Saddam Hussein
It appears that Saddam Hussein is writing his memoirs. How sweet.
Here are a few excerpts I’ve been able to obtain:
Sometime in 1980:
That Jacques Chirac sure was nice. I sent him a thank you card for helping get that swell nuclear reactor t…
Iraq Report, 16 May/05
MAY 16/05 TOPICS INCL: Operation Matador ends; Rice visits Iraq; more bodies in Baghdad; Operations Cobweb; Deuce Four in action; Al Qaeda in Iraq’s organization; reconstruction highlights; Syrian interference in Iraq; continuing the state of emergency…