Saddam Hussein

We couldn't find Osama Bin Laden, so we went looking for the next biggest demon: Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

After he had inflicted incalculable deaths on his own people, and after an unsuccessful attempt to remove him from power by the US in the early 90's, the aftermath of 9/11 found the Bush presidency chasing after a less agile opponent.

And we found Hussein, cowering in a styrofoam lined bunker, and put him on trial. Defiant throughout the litigation, verdict, sentencing and eventual execution by hanging, it remains to be seen if the US should be careful what it wishes for in the Arab world - does getting same make things better...or worse?

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Best Sellers at Amazon.com...

Saddam Hussein: A Biography (Greenwood Biographies)
By: Shiva Balaghi
List Price: $20.00
Amazon Price: $19.98

Product Description

In July 1979, Saddam Hussein became the President of Iraq. His dictum was simply expressed?power through terror. During the first decade of his presidency, Saddam engaged in three wars: the Iran-Iraq War, the invasion of Kuwait, and the Gulf War of 1991. After September 11th, the war on terrorism led to the war against Iraq that began in March 2003 and the eventual capture of Sadddam Hussein effecitively ending his rule over the Iraqi people. On April 9, 2003, a handful of U.S. Marines helped a small crowd of Iraqis gathered in Firdos Square to tear down a statue of Saddam Hussein. Since his capture, Saddam has been transferred to Iraqi legal custody and awaits his trial for atrocities committed during his regime.

This biography details Saddam's difficult childhood in Tikrit and his politically influential teenage years in Baghdad with his uncle. His involvement with the Iraqi Baath Party led to his participation in an assassination attempt on then Prime Minister Qassem. In his early political life, Saddam retained the lessons of village life learned in his difficult Tikrit childhood, but they would become enmeshed with his discovery of Baathism and pan-Arabism. Once he became President of Iraq, Saddam often ruled with force and a carefully cultivated image throughout the use of visual imagery and books. Though Saddam no longer rules Iraq, the legacy of his reign will likely shape Iraqi history for years to come.

Saddam Hussein: An American Obsession
By: Andrew Cockburn
List Price:
Amazon Price: $6.97

Product Description
"The idea of direct invasion is the greatest threat to Saddam. It avoids the problems of securing local allies, inside and outside Iraq, which bedevil any indirect approach to get rid of him. But it has one immense disadvantage from the US point of view ...if the US invades Iraq to install its own government it will be taking direct physical control of an area containing more than half the world's oil reserves. It will look like the founding of a new American empire based on physical force and will be deeply resented ...It would outrage the Arabs at a moment when the Israel-Palestine conflict is in a particularly bloody phase. America could find that it has overplayed its hand, just as Saddam did when he invaded Kuwait twelve years ago." -- From the new Prologue At the outset of the 1991 Gulf War, US leaders resolved the 'Iraqis will pay the price', so long as Saddam Hussein remained in power. This book makes chillingly clear just how terrible that price has been. Eleven years ago Saddam was caught by surprise; his preparations since September 11 show that lessons have been learnt. In a substantial new prologue the authors analyse these preparations and the terrifying consequences of a military invasion of Iraq.

The Mother of All Battles: Saddam Hussein's Strategic Plan for the Persian Gu...
By: Kevin M. Woods
List Price: $28.00
Amazon Price: $16.30

Product Description
Events in this story of the 'Mother of All Battles,' as Saddam designated
the 1991 war, are drawn from primary Iraqi sources, including government documents, videos, audiotapes, maps, and photographs captured by U.S. forces in 2003 from the regime's archives and never intended for outsiders eyes.
The book is part of an official U.S. Joint Forces Command research project to examine contemporary warfare from the point of view of the adversary's archives and senior leader interviews. Its purpose is to stimulate thoughtful analyses of currently accepted lessons of the first Gulf War. While not a comprehensive history, the author's balanced Iraqi perspective of events between 1990 and 1991 takes full advantage of his unique access to material.

Mayada, Daughter of Iraq: One Woman's Survival Under Saddam Hussein
By: Jean Sasson
List Price: $15.00
Amazon Price: $6.19

Product Description
A member of one of the most distinguished and honored families in Iraq, Mayada grew up surrounded by wealth and royalty. But when Saddam Hussein's regime took power, she was thrown into cell 52 in the infamous Baladiyat prison with seventeen other nameless, faceless women from all walks of life. To ease their suffering, these "shadow women" passed each day by sharing their life stories. Now, through Jean Sasson, Mayada is finally able to tell her story-and theirs-to the world.

