When the first Gulf War was in its’ infancy, I remember seeing American born Queen Noor of Jordan speak up for the Iraqis on television. She said that the problem between Kuwait and Iraq was a private conflict between those two countries and that others (namely the U.S.) should not interfere. Other countries in the region that was closer in culture and outlook should be the ones to try and calm the situation. Her husband, the late King Hussein, had been a close friend of President Saddam Hussein. I believe she was very correct in her statement. Think of the innocent Iraqis who would be alive today if two wars and years of brutal sanctions had not been applied against them.
As for apocryphal or false stories, the last big one was Saddam Hussein being an ally of al-Qaeda. Why would a man who had fought a war for 8 years against Islamic fundamentalists in Iran team up in his mature years with a bunch of young thugs who hated everything he stood for? Saddam Hussein was obviously very secular. He did not have the women in his immediate family cover up in hijabs. The little details like that are important. Saddam was a socialist, secularist, and an Arab nationalist. It never set right with me, but it was sold to the American public that he had hooked up with the terrorists. This was done in such a way that most people, not knowing any facts about Iraq and its’ leader, bought it hook, line, and sinker. The propagandists won. Iraq lost. Saddam found himself on a scaffold on December 30, 2006. He was 70 according to his nephew, not 69 at the time of his death. The man died bravely, which I doubt others who rush into war and other kinds of madness would have done.
Love him or hate him, it must be said that Saddam Hussein was gutsy, brave, and strikingly handsome in his young years. Even in his final three years in prison, he wasn’t bad looking for a man who was old by Middle Eastern standards. If one looks on the internet world opinion about the man is evenly split. Some hate him passionately and others love him just as much. There are Facebook groups for people who love, hate, or poke fun at him. There are YouTube videos honoring him. I decided I wanted to do research and explore the less negative aspects of the man. Therefore I began a blog called Saddam Hussein…Need I Say More.
Al-Hussain, his nephew, found my blog either in the spring or summer last year. He told me later that he did his best to hunt me down, even finding my CV on an ESL employment site and my old AOL address. Last July, I came home from shopping one Saturday afternoon to see a message on my Saddam blog saying that he found it strange that an American would create a blog dedicated to his uncle, and that I did not think like most Americans. I had taken a neutral stance on his uncle in my writing. I wanted to present little known facts that I had gleamed from the internet. I had even included a video of his highly emotional funeral in al-Awja, Iraq and a video of his body lying in an ambulance after his execution. The blog is still extant, but I have closed it to the public. I started to delete it, but Al-Hussain told me not to.
Of course, I felt this Al-Hussain might be playing a prank, but I also felt in my gut that he might actually be Saddam Hussain’s nephew. He was and still is a blogger. At the time he had his blog blocked off from public access. He told me that he would never forgive himself if I and my family got into trouble because we communicated. We e-mailed each other and he gave me and a blogger whom I used to communicate with the password to his blog. I hesitated to talk to and e-mail him at first. It took me a few weeks to say to myself, ‘Hey it might not hurt. The guy might really be Saddam’s nephew. The worst that could happen is Homeland Security might come knocking at my door, or I might be put on the no fly list.’ Fortunately, none of that happened.
On his blog al-Hussain had written two posts about his uncle. (The two posts can be read here and here on his current blog.) He then deleted his blog for some reason. Later he started another blog that was public, but under a false name. This blog was about a personal crisis of the heart and emotional matters. In the mean time we had began to chat regularly about everything from his uncle to Iraq to his emotional battles in life. He told me that he would reveal proof that he was who he said he was. I beat him to it because I began to do research using his mother’s name and his father’s. His father was one of Saddam Hussein’s personal bodyguards. One of the many things we have in common besides an interest in writing, books, and strong emotions, is a love for surfing the internet for information. Hussain, as he told me to call him, said that he would show me a photo of his mother and his uncle Saddam on the webcam. He also said that he would show me some of the letters his uncle sent to his family, while in being held by US forces, with the Red Cross symbol on it. Before he did, I found this photo on a website called Day Life. It is at Hussain’s family’s home in a Gulf State that I will not name. Later Hussain sent me photos of the same room. Shortly afterwards he showed the room to me on the webcam.
I cannot the describe the feeling I experienced one day when we were chatting and he was in a room and on the mantle were photos of what seemed to be Barzan Ibrahim, who was Saddam Hussein’s half brother who was executed a few weeks after him. I recognized a photo of Saddam Hussein’s mother whom I had seen in some books about her son. Then there was a photo I asked Hussain to move closer. It was of Saddam Hussein and a woman, whom Hussain said was his mother. He had told me about the photo and had promised to show it to me. I was floored again.
