[Vision2020] Terrified of Saddam Hussein

[John Harrell]

Terrified of Saddam Hussein 

He said: “There are people from Baath here reporting everything that 
goes on. There are cameras here recording our faces. If the Americans 
were to withdraw and everything were to return to the way it was before, 
we want to make sure that we survive the massacre that would follow as 
Baath go house to house killing anyone who voiced opposition to Saddam. 
In public, we always pledge our allegiance to Saddam, but in our hearts 
we feel something else.” 

-------------------

Terrified of Saddam Hussein 

Essam Al-Ghalib, Arab News War Correspondent

Arab News 
Sunday, March 30, 2003

http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=24481
[excerpt below, see URL for complete article]

UMM QASR/BASRA, 30 March 2003 — Four days ago my friend, Mohammed Al-Deleami and I were
invited by Abdul Rahman
Almotawa, a journalist at our sister publication Asharq Al-Awsat, to accompany him on a
trip organized by the Kuwaiti Ministry of
Information to report on the humanitarian relief effort at Safwan, an Iraqi town at the
Kuwaiti border. 

I jumped at the opportunity to get past the Kuwaiti Army checkpoint at Mutla’, which was
the biggest obstacle keeping me from
entering Iraq. As we raced to catch up to the convoy heading out of Kuwait, I told
Almotawa that if the opportunity presented itself
for us to break away from the ministry’s convoy once we got into Iraq, that we should, as
such an opportunity may not present itself
again. 

When Mohammed and I left our hotel, we had no idea that that would be exactly what
happened. We were ill-prepared for we had
nothing but our gas masks, which we carried everywhere, the clothes on our backs, my
cameras, a satellite phone, a Kuwaiti mobile
and laptop. 

After 75 minutes of driving in a manner likely to get me arrested in most countries, we
were able to catch up to the convoy as it
passed through the dreaded checkpoint at Mutla’, where we had been turned back several
times in the days before. 

When we finally made it to Safwan, Iraq, what we saw was utter chaos. Iraqi men, women
and children were playing it up for the TV
cameras, chanting: “With our blood, with our souls, we will die for you Saddam.” 

I took a young Iraqi man, 19, away from the cameras and asked him why they were all
chanting that particular slogan, especially
when humanitarian aid trucks marked with the insignia of the Kuwaiti Red Crescent
Society, were distributing some much-needed
food. 

His answer shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did. 

He said: “There are people from Baath here reporting everything that goes on. There are
cameras here recording our faces. If the
Americans were to withdraw and everything were to return to the way it was before, we
want to make sure that we survive the
massacre that would follow as Baath go house to house killing anyone who voiced
opposition to Saddam. In public, we always pledge
our allegiance to Saddam, but in our hearts we feel something else.” 

Different versions of that very quote, but with a common theme, I would come to hear
several times over the next three days I spent
in Iraq. 

The people of Iraq are terrified of Saddam Hussein. 

{..snip.. see URL for complete article..}

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