Sarge
06-11-2004, 11:30 AM
Saddam's doctor recounts ex-president's whims
Fri Jun 11, 7:34 AM ET
By Philip Blenkinsop
BERLIN (Reuters) - Drawn away from needy patients and summoned in the middle of the night, the doctor of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) recounts in a new book his service to a man he considered a psychopath.
Reuters Photo
Ala Bashir, plastic surgeon and artist, gave Saddam's first wife a face-lift, sewed back part of the president's finger and was forced to wait countless hours by Saddam's son Uday during 20 years as a presidential medical attendant.
"Many times I left my patients to see someone with trivial things... It was a huge burden. I lost my freedom," Bashir told Reuters in an interview.
Bashir's book "In the Name of Terror" appears in Germany next week, his modern history of Iraq (news - web sites) interspersed with his own insights into the perversities of the Saddam regime and the bizarre powerplay between father and sons.
In the run up to last year's U.S.-led war, Saddam's family seemed to have little sense of the trouble mounting as three members sought to have their noses straightened.
Vanity went all the way to the top. Saddam called Bashir to help sort out pain in his feet. The problem seemed be Saddam's shoes - deemed perfectly in proportion with his stature, but two sizes too small.
More sinister was an appeal, which Bashir said he declined, to rework the face of a special agent who was to carry out an assassination in Syria.
Bashir harshest words were for the unstable Uday, who he says forced friends to drink glass after glass of spirits and regularly had his stomach pumped.
When Uday killed a presidential servant, Saddam pledged to bring justice, but in the end simply punished his son by having his collection of expensive cars destroyed in a fire.
SADDAM FAVOURED FRENCH
The book has already appeared in local language versions in Nordic countries. A Dutch version should hit the shops soon and deals in English and Arabic have already been sealed.
Readers may be interested to learn that Saddam felt the English were superior to Americans, because of their history, but rated the "honest" and "humanistic" French higher still, praising Charles de Gaulle as the world's greatest statesman.
Bashir, who now lives in Qatar, also seeks to dispel a few myths.
"I have read many books. Many of the stories one reads are wrong. There's a lot of imagination."
When he was taken to the president, Bashir said, the destination was never one of Saddam's celebrated palaces, but only small houses. "He actually lived very simply."
"Although ultimately he is a psychopath who led Iraq into two catastrophic wars," Bashir added.
The doctor is also suspicious about reports that the security-conscious Saddam had many doubles.
"He is a very suspicious man and anxious about his security. He would never have accepted someone looking like him travelling around Iraq," he said. "I certainly saw no one like him."
Bashir said Saddam's regime had become "very sick" and he was pleased with its demise, although unhappy in the manner in which it fell. Of his work, Bashir says he has no regrets.
"Nobody could refuse to go and my job was not a political one. For a doctor, all patients are all the same."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=857&ncid=757&e=10&u=/nm/20040611/od_uk_nm/oukoe_iraq_saddam_doctor
Fri Jun 11, 7:34 AM ET
By Philip Blenkinsop
BERLIN (Reuters) - Drawn away from needy patients and summoned in the middle of the night, the doctor of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) recounts in a new book his service to a man he considered a psychopath.
Reuters Photo
Ala Bashir, plastic surgeon and artist, gave Saddam's first wife a face-lift, sewed back part of the president's finger and was forced to wait countless hours by Saddam's son Uday during 20 years as a presidential medical attendant.
"Many times I left my patients to see someone with trivial things... It was a huge burden. I lost my freedom," Bashir told Reuters in an interview.
Bashir's book "In the Name of Terror" appears in Germany next week, his modern history of Iraq (news - web sites) interspersed with his own insights into the perversities of the Saddam regime and the bizarre powerplay between father and sons.
In the run up to last year's U.S.-led war, Saddam's family seemed to have little sense of the trouble mounting as three members sought to have their noses straightened.
Vanity went all the way to the top. Saddam called Bashir to help sort out pain in his feet. The problem seemed be Saddam's shoes - deemed perfectly in proportion with his stature, but two sizes too small.
More sinister was an appeal, which Bashir said he declined, to rework the face of a special agent who was to carry out an assassination in Syria.
Bashir harshest words were for the unstable Uday, who he says forced friends to drink glass after glass of spirits and regularly had his stomach pumped.
When Uday killed a presidential servant, Saddam pledged to bring justice, but in the end simply punished his son by having his collection of expensive cars destroyed in a fire.
SADDAM FAVOURED FRENCH
The book has already appeared in local language versions in Nordic countries. A Dutch version should hit the shops soon and deals in English and Arabic have already been sealed.
Readers may be interested to learn that Saddam felt the English were superior to Americans, because of their history, but rated the "honest" and "humanistic" French higher still, praising Charles de Gaulle as the world's greatest statesman.
Bashir, who now lives in Qatar, also seeks to dispel a few myths.
"I have read many books. Many of the stories one reads are wrong. There's a lot of imagination."
When he was taken to the president, Bashir said, the destination was never one of Saddam's celebrated palaces, but only small houses. "He actually lived very simply."
"Although ultimately he is a psychopath who led Iraq into two catastrophic wars," Bashir added.
The doctor is also suspicious about reports that the security-conscious Saddam had many doubles.
"He is a very suspicious man and anxious about his security. He would never have accepted someone looking like him travelling around Iraq," he said. "I certainly saw no one like him."
Bashir said Saddam's regime had become "very sick" and he was pleased with its demise, although unhappy in the manner in which it fell. Of his work, Bashir says he has no regrets.
"Nobody could refuse to go and my job was not a political one. For a doctor, all patients are all the same."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=857&ncid=757&e=10&u=/nm/20040611/od_uk_nm/oukoe_iraq_saddam_doctor