Though we are from very different cultures and are different genders, I have told Hussain that he is a male version of me when I was in my 20s. There is a 21 year age difference between us, but Hussain says that in 25 years he feels like someone who is about 80. The current war in Iraq actually started on his birthday.
Hussain was actually closer to his uncle Barzan whom he resembles more than his uncle Saddam. Saddam was his mother’s older half brother. When Hussain grew hair and a beard last year, he resembled his uncle while he was in prison. He also bears a resemblance to Saddam’s two youn
ger daughter’s Rana and Hala. Rana is here to the right in the top photo. Hala is in the photo below with her mother and sisters. She is the young woman on the left. When I began my blog about these two women’s father, I had naively hoped in the back my mind that Hala might find it. The reason is because I had read that she had been Saddam’s favorite and that she was a very kind person. Hussain verified that Hala was indeed a very nice person. He became close to her when they were all staying in a house together during the first stages of the current war. He said that he and Hala loved to eat, talk, and joke together. She lives in the same country where he does 
with her mother, but because of a family conflict they have not seen each other for some time. He told me that if they ever are close again, he will put her on the webcam so I can see her. Hala’s husband is still being held by US forces even though he turned himself in at the start of the war and had no political role.
Over the months, especially last summer, Hussain and I have had deep discussions on everything to our personal lives to controversial issues such as whether his uncle was a dictator or not to whether I believe Muslims are infidels or not. We occasionally text message each other now that I am in Turkey.
Hussain’s English is perfect. We have spoken over the microphone many times and his accent is what he describes as a mix of American, British, and French tones. I think he has a rather smooth and soothing voice.
Hussain has criticized me for being too nice, but at the same time I think he appreciates my kindness and compassion. He says that he is sure his uncle Saddam would have liked me. Over the summer months I have shared family photos and videos of his uncle’s family that I discovered online with him. He was not aware that one of the four novels that his uncle wrote was translated into English and could be bought on Amazon.com. When I told him, he said that no one had given anyone permission to translate and sell his uncle’s work online. The novel Zabibah and the King was his uncle’s story about the love he bore for his second wife, Samira Shahbandar. His uncle’s writings were the only thing left of him, he said. For some American guy to have it translated and sell it was like “stealing his uncle’s soul.”
When I shared some of the top blogs of other Iraqis with Hussain, I think he was excited, but he noticed that few of them had any praise for his uncle. He was doubtful that the blog Iraqi Blog Count would list his, but I told him they should because even though he was in exile, Iraq was his country and his new blog which he had started publicly was worth getting recognition. No long afterwards his blog was added to Iraq Blog Count on October 1st of last year. I was so proud for him. Then one day after I had finished a class, I received a text message from him that someone at the BBC had found his blog. He had long said that he did not seek fame and did not want journalists to start hanging around his family’s house. He claimed that he was “SO scared.” I doubted that he was. He then admitted that he was not. Actually he was quite pleased. Since that time he has been listed on the website of at least one Arab blogger that I know of. His blog has been on mine for some time now. Hussain’s blog once bore the simple title, Al-Hussain’s Blog like it is listed on mine. He has recently given it a more grandiose title. He always says he is nothing like his uncle Saddam, but I see some similarities.
His blog can be accessed here. He can be controversial, so be careful. He even gives a disclaimer. Two of my favorite posts of his are Speculations for the Next Decades and Iraq Needs a Dictator.
As for apocryphal or false stories, the last big one was Saddam Hussein being an ally of al-Qaeda. Why would a man who had fought a war for 8 years against Islamic fundamentalists in Iran team up in his mature years with a bunch of young thugs who hated everything he stood for? Saddam Hussein was obviously very secular. He did not have the women in his immediate family cover up in hijabs. The little details like that are important. Saddam was a socialist, secularist, and an Arab nationalist. It never set right with me, but it was sold to the American public that he had hooked up with the terrorists. This was done in such a way that most people, not knowing any facts about Iraq and its’ leader, bought it hook, line, and sinker. The propagandists won. Iraq lost. Saddam found himself on a scaffold on December 30, 2006. He was 70 according to his nephew, not 69 at the time of his death. The man died bravely, which I doubt others who rush into war and other kinds of madness would have done.
Love him or hate him, it must be said that Saddam Hussein was gutsy, brave, and strikingly handsome in his young years. Even in his final three years in prison, he wasn’t bad looking for a man who was old by Middle Eastern standards. If one looks on the internet world opinion about the man is evenly split. Some hate him passionately and others love him just as much. There are Facebook groups for people who love, hate, or poke fun at him. There are YouTube videos honoring him. I decided I wanted to do research and explore the less negative aspects of the man. Therefore I began a blog called Saddam Hussein…Need I Say More.
