TheRightWing
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Saddam begins memoirs from behind bars
By Roula Khalaf in London
Published: May 13 2005 21:56 | Last updated: May 13 2005 21:56
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<!--endclickprintexclude-->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.
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<!--endclickprintexclude-->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.
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.”
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 court's 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.
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.
There have been reports that Mr Hussein has been writing poetry in his jail cell.
According to Mr di Stefano, since his capture in December 2003, he has also been watching more television than he is used to.
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. 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.
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.
By Roula Khalaf in London
Published: May 13 2005 21:56 | Last updated: May 13 2005 21:56
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<!--endclickprintexclude-->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.
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.”
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 court's 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.
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.
There have been reports that Mr Hussein has been writing poetry in his jail cell.
According to Mr di Stefano, since his capture in December 2003, he has also been watching more television than he is used to.
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. 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.
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.
