Saddam Hussein Home Town - Saddam Hussein Net Worth Saddam Hussein Home Town Read more... Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein Net Worth is $2 Billion. Saddam Hussein was born in Iraq and has an estimated net worth of $2 billion dollars. The 5th President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein served in this capacity from 1979 to 2003. In the spring of 2003, a coalition of. Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid ... Saddam Hussein Net Worth is $2 Billion. Saddam Hussein Net Worth is $2 Billion. Saddam Hussein was born in Iraq and has an estimated net worth of $2 billion dollars. The 5th President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein served in this capacity from 1979 to 2003. In the spring of 2003, a coalition of Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003.

A leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, and later, the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organisation Ba'ath Party - Iraq Region, which espoused ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism, Saddam played a key role in the 1968 coup, later referred to as the 17 July Revolution, that brought the party to long-term power of Iraq. As vice president under the ailing General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, and at a time when many groups were considered capable of overthrowing the government, Saddam created security forces through which he tightly controlled conflict between the government and the armed forces. In the early 1970s, Saddam nationalized oil and other industries. The state-owned banks were put u... What's in a name? For Saddam Husseins in Iraq, only trouble What's in a name?

For Saddam Husseins in Iraq, only trouble Offbeat | Agence France-Presse | Updated: December 11, 2013 13:42 IST EMAIL PRINT COMMENTS Aziziyah: In a predominantly Shiite town near Baghdad, Saddam Hussein roams the streets unmolested, joking with checkpoint guards and shaking the hands of passers-by, proudly announcing his name. "You didn't execute me," he often tells policemen, laughing. "That was one of my body doubles!" But the man, clad in a long black robe and leather jacket, is not the Saddam known the world over. He is one of many nationwide cursed as the namesakes of a brutal dictator who ruled the country with an iron fist for nearly a quarter century. From Saddam's hometown of Tikrit in the north to the western desert province of Anbar, down through the southern provinces, Sunnis and Shiites carry a name once given in tribute, but which has since become an albatross. "Saddam oppressed so many people, so those who were oppressed by him had strong feelings against him," said Saddam Hussein Ulaiwi, a 35-year-old generator operator living with his family in the town of Aziziyah, southeast of Baghdad.

"So they are always berating me, because of my name." Named by his grandfather when Saddam was Iraq's vice president and in ascendance, Ulaiwi had few positive feelings about sharing a name with the country's dictator. He recounted how, in his school years, teachers would hold him to impossibly high standards and dole out stiff punishments when he failed to meet them. When he joined the army for compulsory military service, upon reporting to the unit to collect his uniform, he announced his name to the duty officer, who responded by physically assaulting him for taking the name of the president. After the 2003 US-led invasion ousted Saddam Hussein the dictator, Saddam Hussein the generator operator hoped he would finally have some measure of relief. But while families in his hometown were unquestioning, his father received phone calls from political parties asking him to change his son's name and passers-by would berate him, his name reminding them of painful memories. Ulaiwi did try to change his name in 2006, but was put off by the time involved in dealing with Iraq's famously labyrinthine bureaucracy and the expense required of someone with modest means, choosing instead to stick with his birth name.

"I regret giving him this name," Ulaiwi's father Hussein said wistfully, sitting with his son in the family's small one-storey home. "There were pressures on us before 2003 ... and after 2003, there was more suffering." "There were those who had hatred towards Saddam, and anything with Saddam's name," he said, noting for example that civil servants often do not deal with his son's requests, citing anger over his name. 'From one extreme to another' A decade on from his capture, Saddam who was hanged in December 2006, still engenders passionate anger among many Iraqis. Hundreds of thousands, most of them Shiites and Kurds, died at the hands of his Sunni-led government, and countless others suffered immeasurably as a result of the wars he waged against Iran and Kuwait, the latter of which led to punishing sanctions that crippled Iraq's economy. And while some Saddam memorabilia can be bought in Baghdad, such as watches and other curios, major markings of his rule in the form of statues and posters have been torn down. That leaves men bearing his name as among the few reminders of the dictator's rule.

Many Saddams have reported death threats, difficulty gaining access to government services and jobs, and other struggles over and above those faced by ordinary Iraqis. "After 2003, many things happened to me when I travelled anywhere inside Iraq -- I would conceal my name in order to save my life," said Saddam Hussein al-Mihimidi, an Iraqi journalist living in Ramadi, a city west of Baghdad. Mihimidi's father was fired from his civil service job -- as a result of his son's name, he was unable to convince his superiors he was not a supporter of Saddam's Baath Party -- and efforts to change his name went nowhere. The 33-year-old, who was named by the doctor who attended his birth, said life before the invasion for him was relatively problem-free, living in the Sunni province of Anbar. After US-led forces overthrew the government, he considered obtaining fake identification documents and would avoid leaving his house during the peak of Iraq's post-invasion violence in 2006 and 2007, "when they were killing people based on their name." He now asks his friends to refer to him only as Abu Abdullah, or father of Abdullah, to mask his identity.

