[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 110 (Wednesday, July 23, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9747-S9748]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE DEATH OF QUSAY AND UDAY HUSSEIN
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, normally in our country we don't
applaud the death of anyone. We value life greatly. But today we do
indeed applaud the death, the removal, of two of the most vicious
criminals who ever lived. Yesterday we heard confirmation that the
101st Airborne--I can proudly say headquartered in Fort Campbell, KY--
in a raid on a house in Mosul, killed Uday and Qusay Hussein, two of
the biggest monsters who ever walked the face of the Earth.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that two Associated Press
obituaries be printed in the Record at this point, but I want to take a
look at those obituaries because I think they tell you a lot about what
this war was all about.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Odai Hussein, Oldest Son of Saddam
Baghdad, Iraq.--Odai Hussein, the murderous and erratic
oldest son of Saddam Hussein, controlled propaganda in Iraq
and allegedly oversaw the torture of athletes who failed to
perform.
The 39-year-old is No. 3 on the list of 55 most-wanted men
from the former Iraqi regime--only Saddam and younger brother
Qusai ranked higher. The three also are on a U.S. list of
former regime members who could be tried for war crimes.
As head of the paramilitary Fedayeen Saddam paramilitary
unit, Odai helped his father eliminate opponents and exert
iron-fisted control over Iraq's 25 million people. The eldest
of Saddam's five children, Odai was elected to parliament in
1999 with a reported 99 percent of the vote, but he rarely
attended parliament sessions.
Iraqi exiles say Odai murdered at will and tortured with
zeal, and routinely ordered his guards to snatch young women
off the street so he could rape them. The London-based human-
rights group Indict said Odai ordered prisoners to be dropped
into acid baths as punishment.
The Caligula-like Odai seemed proud of his reputation and
called himself Abu Sarhan, an Arabic term for ``wolf.''
But his tendency toward erratic brutality even exasperated
Saddam, who temporarily banished Odai to Switzerland after
the younger Hussein killed one of his father's favorite
bodyguards in 1988.
The bodyguard, a young man named Kamel Gegeo, arranged
trysts for the Iraqi president--notably with one woman who
later became Saddam's second wife. Worried that his father's
relationship with the woman could threaten his own position
as heir, Odai beat Gegeo to death with a club in full view of
guests at a high-society party, according to some reports.
Other reports said Odai killed Gegeo with an electric carving
knife.
Odai has once been a strong candidate to succeed his
father, but he was badly injured in 1996 in an assassination
attempt by gunmen who opened fire as he drove his red Porsche
through Baghdad. The attack left Odai with a bullet in his
spine that forced him to walk with a cane. Younger brother
Qusai was instead groomed to succeed Saddam, worsening
already uneasy relations between the two brothers.
Odai owned Iraq's most widely circulated daily newspaper,
Babil, which he used as a platform for regime propaganda,
published signed editorials full of bombastic rhetoric. He
also oversaw Al-Zawra, a weekly published by the journalists
union that he headed, and owned the popular Youth TV.
Much of Odai's notoriety abroad stemmed from his position
as head of the National Iraqi Olympic Committee, which was
accused of torturing and jailing athletes.
The London-based human rights group Indict said the
committee once made a group of track athletes crawl on newly
poured asphalt while they were beaten and threw some of them
off a bridge. Indict also said Odai ran a special prison for
athletes who offended him. The International Olympic
Committee in Lausanne, Switzerland, said earlier this year
that it was investigating the allegations.
One defector told Indict that jailed soccer players were
forced to kick a concrete ball after failing to reach the
1994 World Cup finals. Another defector said athletes were
dragged through a gravel pit and then dunked in a sewage tank
so infection would set in.
Army officers also were fair game for Odai's outbursts of
violence. In 1983, Odai reportedly bashed an army officer
unconscious when the man refused to allow Odai to dance with
his wife. The officer later died. Odai also shot an army
officer who did not salute him.
Things were hardly better on the family front, where
relations between Odai and his uncles were especially bad.
Oadi reportedly divorced the daughter of one uncle, Barzan
Ibrahim Hasan, in 1995 after she complained of being beaten.
Odai shot and wounded another uncle, Watban Ibrahim Hasan.
Both uncles were captured after the war and are in the
custody of U.S. coalition forces.
While millions of Iraqis suffered dire poverty, Odai lived
a life of fast cars, expensive liquor and easy women. When
U.S. troops captured his mansion in Baghdad, they found a
personal zoo with lions and cheetahs, an underground parking
garage for his collection of luxury cars, Cuban cigars with
his name on the wrapper, and $1 million in fine wines,
liquor--and even heroin.
Odai's obsession with sex was evident everywhere: The house
was adorned with paintings of naked women and photographs of
prostitutes taken off the Internet, complete with handwritten
ratings of each.