Al-Hussain, his nephew, found my blog either in the spring or summer last year. He told me later that he did his best to hunt me down, even finding my CV on an ESL employment site and my old AOL address. Last July, I came home from shopping one Saturday afternoon to see a message on my Saddam blog saying that he found it strange that an American would create a blog dedicated to his uncle, and that I did not think like most Americans. I had taken a neutral stance on his uncle in my writing. I wanted to present little known facts that I had gleamed from the internet. I had even included a video of his highly emotional funeral in al-Awja, Iraq and a video of his body lying in an ambulance after his execution. The blog is still extant, but I have closed it to the public. I started to delete it, but Al-Hussain told me not to.
Of course, I felt this Al-Hussain might be playing a prank, but I also felt in my gut that he might actually be Saddam Hussain’s nephew. He was and still is a blogger. At the time he had his blog blocked off from public access. He told me that he would never forgive himself if I and my family got into trouble because we communicated. We e-mailed each other and he gave me and a blogger whom I used to communicate with the password to his blog. I hesitated to talk to and e-mail him at first. It took me a few weeks to say to myself, ‘Hey it might not hurt. The guy might really be Saddam’s nephew. The worst that could happen is Homeland Security might come knocking at my door, or I might be put on the no fly list.’ Fortunately, none of that happened.
On his blog al-Hussain had written two posts about his uncle. (The two posts can be read here and here on his current blog.) He then deleted his blog for some reason. Later he started another blog that was public, but under a false name. This blog was about a personal crisis of the heart and emotional matters. In the mean time we had began to chat regularly about everything from his uncle to Iraq to his emotional battles in life. He told me that he would reveal proof that he was who he said he was. I beat him to it because I began to do research using his mother’s name and his father’s. His father was one of Saddam Hussein’s personal bodyguards. One of the many things we have in common besides an interest in writing, books, and strong emotions, is a love for surfing the internet for information. Hussain, as he told me to call him, said that he would show me a photo of his mother and his uncle Saddam on the webcam. He also said that he would show me some of the letters his uncle sent to his family, while in being held by US forces, with the Red Cross symbol on it. Before he did, I found this photo on a website called Day Life. It is at Hussain’s family’s home in a Gulf State that I will not name. Later Hussain sent me photos of the same room. Shortly afterwards he showed the room to me on the webcam.
I cannot the describe the feeling I experienced one day when we were chatting and he was in a room and on the mantle were photos of what seemed to be Barzan Ibrahim, who was Saddam Hussein’s half brother who was executed a few weeks after him. I recognized a photo of Saddam Hussein’s mother whom I had seen in some books about her son. Then there was a photo I asked Hussain to move closer. It was of Saddam Hussein and a woman, whom Hussain said was his mother. He had told me about the photo and had promised to show it to me. I was floored again.
Though we are from very different cultures and are different genders, I have told Hussain that he is a male version of me when I was in my 20s. There is a 21 year age difference between us, but Hussain says that in 25 years he feels like someone who is about 80. The current war in Iraq actually started on his birthday.
Hussain was actually closer to his uncle Barzan whom he resembles more than his uncle Saddam. Saddam was his mother’s older half brother. When Hussain grew hair and a beard last year, he resembled his uncle while he was in prison. He also bears a resemblance to Saddam’s two youn
ger daughter’s Rana and Hala. Rana is here to the right in the top photo. Hala is in the photo below with her mother and sisters. She is the young woman on the left. When I began my blog about these two women’s father, I had naively hoped in the back my mind that Hala might find it. The reason is because I had read that she had been Saddam’s favorite and that she was a very kind person. Hussain verified that Hala was indeed a very nice person. He became close to her when they were all staying in a house together during the first stages of the current war. He said that he and Hala loved to eat, talk, and joke together. She lives in the same country where he does 
with her mother, but because of a family conflict they have not seen each other for some time. He told me that if they ever are close again, he will put her on the webcam so I can see her. Hala’s husband is still being held by US forces even though he turned himself in at the start of the war and had no political role.Over the months, especially last summer, Hussain and I have had deep discussions on everything to our personal lives to controversial issues such as whether his uncle was a dictator or not to whether I believe Muslims are infidels or not. We occasionally text message each other now that I am in Turkey.
Hussain’s English is perfect. We have spoken over the microphone many times and his accent is what he describes as a mix of American, British, and French tones. I think he has a rather smooth and soothing voice.
