Saddam: The Secret Life Hardcover – 29 Oct 2002

Most of the things written within this book is untrue and biased. The book tries to reflect how bad Saddam was which not denying he wasn't however it takes it way too far, As an Iraqi I would not even recommend this book, fake and biased.

Fantastically shocking, a mind blowing eye opener to 1 of the most brutal men of modern times (who mysteriously had ties with the CIA)

Received with a discount due to it being in poorer condition than advertised-can,t say I noticed any fault,s.Verey good service.

This book gave me a frightful insight into this brutal and greedy man. Reverred by some arabs and hated by others, he was a master of manipulating public opinion and built around him an apparatus that was terrifying and all controlling. If you ever read Orwell's 1984, you can easily draw parallels with life in Iraq under the Baath party. I definitely recommend this if you want an insight into who this man was, however, if you think it will help you clarify whether the US was right or wrong in invading Iraq, it will only confuse you, instead instilling pity in the plight of the poor Iraqi people who are trapped between the two. A very compelling read, although it could have been a bit more comprehensive as it seemed to touch only lightly through the different issues.

Con Coughlin has appeared with frequency recently, as as 'expert' on Saddam and his regime. I was therefore a little disappointed with this book in that while promising much, it didn't really deliver. The author has lots of revelations about events and people, but little to substantiate them other than he says them. He also seems to accept uncritically US claims about Saddam's linkages to Bin-Laden and al-Qaeda, linkages which even the US have not been keen to continue to promote as they have been exposed as false. An interesting study into Saddam but necessarily should include a warning that it should be taken with a very large pinch of salt!

This comprehensive biography takes us from Saddam Hussein's obscure birth in the late 1930's to late 2002, shortly before the 2003 Iraq War that removed the bloodthirsty tyrant from power.The book reveals Saddam's millitary, logistical and finacial support for Al Qaida in the period before the 911 bombings of the Twin Towers, in New York.Immediately after the atrocity by Al Qaida Saddam put Iraq on a war footing. Iraq's support for Al Qaida was certainly ample reason to justify a US attack on Iraq.Saddam had a harsh and deprived childhood, much like fellow mass murderers Stalin and Hitler. He was strongly influenced by his maternal uncle Khairallah Tulfah, with whom Saddam lived for some years from when he was about nine. Khairallah was a strong Nazi sympathizer who was imprisoned for four years following following his part in the failed pro-Nazi coup of 1941.He clearly was a strong influence on Saddam's political outlook. Khairallah authored a document published on Saddam's orders, many years later, in 1981, entitled "Three Whom God Should Not Have Created: Persians, Jews and Flies".The book covers Saddam's early career as a street thug, and his first political murder in 1958.It also covers important events in Iraq's modern political history, and Saddam's rise to power such as:*The 1958 Free Officers Revolution, in which the young King Faisel II and his family were massacred, and the monarchy deposed, and General Abdul Karim Qassem installed as dictator, with the support of the Iraqi Communist Party.* The failed 1959 coup nationalist against Qasem, which led to a brutal orgy of rape, looting and mass murder by the Communists against the nationalists and their families.* Saddam's exile in Egypt after his attempted assasination of Qassem.* The 1963 Baathist-suported coup which brought Abdul Salim Arif to power, and led to street battles between the Baathists (of which Saddam was a member) and the Communists.It was at this time that Saddam returned to Iraq and played a part in the bloody revenge by Baathists against the Communists for the earlier Communist purges.Saddam's execution of so many Communists makes the support he was to recieve in the 90's and early 2000's from Communists and leftists around the world all the more strange.* The 1968 coup that finally brought the Baath Party to power, under Ahmad Hassan al Bakr, in the aftermath of Iraq and other Arab Sate's ignominious defeat by little Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.Shortly afterwards there took place public hangings in Baghdad of Jews, who were accused of being 'Zionist spies.In the early 1970's the Baath regime formed an alliance with Moscow, despite Bakr and Saddam's dislike of Communism. Saddam rapidly rose in power in the Baath regime and took a great interest in Iraq's development of deadly chemical weapons.The book details his admiration of Hitler and Stalin, and his modelling of his leadership on these tyrants. By 1976 Saddam was the de facto leader of Iraq, and in his quest for chemical weapons, Iraq turned their attention to Germany, described by Coughlin as 'the spiritual home of poison gas'- part of the reason for Iraq's drive for chemical weapons was their desire to destroy Israel. At a meeting with the East Germans an Iraqi official was unapologetic about Iraq's intentions: " You Germans have great expertise in the killing of Jews with gas. This interests us in the same way...How can this knowledge...be used to destroy Israel?"In 1979 Saddam formally took power, quietly getting rid of Bakr. His rise to power was accompanied by Stalinesque purges.Grotesque tortures of men, women and children were a common feature throughout Saddam's rule. "There were well documented cases of of women being tortured in front of their families, or of husbands and children being tortured in front of their wives or mothers...Another female survivor of Saddam's torture chamber revealed how sexual torture was commonly used against both women and children, and of children being placed in sacks with starving cats".The author writes of the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988)and Saddam's use of chemical warfare against the Iranian population, and the Halbabja Massacre of 1988, in which Saddam butchered thousands of Kurds, with the use of chemical weapons.The book also details Saddam's construction of masive palces modelled on ancient Babylon and his identification of himself with Nebudchadnezzar and Saladin.The author also details Saddam's invasion of Kuwait, and the mass murder, rape and torture of Kuwaitis by Iraqi troops.It also outlines Saddam's suport of international terrorism, his sponsorship of the Abu Nidal terrorist group, and his sponsoring of suicide bombings of civillian tasrgets in Israel.The book is a chilling portrayal of a bloodthirsty monster and mass murderer in the mould of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Omar El Bashir and Robert Mugabe.It undoubtedly provides an explanation why this madman had to be removed.