There were bags and boxes of pills and medicines
everywhere--ginseng sexual fortifiers, heartburn medication,
the anti-depressant Prozac--and an Accu-Rite HIV Antibodies
Screening Test Kit was in Odai's office.
Nearby was a domed house believed to be the residence of
Odai's concubines, a bastion of bad taste with statuettes of
couples in foreplay, couches with fluffy pillows and a
swimming pool with a bar.
____
Qusai Hussein, Younger Son of Saddam
Baghdad, Iraq.--Qusai Hussein, Saddam Hussein's younger
son, held wide-ranging powers over the nation's ruthless
security apparatus that made him one of the most feared men
in Iraq.
Qusai is No. 2 on the U.S.-led coalition forces' list of
the 55 most wanted men from the former Iraqi regime, behind
only Saddam himself. He is also on a Bush administration list
of former Iraqi regime members who could be tried for war
crimes.
Quiet, handsome and every bit as brutal as Saddam, the 37-
year-old Qusai headed Iraq's intelligence and security
services, his father's personal security force and the
Republican Guard, an elite force of 80,000 soldiers
responsible for defending Baghdad.
He stayed out of the public eye and led a substantially
more subdued private life than his older brother Odai, who
collected luxury cars by the hundreds and had a habit of
ordering his guards to snatch young women off the street in
order to rape them. Iraqis nicknamed Qusai ``The Snake'' for
his bloodthirsty but low-profile manner.
Qusai was far more trusted by his father and appeared to be
his heir before the regime crumbled. In televised meeting
with top security and military men, Qusai was seated next to
his father, wearing well-tailored suits and dutifully noting
his father's every word.
An exiled dissident told The Associated Press that only
Qusai and Saddam's private secretary, Abid Hamid Mahmud al-
Tikriti, who was captured in June, were kept informed of
Saddam's whereabouts. Odai was thought to be too reckless to
be trusted with such information.
Experts do not believe Qusai played a significant role in
the Gulf War of 1991. But he was a leading figure of terror
in the conflict's aftermath, using mass executions and
torture to crush the Shiite Muslim uprising after that war.
Qusai also helped engineer the destruction of the southern
marshes in the 1990s, an action aimed at Shiite ``Marsh
Arabs'' living there.
The marshes--roughly 3,200 square miles--had provided the
necessities of life for tens of thousands of marsh dwellers
for at least 1,000 years. The area was destroyed through a
large-scale water diversion project intended to remove the
ability of insurgents to hide there.
Qusai also oversaw Iraq's notorious detention centers and
is believed to have initiated ``prison cleansing''--a means
of relieving severe overcrowding in jails with arbitrary
killings.
Citing testimony from former Iraqi intelligence officers
and other state employees, New York-based Human Rights Watch
said several thousand inmates were executed at Iraq's prisons
over the past several years.
Prisoners were often eliminated with a bullet to the head,
but one witness told the London-based human rights group
Indict that inmates were sometimes murdered by being dropped
into shredding machines. Some prisoners went in head first
and died quickly, while others were put in feet first and
died screaming. The witness said that on at least one
occasion, Qusai supervised shredding-machine murders.
On another occasion, a witness said, an inmate's foot was
cut off in prison torture room while Qusai was present. ``The
amputation had been carried out with a power saw during his
torture under the direct supervision of Qusai,'' the witness
told Indict.
Qusai was made chief of the army branch for the ruling
Baath party in 2000, meaning virtually all the army's
movements were under his supervision. Just before this year's
[[Page S9748]]
war began, he was put in charge of defending the nation's
capital and heartland.
Qusai was spared any real combat during the 1980-88 Iran-
Iraq war, although state television showed him conferring
with commanders. He did not do any of the compulsory military
service required of most Iraqi men.
Qusai wed the daughter of a respected senior military
commander. The couple, who later separated, had two
daughters.
Mr. McCONNELL. First, let's take a look at Qusay Hussein. Qusay was
No. 2 on our list of 55 most wanted men from the former Iraqi regime,
behind only his father Saddam. He is also on the Bush administration
list of former Iraqi regime members who could have been tried for war
crimes. Let's take a look at what he did, not only to help control the
regime but apparently also for his own personal amusement. The AP says:
Quiet, handsome, and every bit as brutal as Saddam, the 37-
year-old Qusai headed Iraq's intelligence and security
services, his father's personal security force and the
Republican Guard, [which we all know was supposedly] an elite
group of 80,000 soldiers responsible for defending Baghdad.
That was his portfolio in the regime.
Iraqis nicknamed Qusay ``The Snake'' for his bloodthirsty
but low-profile manner. He was a leading figure of terror in
the conflict aftermath of the gulf war in 1991, using mass
executions and torture to crush the Shiite Muslim uprising
after the Persian Gulf war.
