A Prosaic Description of Unspeakable Torture
Iraqi Impassively Details Vicious Acts Committed in Uday Hussein's Militia
washingtonpost.com
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, April 22, 2003; Page A12
BAGHDAD -- Ali fell to his knees and said this is how it was done:
He put his hands behind his back to simulate being bound, then leaned his head back and closed his eyes as if blindfolded. A friend stepped behind him to hold his head, taking on the role of one of the enforcers. Then another would force open the victim's mouth, Ali said, and a third would yank the tongue out with pliers and slice it off with a surgical knife or an army blade.
As victims recount what happened to them, tales of such abuse have flowed out of Iraq in the two weeks since Saddam Hussein was toppled. But Ali was not one of those who had his tongue cut. He was, he said, one of those who did the cutting.
Ali belonged to Saddam's Fedayeen, a security force led by Hussein's elder son, Uday. For the better part of a decade, he recalled, he assassinated opposition figures, broke the backs of those accused of lying to the government and chopped off tongues, fingers, hands and once even a head.
"It didn't matter if we felt he was guilty or not guilty. We had to do it," he explained. "These people were against Saddam Hussein. If we got orders to punish him, we would go and do it. If Uday said to cut off his tongue, we would do it. Or his hands or fingers or his head. Anything. We would do it."
Verifying Ali's account would be difficult at best. But he asked for no money and did not appear to be bragging, nor would he seem to have anything to gain by telling what he did. At a journalist's request, he drove to houses used by the Fedayeen -- as confirmed by neighbors -- and showed that he still had his black Fedayeen uniform, complete with mask. Over the course of a day in the Iraqi capital, Ali, 26, seemed neither boastful nor regretful.
"I just followed orders," he said.
Much of what he described conformed to the stories told by victims of Hussein's government. He offered a wealth of detail, answering questions without hesitation. He drew with painstaking precision the Fedayeen badge he once had -- but burned when U.S. troops approached Baghdad -- down to the black field and gold lettering around a profile of Hussein and the blood type listed on the back.
He discussed the gruesome aspects of his job only after prompting. Met through a friend who served as an intermediary, Ali seemed nervous telling his tale around other Iraqis and would not give his last name. Yet he displayed little anxiety about cruising around a city occupied by U.S. tanks, driving fearlessly past Marine positions and right up to Army guard posts as he showed off one of Hussein's destroyed palaces.
He described delivering the decapitated heads of victims to their families as matter-of-factly as he explained his educational background. Asked how he felt now to have served a government he said was evil, Ali shrugged his shoulders. "Normal," he said in English, before switching back to Arabic. "I feel comfortable with it."
Only after being pressed did he offer any sign of remorse. "I feel sorry about everything that happened," he said, flat and emotionless. "I'm trying to change my life and behave kindly with people."
Somewhat short, somewhat pudgy, sporting a military-type haircut and a moustache, Ali did not look the part of an assassin and torturer. Dressed in gray slacks, a white striped shirt and sturdy black boots, he could easily blend into any crowd in Baghdad.
What Ali offered Uday Hussein, evidently, were the qualities most in demand in the Fedayeen: loyalty and a willingness to do what it took. He was a teenage student when recruiters came by in 1994. Fed up with school, he decided to apply.
"I went to the Fedayeen group because I didn't want to study anymore," he said. "I hated studying and I wanted to be in the army." But the army paid poorly and the prestige of working in a unit commanded by Uday was alluring. "The Fedayeen was special and I knew that Uday took care of them very well, not like the army."
Ali said he took 32 courses, some of them lasting a month or two, others a year or two, as he learned everything from weaponry and martial arts to language and swimming. The Fedayeen used a training base in Quarea on the northern edge of Baghdad, he said, a fact confirmed by U.S. military officials who have seized the site.
By 1996, Ali said, he was chosen to join an elite 18-member squad within the Fedayeen called the Staff, which effectively served as special forces. At the end, he was being paid 150,000 Iraqi dinars a month, or roughly $70, a decent salary in Iraq, plus bonuses for assignments ranging from hundreds of thousands of dinars to 3 or 4 million, depending on the mission.
Life as a member of the Fedayeen made him a special man in Baghdad; his badge opened virtually any door. "They respected me so much," Ali said. "Everyplace I wanted to go into I could with my badge. Any place of Uday's or Saddam's I could go because I had my badge."
When Uday wanted someone killed, Ali said he and his team would be given about 10 photographs of the target -- with and without a moustache, or with different clothes and hairstyles. They would be given information about his whereabouts, but would not be told his name. The operation would be photographed or videotaped to prove it had been completed; Uday had a library of such videotapes, according to Ali.
He recalled one assassination about five or six years ago in Karbala, a holy Shiite city about 60 miles southwest of Baghdad. The order was to kill a Shiite leader.
"I went to kill one person, but suddenly I saw he had guards with him, so I killed four or five of his guards," Ali recalled. "After that, we cut off his head and we put it in a bag and we brought it to Baghdad from Karbala at 4 a.m. We put it in front of Uday's office. He asked us to bring his head."
On another occasion about three or four years ago, he said, the team was ordered to eliminate what they were told was a sex trafficking ring selling young Iraqi virgins outside the country. They killed 39 people, he said, 24 women and 15 men.
Punishments short of death were meted out according to a clear hierarchy, he said. Those who stole had their fingers or hands cut off. Those who lied had 18-pound concrete blocks dropped on their backs. Informers who gave inaccurate information had hot irons put in their mouths, he said, and army deserters had their ears sliced off.
Ali said one fellow Fedayeen member had his tongue cut off for repeating a comment someone else made comparing Uday's shiny clothes to women's garments, while another who disobeyed an order had his fingers cut off.
Before the war started, Ali said, he was part of a team that infiltrated Kuwait to monitor U.S. troops. Once the fighting started, he roamed through the south, mostly taking reconnaissance photographs. As U.S. forces approached Baghdad, he said, he fought Americans along the southern edge of the city. "I'm sure I killed several," he said.
One day as the Americans got closer, Uday stopped by their position and ordered them not to let the enemy get into Baghdad, then sped away. That was the last time Ali saw him. It did not take long, though, to see that the situation was hopeless, and their commander ultimately sent the militiamen home.
Ali has blended back into Baghdad society, invisible to the U.S. occupiers, trying to figure out what to do. He said he is glad Uday and Saddam Hussein are gone. "Uday was a bad man and an idiot," he said. "I won't miss him and I don't want to see him again." Will he miss Saddam Hussein? "Never," he said.
Ali said he agreed to tell his story "to feel more comfortable" with himself. "The secret has to be out," he said. "Everything I told you, no one knows that, not my wife, nor my family."
His wife is pregnant with their first child, who is due to be born in another month or so. He has been praying lately. "I ask my God to get a good son. I hope that he doesn't find out who I am. I hope to teach him everything right and to have a normal life. If I hurt anyone before or killed anyone before, I want my God to forgive me." |