"After 2003, my life changed dramatically -- from one extreme to another," he said. Iraq Aims to Drive ISIS From Saddam Hussein's Hometown of Tikrit - NBC News Copy this code to your website or blog <iframe src="" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Iraqi forces launched an attack to drive Islamist militants from Saddam Hussein's hometown, a senior Iraqi security force told NBC News on Tuesday. Invigorated by United States airstrikes, the Iraqi army is aiming to retake Tikrit from the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). The source said that the army was being supported by the Iraqi air force, local tribesmen, and volunteers from a religious group called the AAH, which stands for Asa’ib Ahl Al-Haq. An army major and a police captain also told Reuters that the Iraqi troops were advancing rapidly from the south, but were slowed by landmines, roadside bombs and snipers in the west. ISIS is an offshoot of al Qaeda that recently declared a caliphate - or religious kingdom - across northern Iraq and Syria. U.S.

airstrikes helped Iraqi and Kurdish forces to retake the strategic Mosul Dam from the militants on Monday. Saddam Hussein Biography - life, family, childhood, children, story, history, wife, school, mother, young Saddam Hussein Biography City vs City: Compare cities in the U.S. by population, crime, education and other data. Compare: April 28, 1937 • Tikrit, Iraq Former president of Iraq Hussein, Saddam. AP/Wide World Photos. Reproduced by permission. Beginning in the 1970s, Saddam Hussein ruled the Republic of Iraq with a tight grip. His supporters maintained that through his many social and economic programs he effectively brought the country into the modern age. His many critics, however, claimed that Saddam was a ruthless dictator who would stop at nothing in his endless push for power. Regardless, the charismatic leader retained control of his country during countless military conflicts, including an eight-year war against Iran in the 1980s and the Persian Gulf War in 1991. He also survived a slew of assassination attempts throughout the course of his presidency, and at times he seemed almost invincible.

But in March of 2003, U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq and deposed the defiant leader. Saddam escaped capture, but after a nine-month manhunt, he was caught, imprisoned, and faced multiple charges relating to war crimes and human rights abuses. Many speculated that the once-invincible ruler would ultimately face the death penalty. A troubled beginning The ex-president of Iraq had a troubled childhood. Saddam Hussein was born on April 28, 1937, in the village of Al-Awja, near Tikrit, a town just north of the city of Baghdad, in central Iraq. His father, Hussein 'Abd al-Majid, was a peasant sheepherder who by various accounts either died or disappeared before his son's birth. His older brother, who was twelve, died of cancer shortly thereafter. The combined tragedies had a devastating effect on Saddam's mother, Subha Tulfah al-Mussallat, who became extremely depressed during her last months of pregnancy.

After her new son was born, she named him Saddam, which means "one who confronts" or "the stubborn one." Because of her depression, however, she was unable to care for him, and young Saddam was sent to live in Baghdad with his uncle, Khairallah Talfah, a retired army officer and Arab nationalist. "We are ready to sacrifice our souls, our children, and our families so as not to give up Iraq. We say this so no one will think that America is capable of breaking the will of the Iraqis with its weapons." When he was three years old Saddam returned to live with his mother, but she had remarried and family life was not pleasant. His new stepfather was abusive and treated him harshly over the next several years. As a result, when he was ten years old Saddam ran away to the safety of his uncle's home. Khairallah Talfah served as a role model for his nephew, especially influencing his political beliefs.

After Saddam graduated from the al-Karh Secondary School in Baghdad, he officially joined his uncle's political party, the Arab Baa'th Socialist Party, which had been formed in Syria in 1947 with the goal of promoting unity among the various Arab states in the Middle East. In Iraq and neighboring countries the Baa'th Party had become an underground revolutionary force. In 1959, when Saddam was just twenty-two years old, he played a major part in the assassination attempt of Iraqi Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qassim by the Baa'th Party. He was shot in the leg but managed to escape, first to Syria and then to Cairo, Egypt. While in Egypt he studied law at the University of Cairo. In 1963, after a military overthrow of Qassim's government, Saddam was allowed to return to Iraq. That same year he married his first wife, Sajida, the daughter of his mentor, Khairallah Talfah. His return was short-lived, however, since internal squabbling within the new Baa'th regime led to its downfall.

Once again Saddam was forced into hiding, but he was caught in 1964 and imprisoned for the next two years. Although in jail, he remained involved in party politics. Escaping from prison in 1966, Saddam became a rising star in the Baa'th organization, forming close ties with key party officials who were planning a second attempt at taking control of Iraq. In July of 1968 the Baa'ths organized a successful takeover of the Iraqi government. Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, a retired general and prominent party spokesman who was a distant relative of Saddam, assumed the role of chairman of the Baa'th Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) as well as the presidency of Iraq. Saddam, who had become an integral part of the organization, was named vice president. Second in command Although Ahmed Hassan was officially the president of Iraq from 1969 through 1979, it was Saddam Hussein who truly held the reins. And thanks to Saddam, the country enjoyed its most stable and productive period in recent history.