Saddam: His Rise and Fall
By: Con Coughlin
List Price: $14.95
Amazon Price: $1.17

Product Description
Insightful, penetrating, and shocking, the defining
biography of Iraq's deposed tyrant

Drawing on an unparalleled network of sources, contacts, and firsthand testimonies, Con Coughlin takes us to the center of Saddam Hussein's complex, bewildering regime -- and beyond. Fully updated and revised, Saddam: His Rise and Fall meticulously describes how Hussein took power and immediately set about controlling every aspect of Iraqi life.

Coughlin examines Hussein's regime both before and after its fall, exploring the contradictions of Saddam's private life: his sponsoring of Islamic fundamentalism while whiskey drinking and womanizing as well as his reliance on and celebration of family negated by his violent and temperamental treatment of them. With evidence from family members, servants, and staff, Saddam: His Rise and Fall is unique in its close-up representation of this elusive and secretive world.

In all-new chapters and an epilogue, and with shocking new disclosures, Coughlin also vividly recounts the last few months of Saddam's reign and his eventual capture by American forces.

Enemy of the State: The Trial and Execution of Saddam Hussein
By: Michael A. Newton
List Price: $26.95
Amazon Price: $5.75

Product Description

At 12:21 p.m., on October 19, 2005, Saddam Hussein was escorted into the Courtroom of the Iraqi High Tribunal in Baghdad for one of the most important and chaotic trials in history. For a year, two American law professors had led an elite team of experts who prepared the judges and prosecutors for ?the mother of all trials.? Michael Scharf, a former State Department official who helped create the Yugoslavia Tribunal in 1993, and Michael Newton, then a professor at West Point, would confront such issues as whether the death penalty should apply, how to run a fair trial when political and military passions run so high, and which of Saddam?s many crimes should be prosecuted.

Newton was in Baghdad in December 2003 when the Tribunal was announced and Saddam was captured. In the following months, Scharf and Newton helped write the rules of the Tribunal, conducted a mock trial in (perhaps appropriately) Stratford-upon-Avon, England, and provided legal analysis on dozens of issues. Newton then returned to Baghdad several times during the trial and appeal. Now, from its two shapers, comes the fascinating inside story of the trial and execution of Saddam Hussein and the attempt to bring the rule of law to post-invasion Iraq.

Saddam Hussein: A Political Biography
By: Efraim Karsh
List Price: $14.00
Amazon Price: $1.23

Product Description
Authors Efraim Karsh and Inari Rautsi, experts on Middle East history and politics, have combined their expertise to write what is largely considered the definitive work of one of the world's most reviled and notorious figures. Drawing on a wealth of Iraqi, Arab, Western and Israeli sources, including interviews with people who have had close contact with Saddam Hussein throughout his career, the authors trace the meteoric transformation of an ardent nationalist and obscure Ba'th party member into an absolute dictator. Skillfully interweaving a realistic analysis of Gulf politics and history, and now including a new introduction and epilogue, this authoritative biography is essential for understanding the mind of a modern tyrant.

The Psychological Assessment of Political Leaders: With Profiles of Saddam Hu...
By:
List Price: $29.95
Amazon Price: $12.00

Product Description

In an age when world affairs are powerfully driven by personality, politics require an understanding of what motivates political leaders such as Hussein, Bush, Blair, and bin Laden. Through exacting case studies and the careful sifting of evidence, Jerrold Post and his team of contributors lay out an effective system of at-a-distance evaluation. Observations from political psychology, psycholinguistics and a range of other disciplines join forces to produce comprehensive political and psychological profiles, and a deeper understanding of the volatile influences of personality on global affairs.

Even in this age of free-flowing global information, capital, and people, sovereign states and boundaries remain the hallmark of the international order -- a fact which is especially clear from the events of September 11th and the War on Terrorism.

Jerrold M. Post, M.D., is Professor of Psychiatry, Political Psychology, and International Affairs, and Director of the Political Psychology Program at George Washington University. He is the founder of the CIA's Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior.

Saddam's Secrets
By: Georges Hormuz Sada
List Price: $24.99
Amazon Price: $2.35

Product Description
General Sada paints a picture of Hussein, his regime-and his country-that is at once personal and truthful, compelling and sobering.

