Uday Hussein

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Uday Hussein

Uday Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti (June 18, 1964–July 22, 2003; Arabic: عدي صدام حسين; also transliterated as Odai) was the eldest son of Saddam Hussein, the deposed president of Iraq, and his first wife, Sajida Talfah. He was for several years seen as the heir apparent of his father. He produced the newspaper Babel as well as the youth radio station Voice of Iraq (which ran American pop songs). His erratic and violent behavior, and troubled relationship with his father and brother was well-publicized in the media both before and after being killed at age 39 by U.S. military forces following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Although his status as Saddam Hussein's eldest son once made him the prospective successor to his father, Uday fell out of favor with Saddam for his extravagance and recklessness. In October 1988, at a party thrown in the honor of the wife of President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Uday beat and stabbed to death his father's personal valet and food taster, Kemal Hana Gegeo. Gegeo had recently introduced Saddam to a beautiful, younger woman, Samira Shahbandar, who later became Saddam's second wife. Uday took this as an insult to his mother (his father's first cousin). While drunk, Uday carried out the murder coolly and coldly, bludgeoning Gegeo repeatedly in front of horrified guests before finishing him off with a steak knife. Mubarak later called Uday a "psychopath."

As punishment for the murder, Hussein briefly imprisoned his son. As a result of personal intervention from King Hussein of Jordan, Hussein 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.

Hussein later rehabilitated Uday, making him the head of the Olympic committee, and later, the head of one of Saddam's myriad security organizations. But Uday never regained his former status as his father's favored son. Saddam began to give this status to his Uday's younger brother, Qusay.

On December 12, 1996, Uday was seriously injured in an assassination attempt, allegedly organized by Qusay. Hit by eight bullets while driving, he was at first thought to be paralyzed. Instead, he recovered his ability to walk, albeit with a limp. Despite surgeries, a bullet remained lodged in his spine. As a result of the attempted assassination and Uday's subsequent disabilities, Saddam gave Uday's younger brother, Qusay Hussein, more powers. In 2000, Saddam designated Qusay as his heir.

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Uday (left), with his father, Saddam (center), and his brother, Qusay

On March 17, 2003, US President George W. Bush gave Saddam Hussein and his two sons 48 hours to leave Iraq, or face war. Uday sarcastically responded to the ultimatum by demanding Bush and his family leave the United States.

A report on March 20, 2003 by ABC news made 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 soccer players' feet. The experience is intensely painful, but leaves no marks on the rest of the body.
A former member of the French foreign ministry claimed that Uday and his bodyguards had forced their way into the hotel room of a French couple and forced them at gunpoint to perform sex acts so that Uday could video tape them for later re-viewing.
A former Uday look-alike who had served in the past as a body double, now living in the West, claimed that Uday was unable to perform sexually without causing pain and drawing blood from his sexual partners. The double said that Uday had raped numerous women, including a visiting Russian ballerina.
Uday has purchased or stolen approximately 1200 luxury automobiles, 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.

Other allegations include:

Uday feeding victims into a wood-chipping machine, or throwing them into an acid vat. No evidence of such torture has been found.
Uday kidnapping young, attractive Iraqi women from the streets in order to rape them. No evidence of this allegation has been produced either, but it was widely known that Uday would crash parties and otherwise "discover" women who he would later rape. Time magazine ran an article in 2003 detailing his sexual brutality, which did include the use of acid, and that he sometimes killed women after raping them.[1] (http://www.mafhoum.com/press5/147P57.htm)

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

After the war, a correspondent for TIME magazine discovered an iron maiden of undetermined age and origin in the grounds outside the Olympic building. An iron maiden is a sarcophagus with spikes facing inward that puncture the victim's body. There is no evidence that it was ever used.

"Around 7 feet tall, three feet across and deep enough to house a grown man, the sarcophagus-shaped device found in Baghdad was clearly worn from use, its nails having lost some of their sharpness. It lay on its side within view of Uday's first-floor offices in the soccer association. Ironically, the torture device was brought to TIME's attention by a group of looters who had been stripping the compound of anything of value. They had left behind the iron maiden, believing it to be worthless." [2] (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,444889,00.html)

On July 22, 2003, troops of the American 101st Airborne, aided by U.S. Special Forces, killed Uday, his younger brother Qusay and Qusay's 14 year old son during a raid on a home in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Acting on a tip from an unidentified Iraqi, a special forces team attempted to apprehend the inhabitants of the house. After being fired on, the special forces withdrew and called for backup. As many as 100 American troops, later aided by Apache helicopters and an A-10 "Warthog" gunship, surrounded and fired on the house. After three hours of battle, the soldiers entered the house and found four dead, including the brothers, and three others wounded.

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Destroyed house of Uday and Qusay in Mosul, Iraq, July 31, 2003

According to news reports (including the BBC and the New York Times), many of the people of Baghdad celebrated word of the brothers' death by firing rounds into the air. (It should be noted that the firing of rounds is very common at funerals in Arab culture, and could signal either celebration or mourning.)

The praise for Uday's and Qusay's deaths was not universal, however, with a correspondent for Al-Jazeera calling the demise of the brothers a "crime" carried out "in cold blood."

On July 23, 2003 the American command said that it had conclusively identified two of the dead men as Saddam Hussein's sons, using dental records. They also announced that the informant, possibly the owner of the house, would receive the combined $30 million award on the pair.

On July 24, 2003 pictures of the killed brothers were released to the press (photo of killed Uday Hussein). The U.S. military command stated that photos of brothers were released to combat widespread rumors in Iraq that the brothers are still alive and the whole episode is a hoax.

Some criticized the U.S. for creating a double standard in releasing the photos of the dead brothers, given that the Bush Administration condemned Saddam Hussein for releasing photos of American dead during the conflict. The U.S. military answered these criticisms by pointing out that these men were no ordinary dead combatants, and that confirmation of the deaths would bring "closure" to the Iraqi people.

Uday was buried in a cemetery in the Tikrit area alongside Qusay and the latter's son Mustapha. He was the Ace of Hearts on the most-wanted Iraqi playing cards.

The owner of the house where both brothers were killed was provided with U.S. citizenship and thereby allowed to depart from Iraq. In a likely revenge attack, his brother was killed in 2004 by unknown assassins.