After oil prices soared in the 1970s (oil is Iraq's primary natural resource and export), he used the revenues to institute a major system of economic reform and launched an array of wide-ranging social programs. Roads were paved, hospitals and schools were built, and various types of industry, such as mining, were expanded. In particular, Saddam focused attention on the rural areas, where roughly two-thirds of the population lived. Land was brought under the control of the Iraqi government, which meant that large properties were broken up and parcels distributed to small farmers. Saddam also funneled revenues into modernizing the country's agriculture industry. For example, he brought electricity into even some of the most remote communities. Saddam's social programs benefited both rural and city dwellers. In an effort to wipe out illiteracy, he established free schooling for children through high school and made it a government requirement that all children attend school. Saddam's government also provided free hospitalization to all Iraqis and gave full economic support to families of Iraqi soldiers. Such large-scale social programs were unheard of in any other Middle Eastern country.

When he created his massive reforms, Saddam may have had the benefit of his people in mind, but he was also a shrewd politician. In order to maintain a stable government and to assure that his party would remain in power, it was necessary to gather as much support as possible. By the late 1970s the Baa'th regime enjoyed a widespread following among the working classes, and the party was firmly unified around its second-in-command. Saddam also served as the outward face of the Iraqi government, representing the nation on both the domestic and international fronts. On July 22, 1979, when an ailing Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr decided to step down as president, it came as no surprise that Saddam Hussein stepped into his shoes. The cult of Saddam Hussein Support for Saddam Hussein was not universal. The conservative followers of Islam (the national religion of Iraq) did not agree with many of Saddam's innovations, which they felt were directly opposed to Islamic law. This included legislation that gave women more freedoms and the fact that a Western-style legal system had been installed. As a result, Iraq became the only Arab country not ruled by the laws of Islam.

Major opposition also came from the Kurds who occupied the northern region of the country. The Kurds are a nomadic people who are concentrated in areas of Turkey, Iran, and Iraq. They are Muslim but not Arabic, and they strongly disagreed with the Baa'thist push for a united Arab front. Saddam even faced resistance within his own party, and he made it a policy to weed out anyone he viewed as a threat. On July 22, 1979, just days after taking over the presidency, he organized an assembly of Baa'th leaders and read aloud the names of suspected spies; these people were taken from the room and publicly executed by firing squad. A few years later, in 1982, he ordered the execution of Tiled portrait of Saddam Hussein in Tikrit, Iraq. Many such images and statues of Hussein appeared in cities throughout Iraq. © Shepard Sherbell/Corbis. at least three hundred officers who had supposedly questioned his military tactics. Once in control, Saddam surrounded himself with a tightly-knit group of family and friends who assumed high levels of responsibility within the government. These individuals, however, were not necessarily immune to Saddam's paranoia.

At one point, Adnan Talfah, Saddam's brother-in-law and childhood friend, was killed in a "mysterious" helicopter crash. And in 1996 Saddam had his sons-in-law murdered for being disloyal. Although he ruled with an iron fist, Saddam also was preoccupied with winning the devotion of the Iraqi people. He promoted himself as a hero of the nation who was dedicated to making Iraq the leader of the Arab world. Images of Saddam were plastered throughout the country. Some of them depicted the ruler as a dedicated Muslim wearing traditional robes and headdress; others featured Saddam in a Western-style business suit, wearing sunglasses and holding a rifle over his head. All were efforts to make a connection at every level of society and to solidify his role as an all-powerful president. Such tactics, however, also solidified his reputation as an insecure and unstable leader. He became known for his paranoia, which was not unjustified, considering he had survived at least seven assassination attempts. As a result he rarely appeared in public. He also slept only a few hours a night, at secret locations, and all of his food was carefully prepared and inspected by official food tasters.

Conflicts with Iran and Kuwait Outside of Iraq, especially in the West, Saddam was seen as a dictator whose quest for dominance in the Middle East was viewed with particular concern. In 1980 Saddam proved that such fears were founded when he attacked Iran, an invasion that led to an eight-year bloody conflict. Relations between Iran and Iraq had been deteriorating for years, and came to a head in 1979 when the Ayatollah Khomeini (c. 1900–1989) overthrew the government of Iran during an Islamic uprising. Saddam worried that Khomeini would set his sites on spreading his radical religious rule to the secular (nonreligious) state of Iraq. Disputes over territorial boundaries led to skirmishes throughout late 1979 and into 1980, and on September 22, 1980, Iraqi forces crossed the Iranian border and officially declared war. Over the next eight years, both countries suffered almost irreparable damage, and the healthy economy that Saddam had created during the 1970s was in ruins.