Saddam Hussein and the Crisis in the Gulf
By: Laurie Mylroie
List Price:
Amazon Price: $29.99

CUSTOMER REVIEW:
illuminating account of historical importance
Everyone who wants to understand why the war in Iraq happened should read this book and think about it very carefully. Dr. Mylroie, trained as a political scientist, is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, the thinktank that has most influenced the George W. Bush administration. Miller wrote for the New York Times, with all the prestige that this brought to her byline. (As this review goes to press, she continues to work for the NYT, though for how much longer is anyone's guess).

Dr. Mylroie's later book, Study of Revenge: Saddam Hussein's Unfinished War Against America (American Enterprise Institute Press, 2000)-- published in paperback as The War Against America (HarperCollins, 2001)-- was perhaps even more influential than this earlier co-production with Miller.

But by understanding the relationship and cooperation between the two writers-- Mylroie the expert and Miller the scribe, we get a full understanding of how ideas and information are created and diffused in Republican Washington. Key policy-makers like Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, perhaps even Donald Rumsfeld himself, apparently believed Mylroie's certifiably nutcase theories that Saddam Hussein was personally responsible for everything from 9/11 to the Oklahoma City bombing, notwithstanding all the overwhelming contrary evidence. And by sharing her expertise with the journalist Miller (presumably in the form of leaks), Mylroie and her colleagues at the AEI succeeded in communicating her tinfoil hat conspiracy delusions to the whole world, all with the imprimatur of the New York Times. When the history of the Bush II administration is written, Mylroie and Miller will take a prominant place as key inspirations behind the most ill-conceived war of the last 100 years.

So for all you political scientists slaving away at scholarly monographs, never quite sure whether your ideas will make any real impact on policy-makers, this book should give you hope. If this little book-- written in only 21 days-- could bring about the worst military and political fiasco of modern times, your work too may someday have a chance to change history. Soldier on, you underappreciated academics!

• Saddam Hussein Talks to the FBI: Twenty Interviews and Five Conversations wit...
Washington, D.C., July 1, 2009 ? FBI special agents carried out 20 formal interviews and at least 5 ?casual conversations? with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein after his capture by U.S. troops in December 2003, according to secret FBI reports released as the result of Freedom of Information Act requests by the National Security Archive and posted today on the Web at www.nsarchive.org. Saddam denied any connections to the ?zealot? Osama bin Laden, cited North Korea as his most likely ally • Word of the Day: ?transcripts?
Recent blog posts containing the word transcripts ? Transcripts: FBI Interviews of Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein [ web link ] beSpacific (03/Jul/2009) ??conversations with former iraqi transcripts fbi interviews of former?? Lone Wolf Librarian Cataloging Project Status Report?07.02.09 [ web link ] The Proverbial Lone Wolf Librarian?s Weblog (02/Jul/2009) ??meeting conference or product transcripts which are organized in?? Google reserves 1 million Leve • June 30, 2009 was touted in Baghdad as a new Independence Day - the first oil...
Monday, June 29, 2009, The Foreign Policy Association of New York had an event with Mr. Richard J. Shmierer, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State at the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, titled THE FUTURE OF US POLICY IN IRAQ. Mr. Schmierer is an Arabic speaking Senior Foreign Service professional who served in Gemany, Saudi Arabia and Iraq where he was in June 2004 with the reopening of the US Embassy. in 2005, while with the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy in the School of Foreign Servic • Iraq - New Generation Of Iraqi Military Pilots Looks To Sky (NPR)
New Generation Of Iraqi Military Pilots Looks To Sky (NPR) Iraq?s military pilots once enjoyed elite status in the country?s armed forces. But the Iraqi airforce hasn?t really flown for 18 years. At an American airbase outside the city of Kirkuk, a young generation of pilots is learning to fly again. Saddam stayed in Baghdad until city fell - FBI (The Daily Star Lebanon) Saddam Hussein stayed in Baghdad until just hours before it was clear the city was about to fall after the US-led 2003 invasio • GW?s National Security Archive obtains records of FBI interviews with Saddam ...
The National Security Archive, a GW research institute, has published summaries of 20 formal interviews and five casual conversations between FBI special agents and former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The interviews, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, span five months in 2004, from February to June, and were published on the Archive?s Web site earlier this week. Throughout the interviews, Hussein appeared concerned about his legacy, and recounted the history of Iraq f

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