Debka has picked up sings of Saddam's possible depression inthe face of a possible US attack . In a report that suggests that perhaps Saddam is getting a bit loony, Debka reports that he recently harangued his district governors on the issue of sanitation.
debka.com
2 September: A select group of Iraqi district governors was ushered into Saddam’s palace-bunker late last month expecting a last briefing from their president on contingencies for a US offensive. But DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s sources in the Gulf report they were treated instead to a long harangue from Saddam on public sanitation in their respective districts.
“Sanitation is one of the most important foundations underpinning the stability of the Iraqi republic,” he told his guests.
After the meeting, several governors told close confidantes that their president and supreme commander seemed to have lost touch with reality.
Other military and intelligence sources paint a similar picture of Saddam’s apparent mood. If he is indeed on the verge of a mental breakdown, they say, America could win the war against him without firing a shot.
But professional Saddam-watchers, who keep an eye on the Iraqi president through various surveillance systems – notably American, Israeli and British – wonder whether his quirky behavior might not just be an elaborate ruse. Signs that the Iraqi ruler is too depressed to put up a fight have been picked up DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s sources, although they too do not rule out careful staging:
The thing is, Saddam has a well-documented, almost Howard Hughesian, thing about cleanliness. Check this report from earlier in the year:
abcnews.go.com
Feb. 22 — He is the dictator at the center of U.S. foreign policy. He is known to have used poison gas against villages in his own country. And he is suspected of having his own brother-in-law killed and ordering the deaths of his two sons-in-law.
But who is the man behind the name Saddam Hussein?
Saddam has not spoken to an American reporter in the 10 years since the Gulf War, but French filmmaker Joel Soler recently captured some of the dictator's personal reflections by spending two months in Iraq claiming to be making a film on local architecture. Instead, the one-hour film, Uncle Saddam, reveals a man who seems to be preoccupied with … cleanliness.
‘A Sweet or Stinky Smell’
"It is not appropriate for someone to attend a gathering or to be with his children with his body odor trailing behind him, emitting a sweet or stinky smell mixed with perspiration," Saddam is shown saying to a village mayor.
"It's preferable to bathe twice a day, but at least once a day. And when the male bathes once a day, the female should bathe twice a day. The reason is that the female is more delicate and the smell of a woman is more noticeable than the male," the Iraqi president continues. "If a woman can't afford to brush her teeth with toothpaste and a toothbrush, she should use her finger."
Soler says Saddam's emphasis on cleanliness is based on fear of being contaminated by germs and an obsession with security.
"If you want to meet with Saddam Hussein, there are many protocols," says Al Attia, a former Iraqi government minister. "You have to be clean, to wash, because Saddam is scared to be contaminated by people."
For 15 years, Abbas Al Janabi was the personal secretary to Saddam's son. He says every time he met Saddam on official business, he went through the same routine.
"They take you to a shower," says Al Janabi, who fled Iraq two years ago. "You have to take a shower in front of the people who are responsible for his safety." |