Billions of dollars were borrowed from countries such as the United States, Kuwait, the U.S.S.R., and France, to support the war effort. The United States alone gave the Iraqi government nearly $40 billion in food supplies and arms. And both sides suffered a tremendous loss of human life. It is estimated that approximately 1.7 million people were killed during the conflict. In one battle on March 16, 1988, Iraqi troops attacked the Kurdish town of Halabja, using poison nerve gas. Nearly five thousand people died, most of whom were women and children. Various reports claimed that chemical weapons were used by both Iran and Iraq, but these tactics continued to raise the alarm that Saddam Hussein was a military threat who could not be trusted. In 1989 the war ended in a stalemate, with no side claiming a real victory. Conflicts between Saddam and other nations, however, were just beginning. Faced with the prospect of rebuilding his country, Saddam tried to pressure the neighboring country of Kuwait to forgive the $30 billion loan he had been given. The reason he gave was that the war with Iran had effectively protected Kuwait from an Iranian invasion.

Tensions were also sparked between the two countries over territorial boundaries that were especially important because they involved the control of oil reserves in the area. When negotiations failed, Saddam invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990. The unprovoked attack was denounced by governments throughout the world, especially the United States. The administration of Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) in the 1980s may have seen Saddam as a potential ally, but after the invasion of Kuwait, President George H. W. Bush (1924–) essentially severed all ties between the United States and Saddam Hussein. As a result, when the Iraqi leader refused to leave Kuwait, a combined force of U.S. and United Nations (UN) troops stepped in. Fighting lasted a mere six weeks, but after the Persian Gulf War came to an end, casualties topped over eighty-five thousand. Saddam was successfully evicted from Kuwait, but the tensions were not over. Bush ordered U.S.

troops to protect Kuwaiti borders, and in his March of 1991 State of the Union address he told the American people, "We all realize that our responsibility to be the catalyst for peace in the region does not end with the successful conclusion of this war." He called Saddam a brutal dictator "who will do anything, will use any weapon, will commit any outrage, no matter how many innocents suffer." The United States versus Iraq In an effort to control Saddam, the cease-fire agreement drawn up between the United Nations and Iraq required the country to destroy all of its chemical, nuclear, and biological weapons. The agreement also stipulated that Saddam had to let UN inspectors oversee the efforts. If Iraq did not comply with the agreement, economic sanctions would be imposed, meaning that all trade with the country would be cut off. Throughout the 1990s the Iraqi leader reportedly concealed the manufacture of weapons from inspectors, and the sanctions continued. Cut off from the world, the people of Iraq suffered. Unemployment rose, agricultural production declined, and the majority of the population suffered from severe malnutrition and lack of medical care. There was increased unrest among the many factions in the country, which prompted Saddam to increase his tactics of repression.

When George W. Bush became president of the United States in 2001, one of his first acts upon taking office was an attempt to reinstate economic sanctions, which had been lifted by the United Nations in the late 1990s. World opinion opposed the effort as inhumane; the Iraqi people had suffered far too much. Anti-Saddam sentiment only escalated, however, after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Although the attacks were never linked to Saddam Hussein, Bush insisted that terrorists armed with Iraqi weapons could at any time target the United States. In his State of the Union address in January of 2002, the U.S. president called Iraq part of an "axis of evil," and claimed that the country "continue[d] to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror." Time and again Bush publicly accused Saddam of concealing weapons, and by 2002 he threatened to invade Iraq if UN inspectors were not allowed back into the country. Saddam countered that there were no weapons, and opened his doors. Although UN inspectors found nothing, Bush maintained that inspectors had simply not found the well-hidden weapons yet.

By early 2003, war with Iraq was looming. In January of 2003 Bush gave Saddam an ultimatum: either totally disarm his country or voluntarily leave Iraq. If neither step was taken, the United States would attack. In February of 2003, in an unprecedented move, Saddam Hussein appeared on television, having agreed to be interviewed by CBS newsman Dan Rather (1931–). The interview was broadcast worldwide, even in Iraq, which meant that the Iraqi people were given a rare glimpse of their reclusive leader who was rarely seen in person. Saddam accused the Bush administration of being part of a "bandwagon of evil," and continued to insist that Iraq did not have concealed weapons and that it had nothing to do with the September 11 attacks. He also explained that he would not leave Iraq and that Iraqis would fight to protect their country if provoked. "We will die here in Iraq," he told Rather. "We will die in this country and we will maintain our honor." The Saddam regime is toppled Despite massive international opposition, hundreds of thousands of U.S. and British troops stormed Iraq on March 20, 2003.

