Posted on 04/07/2003 1:31:07 AM PDT by kattracks
An Iraqi defector with detailed knowledge of Saddam Hussein's decades-long record of torture and human rights abuses has stepped forward to challenge the claims of premier peace activist and former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who has been telling audiences that reports of the Iraqi dictator's brutality are greatly exaggerated
On Thursday, Maha Yusef, a former Iraqi citizen who escaped from Saddam's clutches along with her husband in the 1980s, described several executions that were preceded by the most gruesome and extreme methods of torture - episodes that were personally supervised by Saddam or his son Uday.
Yusef described the plight of one of Saddam's own relatives, Dr. Rahji al Tikriti, who had escaped to Amman, Jordan, in a blatant show of defiance against the Baath Party regime.
The Iraqi dictator sent word to his relative that "if you come back to Iraq, you'll be fine, we'll forgive you," Yusef told WLIE-NY Radio's Mike Siegel.
The relative agreed. Yusef explained what happened next:
"As soon as he arrived back in Baghdad Dr. Rahji was taken to jail. He was starved for a few days. Then, while Saddam was meeting with his cabinet, he said, 'I would like you to come out and let's look at this courtyard.'"
Dr. Rahji, meanwhile, had been dragged from his jail cell, stripped naked and marched to the center of the courtyard - in full view of the gathering.
As recounted by the Iraqi defector, "Four or five Doberman Pinschers who hadn't eaten for a while - [Saddam] actually had them go and eat this gentleman alive."
"He loves doing these kind of acts," Yusef told Siegel, because it sends a message to other dissidents.
The defector-turned-American citizen said her account of Saddam ordering his own relative's execution by dog mauling is "a well-known story" in Iraq, and sourced her own version to several Iraqis with intimate knowledge of Baath Party brutality.
Yusef detailed another execution ordered by Saddam's high-living son Uday, who killed "a beautiful Iraqi woman" who made the mistake of telling her hairdresser that he had invited her to a party at the presidential palace.
Saddam's secret police were tipped that the woman was bragging she was Uday's girlfriend.
When the woman arrived at the palace, Uday had her stripped naked in front of other party guests, slathered with honey and thrown into a room full of bees, where she was stung to death.
"Obviously, he learned these little techniques from his father," Yusef told Siegel.
The former Iraqi citizen detailed yet another gruesome episode that dates back to the Iran-Iraq war, when Saddam asked his cabinet if anyone disagreed with his battle strategy. When the health minister suggested it might be a good idea to declare a cease-fire, Saddam invited him to step into an adjoining room.
Then he personally shot him in the head.
The brutality didn't end there. Believing that her husband had been jailed rather than executed, the health minister's wife appealed for his release. She was ecstatic when Saddam agreed to her request.
"First thing in the morning she opens her door and she sees this plastic bag on her doorstep," Yusef said. "Inside was her husband's body - cut into many pieces."
Apprised last week of Maha Yusef's account of the dog attack execution, peace activist Clark said: "I've worked with problems of defection and informers for years and years and they're not generally reliable. You have to be careful about who you're talking to. I also recognize propaganda. And I hear more garbage and propaganda coming out about how evil the Iraqi people are."
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Saddam Hussein/Iraq
No. Although it reminds me of my Polish dad, half of whose family was wiped out during WWII, and my high school teachers. You can fill in the rest.
is similar to the incubator story from the first gulf war.
Questions- where did the bees come from? Does honey make bees sting you any more than they usually would? If the room is full of bees, how do you get them out? Is there a special room where they are kept, "just in case"?
I suspect this particular story will die out.
Some middle-of-the-road guy -- like, say, Milosevic -- could never even get me out of the bath house and into the street long enough to vomit and defacate there in his honor.
Ramsey Clark was Attorney General under Lyndon Johnson
Bio of the traitor
Clark, Ramsey
Clark, Ramsey, 1927–, attorney general of the United States (1967–69), b. Dallas, Texas; son of Tom Campbell Clark. Admitted to the bar in 1951, Ramsey Clark practiced law in Dallas. After serving in the federal government as assistant attorney general in charge of the lands division (1961–65), deputy attorney general (1965–66), and acting attorney general (Oct., 1966–Feb., 1967), he was appointed by President Johnson to succeed Nicholas Katzenbach as attorney general. Clark proved to be a vigorous defender of civil liberties and civil rights; he opposed the use of government wiretaps and initiated the first Northern school desegregation case. After leaving the government, he taught law and later became active in the anti–Vietnam War movement, visiting North Vietnam in 1972. In 1974 he was the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate from New York but was defeated by Jacob Javits. Subsequently he practiced as a defense lawyer in New York and continued his political activism. Clark wrote Crime in America (1970). For an account of his career as Attorney General, see Justice by Richard Harris (1970).
I know who you mean. He was one of Billy Jeff's Generals and is planning to take President Bush's job away in 2004
The honey would induce the bees to lick her body clean rather than sting her.
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