I went to live in Baghdad 1968 when Saddam joined the government and was there for 31 years. I was married to an Iraqi at the time. I found the book to be accurate, apart from one or two minor details. It was well written the author had done a really good job researching the different events.Saddam. The Secret Life. Excellent and disturbing.. The case for getting rid of this terrifying madman as soon as possible is overwhelming William Shawcross, Sunday Telegraph.

'One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.'- Joseph StalinSaddam, The Secret Life, is a well documented biography of one of the most notorious dictators the world has ever seen. And one of the positive aspects of this book is that other than highlighting the nefarious activities that Saddam Hussein had committed during his 25-years of long reign as the ruler of Iraq, the author of this book also revealed some of the positive works that saddam had done for the people of Iraq, like free education and helthcare for all the Iraqis.Saddam Hussein was born in a nondescript village in northern Iraq. His family was very poor, in fact his father had left him and his mother when he was very young. But later his mother remarried to another man. In fact Saddam grew up without the care and protection of his father, and he also received constant humiliations and beatings from his stepfather, because of which he developed a psychological condition of not trusting anyone, and he maintained this attitude throughout his life. Though Saddam admired his maternal uncle the nazi sympathizer, Khairallah. And because of his bad financial situation he didn't complete his schooling in Iraq, which he later completed when he was living in exile in Cairo, Egypt.And before we discuss that how saddam captured the power in Iraq, its better to talk that how the modern state of Iraq came into its being.Prior to 1919 there was no country as such Iraq located in the map of the world, but after the First World War when the ottoman empire was defeated by the allied forces, so the land which was under the control of the ottomans was dissolved, and the new Nations like, Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Palestine was born under the 'Sykes-Picot' agreement between the French and British governments.And under the 'Sykes-Picot' agreement, British government got the control of the Iraq, so they established a monarchy by appointing, Faisal-1, the third son of Hussein bin Ali, as the first king of the new established state of Iraq.Though people of the Shia community are the majority in Iraq, but by appointing a sunni king as their ruler, the seed of the discontent which was sowed by the Brits, is still haunting the people of Iraq.As the monarchy was not popular amongst the Iraqis, because they considered their ruler as a puppet of the British. So in the year 1958 a coup was organized against the monarchy by a group of military personnel who called themselves as the 'Free officers', and they brutally killed all the members of the royal family, and with that the monarchy was ended in Iraq and a military dictatorship was established. And the people who supported this coup against the monarchy were the members of the Baath (meaning Renaissance) political party. And Saddam Hussein was a member of this party.Though few years later some army officers who supported the ideology of the Baath party orchestrated a coup, and they were successful when in the year 1968 the Baath party of Iraq came to Power with General Hasan ahmed al-bakr as the new president of Iraq.General Al-bakr was one of the mentors of Saddam Hussein, and because of the patronage of General al-bakr, Saddam established himself as the most powerful men in Iraq.And it is widely believed that saddam paid the generosity of his mentor by giving him poison through the team of his doctors. And finally in July 1979 Saddam Hussein became the President of Iraq. He ruled Iraq for almost 25-years with an iron fist, and to establish his reign he killed and tortured uncountable number of innocent people. Infact he bombed his own people several times, especially the people of Kurdistan, whom he considered as a threat to his Regime.The author also discussed the brutal, Iran-Iraq war (1980-88), and the causes due to which saddam invaded Kuwait which started the first gulf war, and finally the invasion of Iraq in 2003 by the combined forces of United States and Britian which led to the demise of the regime established by Saddam Hussein.Though there are some minor mistakes in this book, and the negative aspect of this book is that you will need a magnifying glass to read this because the fonts of this book is too small. The language of the book is not that tough, and I recommend this book only to those readers who loves to read Non-fiction books. And have patience while reading this literature.My Ratings : ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5)I hope you like the Review, thanks for reading, Jai Hind.

Excellent book-book tells us about how saddam came into power from his baath party.the book also contains in depth rich history of iraq

Very Nice

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