Several air strikes specifically aimed at assassinating Saddam Hussein were unsuccessful, and ground troops pushed through the country, heading toward Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. In early April, just three weeks after the invasion, the Saddam regime was toppled. When Baghdad fell, however, the Iraqi president was nowhere to be found. Saddam managed to elude capture throughout the remainder of the year. Reports of Saddam sightings popped up occasionally, but proved to be false. In addition, audiotapes by the ousted leader were released to Arab television networks. Whether they were truly from Saddam remained in question. High-ranking members of the Iraqi government were caught one by one, but Saddam remained at the top of the most-wanted list. In July of 2003 his two sons and political heirs, Uday and Qusay, were killed by U.S. forces. It was thought that perhaps Saddam's capture would be imminent, but the elusive leader remained on the run for the next five months.

Finally, on December 13, 2003, Saddam Hussein was located just nine miles outside of his hometown of Tikrit, hiding in an underground cavern known as a "spider hole." Disheveled and dirty, with a graying beard and matted hair, he surrendered without resisting. According to commander of U.S. forces Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, as quoted on CNN.com, "He was a tired man. Also, I think, a man resigned to his fate." The deposed leader was taken into custody by U.S. forces and held in Baghdad until June 30, 2004, when he was officially handed over to acting Iraqi government officials. On July 1 he faced his first legal hearing before an Iraqi Special Tribunal. During the twenty-six minute hearing he was charged with multiple crimes, including the 1988 attack on the Kurdish village of Halabja, the 1991 invasion of Kuwait, and the killings of political and religious leaders during his thirty years in command. Throughout the accusations Saddam remained defiant, claiming that the tribunal was a farce. He also maintained that he was still the true leader of Iraq.

"I am Saddam Hussein al-Majid, the President of the Republic of Iraq," he announced, as quoted in England's Guardian. "I am still the president of the republic and the occupation cannot take that away." Following the hearing Saddam remained in custody, where he reportedly spent time writing poetry, reading the Koran (the sacred writings of Islam), and tending to a small garden within the walls of his Baghdad prison. There were also reports that the sixty-seven-year-old former president was in poor health and that perhaps he had suffered a stroke. Such reports were denied by doctors. It seemed that Saddam would be well enough to face his accusers in a trial set to begin in January of 2005. Many speculated on the trial's outcome, but people in Iraq voiced their clear expectations. Shortly after U.S. forces turned Saddam Hussein over to Iraqi officials, the Iraqi government reinstated the death penalty, which had been temporarily suspended under U.S. occupation. Hamid al-Bayati, the deputy foreign minister of Iraq, was quoted in the Guardian as saying, "Everyone who lost loved ones to Saddam will want to see this." For More Information "Saddam Hussein." In Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2nd ed.

Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1998. Web Sites McCallester, Matthew. "A Day in the Life of Saddam Hussein." Indian Express (July 27, 2004). (accessed on August 3, 2004). McCarthy, Rory. "I am Saddam Hussein, the President of Iraq." Guardian (England) (July 2, 2004). (accessed on August 3, 2004). "President George H. W. Bush's Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union, January 29, 1991." CSPAN. (accessed on Augst 3, 2004). "President George W. Bush's State of the Union Address to the Joint Session of Congress, January 29, 2002." CSPAN Web site. (accessed on August 3, 2003). Rather, Dan. "Interview with Saddam Hussein." CBS News (February 24, 2003). (accessed on August 3, 2004).

"The Rise and Fall of a Dictator." CNN.com: World (December 14, 2003). (accessed on August 2, 2004). "Saddam Caught Like a Rat in a Hole." CNN.com: World (December 15, 2003). (accessed on August 2, 2003). User Contributions: Saddam Hussein’s life of brutality - NY Daily News Saddam Hussein’s life of brutality Saddam Hussein’s life of brutality NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is seen in this Nov. 2, 1980 photo. (AP) NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Saturday, December 12, 2015, 12:00 PM (Originally published by the Daily News on December 30, 2006. This story was written by Corky Siemaszko.) The Butcher of Baghdad is dead. Saddam Hussein, the tyrant who ruled Iraq like a Mafia don, slaughtered his fellow citizens and led his country into two disastrous wars with the United States, was hanged near dawn in Iraq for the 1982 massacre of 148 Shiite civilians.

The 69-year-old megalomaniac who was born in a mud hut and dreamed of creating an Arab empire with Baghdad as its capital was executed 31/2 years after a U.S.-led invasion ended his reign of terror. HUSSEIN IS EXECUTED IN 2006 For nearly a quarter-century, Saddam ruled Iraq with an iron fist. On his orders, friends, foes - even relatives - were murdered. Rivals and their children were tortured and raped. His secret police strangled all dissent. And if there was any doubt about who was in charge, Saddam's face was emblazoned on every edifice and his portrait hung in every home. In the end, Saddam sent thousands of his countrymen to be slaughtered so he could hang onto the one thing that gave his life meaning - power. Saddam entered the world unloved and unwanted on April 28, 1937, in the village of al-Oja, near the desert town of Tikrit. His father died while his mother, Subha, was pregnant, and she wanted to abort the unborn child. A neighbor talked her out of it, but Saddam's mother rejected the boy.