The AP says Qusay also helped engineer the destruction of the
southern marshes in the 1990s aimed at Shiite Marsh Arabs who had lived
there for over 1,000 years.
Qusay also oversaw Iraq's notorious detention centers and
was believed to have initiated ``prison cleansing''--a means
of relieving severe overcrowding in jails.
That is a unique way to deal with jail overcrowding--the way they did
it in Iraq--by eliminating the prisoners.
Citing testimony from former Iraqi intelligence officers
and other state employees, New York-based Human Rights Watch
said several thousand inmates were executed at Iraq's prisons
over the past several years.
One of the things Qusay liked to do in overseeing these prison
executions was to feed the prisoners into shredders. The lucky
prisoners were the ones who got fed into the shredders head first
because they died quickly. The unlucky prisoners were the ones who were
fed into shredders feet first.
This was Qusay Hussein--eliminated by the 101st Airborne yesterday,
No. 2 on our list of most wanted from the Saddam Hussein regime.
Qusay was made chief of the army branch for the ruling
Baath Party in 2000, meaning virtually all of the movements
were under his supervision.
This man was a complete monster. Thanks to the 101st Airborne, he is
no longer able to terrorize Iraqi citizens.
Let's take a look at Uday, No. 3 on the list, the murderous
and erratic oldest son of Saddam Hussein.
He controlled the propaganda in Iraq and allegedly oversaw the
torture of athletes who failed to perform. Talk about an incentive. In
Iraq, if you were an athlete and you didn't measure up, you got to meet
Uday Hussein, No. 3 on the most wanted list, only eclipsed by his
younger brother, whose activities I just described, and his father, who
is No. 1 on the list.
Uday was head of the paramilitary Fedayeen Saddam unit.
Uday helped his father eliminate opponents and exert iron-
fisted control over the 25 million people in Iraq. Iraqi
exiles tell us that Uday murdered at will and tortured with
zeal--
Murdered at will and tortured with zeal, and routinely ordered his
guards to snatch young women off the streets--routinely ordered his
guards to attack young women on the streets--to bring them in for his
personal pleasure. So he was raping them.
Uday was fascinated with prisoners as well. Like his younger brother,
he would order the prisoners to be dropped into acid baths as
punishment. His tendency toward erratic brutality even eclipsed his
father's. That is pretty hard to imagine--that you could be so
outrageous and so brutal that you could outrate Saddam Hussein. But
apparently that is what happened. He was temporarily banished after he
killed one of his father's favorite bodyguards in 1988.
Much of Uday's notoriety abroad stemmed from his position
as head of the National Iraqi Olympic Committee, which was
accused of torturing and jailing athletes. The London-based
human rights group Indict said the committee once made a
group of track athletes crawl on newly poured asphalt while
they were beaten, and he also threw some of them off a
bridge. Indict also said Uday ran a special prison for
athletes who offended him.
This was Uday Hussein.
One defector told Indict that jailed soccer players were
forced to kick a concrete ball after failing to reach the
1994 World Cup finals. Another defector said athletes were
dragged through a gravel pit and then dunked in a sewage tank
so that infection would set in.
While millions of Iraqis suffered dire poverty, Uday lived
a life of fast cars and expensive liquor. When U.S. troops
captured his mansion in Baghdad, they found a personal zoo.
The man had his own personal zoo with lions and cheetahs--
and an underground parking garage for his collection of
luxury cars, Cuban cigars with his name on the wrapper, and
$1 million in fine wines, liquor, and even heroin.
This was Uday Hussein.
In this country, we rarely applaud the deaths of anyone. But these
two monsters--No. 2 and No. 3 on the list of the regime that we are
tracking in Iraq--will no longer be able to prey on the citizens of
Iraq for their own amusement. No longer will Iraqis live in fear of
night-time visits from the Fedayeen and the secret police. No longer
will Iraqi athletes fear being tortured for failure to win a soccer
game. No longer will young Iraqi brides be forcibly taken from their
families on their wedding day to be exploited by Uday Hussein.
Knowing what we now know about the Saddam Hussein regime and its
penchant for brutality, it is abundantly clear that as a result of
ridding Iraq of this evil Iraqi, the world is a better place.
Are we finished with the job in Iraq? Not yet. But yesterday was a
day of great progress. No. 2 and No. 3 are no longer available to prey
on the citizens of Iraq. We believe No. 1--Saddam Hussein--is still
alive. And we are on his trail. And he will been brought to justice.
I yield the floor.
Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, what is the regular order?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. One minute 45 seconds remain under the control
of the minority.
Mr. REID. I yield back that time.
____________________