Hussain has criticized me for being too nice, but at the same time I think he appreciates my kindness and compassion. He says that he is sure his uncle Saddam would have liked me. Over the summer months I have shared family photos and videos of his uncle’s family that I discovered online with him. He was not aware that one of the four novels that his uncle wrote was translated into English and could be bought on Amazon.com. When I told him, he said that no one had given anyone permission to translate and sell his uncle’s work online. The novel Zabibah and the King was his uncle’s story about the love he bore for his second wife, Samira Shahbandar. His uncle’s writings were the only thing left of him, he said. For some American guy to have it translated and sell it was like “stealing his uncle’s soul.”
When I shared some of the top blogs of other Iraqis with Hussain, I think he was excited, but he noticed that few of them had any praise for his uncle. He was doubtful that the blog Iraqi Blog Count would list his, but I told him they should because even though he was in exile, Iraq was his country and his new blog which he had started publicly was worth getting recognition. No long afterwards his blog was added to Iraq Blog Count on October 1st of last year. I was so proud for him. Then one day after I had finished a class, I received a text message from him that someone at the BBC had found his blog. He had long said that he did not seek fame and did not want journalists to start hanging around his family’s house. He claimed that he was “SO scared.” I doubted that he was. He then admitted that he was not. Actually he was quite pleased. Since that time he has been listed on the website of at least one Arab blogger that I know of. His blog has been on mine for some time now. Hussain’s blog once bore the simple title, Al-Hussain’s Blog like it is listed on mine. He has recently given it a more grandiose title. He always says he is nothing like his uncle Saddam, but I see some similarities.
His blog can be accessed here. He can be controversial, so be careful. He even gives a disclaimer. Two of my favorite posts of his are Speculations for the Next Decades and Iraq Needs a Dictator.
Hussain and I have developed a very fun and affectionate friendship. I even call him "little bro"" at times and he has called me "baby girl." We don't always agree on things, but real friendship is when you do not have to always agree. Real friendship is about love and respect. I feel honored, and I have told him so, that we are friends.
I also wanted to share a photo taken in Ramallah in the West Bank. It can be accessed here. I think you might find it quite surprising and unusual.
8 comments:
My Dear Sincerae
i can not desribe to you how happy i am at reading your post. i really appreciate it, your post about me and my family just gives me another hope in life. gives me a motivation on being a better writter, your words inspire me my dear.
Thank you so much
Huggs and Kisses
Al-Hussain
My Dear Hussain,
I said I was going to do the post, and I have finally done it. It was my pleasure to.
If I can bring a little bit of happiness and inspiration to you or anyone who craves it, I why. No man or woman is an island. We should all try to do the best that we can to insert a little happiness in this dismal world we live in.
Take care, little Bro:))
Sincarae,
It is rare to come across narratives about anything dealing with the Middle East these days that are truly objective. I applaud your willingness to write taking in to account all sides of a situation. Hopefully you will inspire others to do likewise.
BTW, delighted to know you are a US Southerner - me too!
Hello Glenda,
Thanks for your kind comment.
The Middle East inspires too many bad emotions on all sides. Yes, few are objective about it. The only thing I am not objective about is war. I am a staunch pacifist and to some that means being a weakling. I have taken the popular, common road since middle school. At my age, I am certainly not going to do it now.
To a fellow Southerner, welcome! Please comment again:))
there is no way i can share your admiration for saddam, because i know that he was an evil man, capable of doing anything evil. but samewise, there is no way i can approve what usa did to that country which used to be called iraq. and it is obvious that what is going on in iraq is far worse than everything happened in the counrty in her whole history.
but, thanks for the link for husseins blog, which i will try to follow. i didnt check it yet, but im sure it will be a great experience.
Thanks for commenting Superhero.
Hussain and I have discussed his uncle, and my personal thoughts of Saddam Hussein will be kept between me and Hussain.
My blog which is now closed and will possibly deleted soon is not a political blog. I leave politics to other bloggers. The blogosphere is not big enough for me and them. Therefore I am bowing out. Blogging along with a lot of things just do not hold any real relevance to me anymore. It is rather like vanity publishing unless you become as good as some of the Iraqi bloggers. I hope Hussain's blog will get the recognition it deserves.
Like Glenda said above, I was trying to present another side here to the usually vicious and vacuous arguments that people like to keep going about the region. Whatever I presented here was intended to be special, just as Hussain and I have developed a special friendship. I do not have time to waste, so those days for me as far is blogging is concerned are over. I am just happy that I did my best here to not present the mundane and along the way acquired an unexpected special friend or two of which Hussain Arshad Yassin is one of them.
Thanks again.
i like your blog, but really, this is the thing with online community. at some point you realize that it goes nowhere. if you feel like you want to express yourself through a blog, well, we will be here (i guess).
i wish you good luck.
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