"She would not even look at her newborn son, would not accept him into her arms," said Jerrold Post, a CIA profiler. The infant was sent to live for three years with an uncle who returned him to his mother when she remarried. But his new stepfather, an illiterate thug known locally as Hasan the Liar, made life miserable for Saddam and frequently beat him with sticks. New York Daily News published this on December 30, 2006. (New York Daily News) In "Saddam Hussein, A Political Biography," authors Efraim Karsh and Inari Rautsi claimed that Saddam vented his rage by torturing small animals with a hot iron poker. At age 9, Saddam was rescued from his hellish existence by another uncle - a former Iraqi Army officer and Nazi sympathizer who had been jailed for his role in an anti-British coup in 1941. "The uncle filled him with dreams of Arab glory," Post said. "He came to believe he was destined for greatness." In the late 1950s, Saddam joined the Arab Baath Socialist Party and took part in a failed coup. He fled to Egypt and studied law.

He returned to Iraq in 1963 but ended up in jail for his political activities. In 1968, he co-led another coup with his cousin, Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr, that brought the Baath Party to power. Saddam became the power behind al-Bakr and launched bloody purges against political opponents and pogroms against Iraqi Jews. By 1979, Saddam was sick of taking orders and removed his cousin from power in a palace coup. In a Machiavellian move that Saddam made sure was captured on videotape, he gathered 1,000 top party officials in an auditorium and declared that a Syrian plot against the regime had been uncovered. He forced a party official to confess that he was part of it - and that other conspirators were in the audience. While their names were read out and they were marched off to be shot, Saddam pretended to weep over the betrayal by his perfidious pals. Then he resumed smoking his cigar. Tapping national oil reserves second only to Saudi Arabia's, Saddam launched a series of ambitious social, educational and economic reforms in Iraq.

He raised the literacy rate, built hospitals and highways - and quashed the Islamic fundamentalists who were gaining power in other Arab countries. Ever conscious of image, Saddam pitched himself as a major Arab leader by shipping a luxury Mercedes-Benz to the top editors at major newspapers across the Arab world. He appointed courtly Tareq Aziz - a multilingual Christian - to be his mouthpiece. He hid his limp, refused to wear glasses and colored his hair. New York Daily News published this on December 30, 2006. (New York Daily News) Photographs of himself in heroic poses - on horseback, shooting guns, in traditional Arab garb - were published in the state-run newspapers and aired on the state-run television stations. Framed photos of the Great Leader hung in every Iraqi household. Gigantic statues of him stood watch in Baghdad and across the country. Well aware that Iraqis accord more loyalty to their clans than their country, Saddam courted and flattered the tribal chiefs. He played the good Muslim and manufactured a family tree to show direct descent from the Prophet Muhammed. He quoted the Koran and took care not to be seen publicly sipping Mateus rosé - his favorite libation.

But Saddam made no attempt to democratize Iraq - and he trusted few people other than his sadistic son, Uday, and his younger son, Qusay, who was to succeed him. "'The Godfather' is his favorite movie and his training manual, too," the CIA's Post said. If Saddam was Don Corleone, Uday was the violent and oversexed Sonny, while Qusay was the quiet but crafty Michael. Saddam put his boys in charge of elite security units. He placed other members of his clan in other top leadership posts. And he brooked no dissent - not even from relatives. In August 1995, two of Saddam's sons-in-law, both also his cousins, defected to Jordan with his daughters, Rana and Raghad. Saddam lured them back with promises of pardons. Both sons-in-law were promptly killed. "He is not an idiot or a madman," said former Iraqi diplomat Ghassan Atiyyah. "People who are close to him say he is shrewd, clever, ruthless, patient and very, very resilient." Saddam, however, believed he was meant to rule more than Iraq.

State propaganda fueled his delusions by comparing him with Saladin, the Muslim warrior from Tikrit who evicted the crusaders from Jerusalem in the 12th century. In 1980, Saddam invaded Iran, his country's neighbor and historic rival. He was counting on a swift victory. But the Iranians fought fanatically, and the eight-year war impoverished Iraq and decimated its army. Iraq's President Saddam Hussein fires a rifle, Monday, Nov. 20, 2000 in Baghdad. (JASSIM MOHAMMED/AP) President Ronald Reagan viewed Saddam as a bulwark against Iran's Islamic revolution and propped up Iraq with huge infusions of cash and weaponry. If the Iranian war was a mistake, Saddam's decision to turn on the U.S. and invade Kuwait in 1990 was the mother of all catastrophes. In February 1991, an American-led coalition drove him out in 100 hours. His attempts to rally the Arab world by firing Scud missiles into Israel failed. And in suing for peace, he had to agree to humiliating United Nations sanctions. But the first President Bush made no attempt to oust Saddam Hussein. So Saddam survived - and declared victory.

His subjects were in no position to disagree as Saddam brutally put down rebellions by the Kurds in the north and the Shiite Muslims in the south. He had taken a licking and emerged from the beating with Iraq still under his thumb. Saddam began setting up roadblocks to the UN monitors whose job it was to dismantle his weapons. He involved himself in the Palestinian struggle by paying bounties to the families of suicide bombers. And, according to the U.S. government, he gave safe harbor to terrorists. When he wasn't creating havoc or wiping out rivals, Saddam wrote romance novels based on his life and collected honorary degrees. He moved with a phalanx of bodyguards and shuttled between 24 gaudy palaces - never sleeping in the same place two nights in a row. He employed body doubles to confuse would-be assassins. He swam every day as therapy for his bad back and kept his graying hair and Stalinesque mustache dyed black. An oil embargo meant to weaken Saddam had little effect on the Iraqi leader or his clan, which pocketed millions through smuggling and their control over key industries - and flaunted their wealth.

But the average Iraqi was mired in poverty, and beggars were legion on the streets of Baghdad. A TV grab from Russian NTV channel shows ousted Iraq President Saddam Hussein (2nd R) moments before being hanged in Baghdad in December 30, 2006. (-/EPA) When Iraq was part of the Ottoman Empire, the Turks defined arrogance as people who "walked like a Baghdadi." Under Saddam, only his family strutted through the streets. Outside of Iraq, Saddam's defiance of America played well on the so-called Arab street. He was hailed as a hero by many Palestinians. But the second President Bush was not amused by the posturing. His father had been criticized for not finishing Saddam off, and Dubya was not about to make the same mistake. After the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush began beating the war drums and focusing his attention on Iraq - ignoring the fact that secular Saddam and Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden were sworn enemies. Saying the Iraqi regime was assembling weapons of mass destruction, Bush began insisting that Saddam comply with a UN resolution that he disarm. Saddam insisted that he was - and threw down the gauntlet. "We want peace," Saddam said.

"But not at any price." Ironically, it turned out that Saddam was telling the truth. Exhaustive searches after his overthrow would find no evidence of any weapons of mass destruction. On March 20, 2003, U.S.-led forces began bombing Iraq. A few weeks later, on April 9, Baghdad fell to U.S. forces. As U.S. troops toppled a huge iron statue of Saddam, the dictator was already on the run. In July 2003, Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay were killed in a gun battle at their hideout in the northern city of Mosul. Their father managed to escape detection for a few more months, but on Dec. 13, 2003, U.S. forces pulled him from a hidey-hole beneath a mud hut near his hometown of Tikrit. Photographs showed the once all-powerful dictator submitting meekly as his U.S. captors checked his hair for lice. But Saddam didn't stay meek for long.

He was spitting defiance when he went on trial in October 2005 for the 1982 slaughter of 148 Shiites in the northern town of Dujail. But on Nov. 5, 2006, Saddam and two co-defendants were convicted and sentenced to death - a sentence Iraq's highest court upheld Dec. 26. csiemaszko@nydailynews.com Jihadists Seize Saddam Hussein's Hometown of Tikrit (Video) Jihadists Seize Saddam Hussein's Hometown of Tikrit (Video) Thursday, June 12, 2014 | Tags: Iraq , ISIS , Islam , Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant , jihad , Tag Cloud BAGHDAD, IRAQ ( Worthy News )-- Sunni jihadists pushed in a lightening offensive from northern Iraq and seized Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, just 80 miles north of Baghdad. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), an organization al Qaeda deemed too radical and unpredictable, overran Tikrit with 60 vehicles full of armed jihadists, and now occupies the provincial government headquarters raising its ISIS black flag.

Over the past two days, ISIS has captured the cities of Tikrit and Mosul, as a plan "to conquer the entire state and cleanse it from the apostates" according to its Twitter account. ISIS now controls a swathe of territory from Syria to Iraq opening a corridor that enables the group to flow fighters and weapons across the region. Its stated goal is to establish an "Islamic emirate in the Levant." After seizing Mosul, it places the jihadist organization in prime position to launch attacks against the Mosul Dam along the Tigris River, formerly known as the Saddam Dam, the largest dam in Iraq. Central Iraq is heavily dependent on Tigris water, and if ISIS maintains control of the region, then they will sit between the river's main reservoir and its customers in the South. Earlier in March, ISIS had seized a dam along the Euphrates river, closed all its gates, and flooded the ground around the city of Fallujah to impede Iraqi security forces from taking back the city, which ISIS continues to occupy. The terrorist group is threatening the city of Baiji, home to Iraq's largest petroleum refinery, that can process up to 300,000 barrels of oil per day.

Earlier in the day, jihadists raided the Turkish consulate in Mosul, kidnapped the head of the diplomatic mission along with 24 of its staff members. ISIS captured army bases, banks, and government offices in Mosul. The jihadists were able to seize 500 billion dinars ($430m), huge stores of American weapons, ammunition and vehicles, including six Black Hawk helicopters. The terrorist organization released hundred of inmates from several prisons in the area. It is estimated that over 500,000 people have fled Mosul in terror. Just over a year ago, in April 2013, the organization announced the expansion of its operations from Iraq into Syria. By changing its name from the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) and adding the words "and al-Sham" translated as "the Levant" or "Greater Syria," it signified its quest to expand its operations. Earlier this year al-Qaeda's leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, issued a statement dissociating itself from ISIS, accusing the organization of 'forbidden bloodshed' directed at fellow fighters, and cut ties with the group after ISIS attempted to bolster its strength by merging with other rebels in Syria.

"We weren't informed about its creation, nor counselled. Nor are we satisfied with it: rather we ordered it to stop...nor is al-Qaeda responsible for its actions and behavior," al-Zawahiri said. ISIS is known for its brutality as it commonly beheads and crucifies those who stand in opposition, as one newspaper headlined, "ISIS Militia Beheading their way to Baghdad." The leader of the jihadist group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has a bounty of $10 million dollars on his head. Foreign ISIS Fighters in Iraq: We will conquer Jerusalem, Rome and Spain Iran Deploys Forces to Fight Jihadists in Iraq Copyright 1999-2016 Worthy News. All rights reserved. Fair Use Notice:This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C.

Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. CNN.com - Saddam 'caught like a rat' in a hole - Dec. 15, 2003 CNN.com Saddam 'caught like a rat' in a hole The U.S. military released this picture of the hut where Saddam was found. He was hiding in a hole underground. Story Tools Watch CNN's ongoing live coverage of news of the capture of Saddam Hussein, now on-air. VIDEO Manage alerts | What is this? BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Across the Tigris River from his opulent palaces, Saddam Hussein shuttered himself at the bottom of a narrow, dark hole beneath a two-room mud shack on a sheep farm, a U.S. military official said Sunday.

Having opted not to travel with security forces or an entourage that might bring attention to him, only a Styrofoam square, dirt and a rug separated the deposed Iraqi leader from the U.S. soldiers who routed him from his hiding place Saturday night. "He was in the bottom of a hole with no way to fight back," said Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno. "He was caught like a rat." Saddam's capture was based not on a direct tip, but a collection of intelligence gathered from the hostile questioning of Saddam's former bodyguards and family members, U.S. officials said. That intelligence prompted U.S. soldiers to go to Adwar, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) from Tikrit, Saddam's ancestral home. 'We realized early on in the summer... the people we had to get to were the midlevel individuals, his bodyguards... We tried to work through family and tribal ties that might have been close to Saddam Hussein," Odierno said. "Over the last 10 days or so, we brought in about five to ten members of these families, ...

and finally we got the ultimate information from one of these individuals." After they received the "actionable intelligence" earlier Saturday, the 1st Brigade Combat team of the 4th Infantry Division, the Raider Brigade, was given the assignment to kill or capture Saddam in a mission dubbed Operation Red Dawn. Hideaway uncovered Six hundred soldiers from the Raider Brigade prepared to move on two locations. They included cavalry engineers, artillery, aviation and special operations forces. Even with reliable information, U.S. forces initially failed to grab Saddam in raids on two targets near Adwar. But a subsequent cordon and search operation in the same area unearthed the ragged, bearded fugitive. Troops converged on a two-room mud hut squatting between two farmhouses with sheep penned nearby. One room, which appeared to serve as a bedroom, was in disarray with clothes strewn about the area. The other room was a crude kitchen, Odierno said. Inside that shack, a Styrofoam plug closed Saddam's subterranean hideaway. Dirt and a rug covered the entryway to the hole, he said. U.S. forces encountered no resistance during Red Dawn.

"I think the pressure had become so tight on him, (Saddam) knew he couldn't travel in large entourages so he didn't have any men with him, didn't have much of a security force," Odierno said. Saddam was armed with a pistol, but showed no resistance during his capture. "He was a tired man and also a man resigned to his fate," Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of U.S. forces, told a news conference in Baghdad Sunday. Soldiers also recovered two AK 47 rifles, $750,000 in $100 denominations and a white and orange taxi in the raid. Troops took two other unidentified Iraqis affiliated with Saddam into custody. By 9:15 p.m., Saddam was moved to an undisclosed location and soldiers continued to search the area. "If you could see where we found him, he could have been hiding in a hundred different places, a thousand different places, like this all around Iraq," Odierno said. "And it just takes finding the right person who will give you a good idea where he might be, and that's what happened." Story Tools

Question: What is the name of Saddam Hussein's home town?
Answer: Tikrit