Saddam Hussein's 68th Birthday

[note: I'm back-dating this as I've been working on it and intended to have it posted 2 days ago.]

So, It's Saddam Hussein's birthday. April 28, 2005, and he's 68. I don't really feel like celebrating the guy, since he is a rather bad person. I'm not quite liberal enough to whine that we should stay out of his business though. I decided it was my duty to bring forth some facts for all of the boo-hooing liberals that feel that America should've stayed out of Saddam's business.

1) Saddam Hussein was born April 28, 1937.
2) His father died before he was born.
3) His mother attempted (unsuccessfully) to abort him by strenuous labor.
4) Born in the village of al-Ouja, about 1 hour north of Baghdad.
5) Saddam means "the stubborn one."
6) Was raised by his uncle Khairallah Talfah.
7) Killed his first victim by shooting him in the back.
8) Killed his first victim at the age of 14.
9) Moved with his uncle to Baghdad in 1955 after killing the man.
10) In his youth he entertained himself and his friends by sticking red-hot steel rods in the anuses and eyes of cats and dogs.
11) Joined the Ba'ath Party (Party of Arab Renewal) in 1957.
12) Participated in an assassination attempt on Iraq's General Kassem on October 17, 1959.
13) After the failed assassination, moved to Syria for 6 months.
14) Studied law in Egypt in 1962.
15) Returned to Iraq once Kassem was deposed and publicly executed.
16) Married to his cousin in an arranged marriage in 1963.
17) The woman he married, Sajida Talfah, was the eldest daughter of the man (Khairallah Talfah) that raised him.
18) His son Uday was born in 1964.
19) His son Qusay was born in 1966.
20) Was arrested by Marshall Arif along with other members of the Ba'ath Party.
21) Escaped jail and returned one Arif was deposed in 1968.
22) Became the Ba'ath Party's deputy secretary general and chief inquisitor under President al-Bakr.
23) As chief inquisitor he has hundreds of citizens executed.
24) Became head of Iraq on May 16, 1979 when al-Bakr was poisoned.
25) Appointed his wife's brother, Adnan (whom he was raised as a brother to) defense minister.
26) Had Adnan killed.
27) Appointed his wife's father (the man that raised him) the governor of Baghdad.
28) Launched the 20th century's longest official war against Iran.
29) The war lasted 8 years and took the lives of more than 1.7 million people.
30) Ordered the removal of anything of value from Kuwait. This included more than 10,000 luxury vehicles (sold at auction in Baghdad for $125 million), 3,216 bars of gold, and 63 tons of gold coins.
31) Claims the following titles as his own: president, supreme commander, head of the National Command Council, Hero of al-Qadisiay, Knight of the Arab Nation, descendant of the Prophet, son of Imam Ali Bin Abi Talib, president and chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, regional secretary of the ruling Ba'ath Party, head of the 100,000 strong Popular Militia, and commander and cheif of Iraq's armed forces.
32) Was rejected from Iraqi military officer school for his bad grades.
33) Once shot a general he'd appointed for disagreeing with him in a cabinet meeting.
34) Appointed his cousin, Ali Hassan al Majid, as the governor of Basra and much of the south. Majid ordered chemical weapons to be deployed on the Kurdish population in the north, killing approximately 200,000 of the 4 million residents.
35) After a failed military coup in May 1991, had 18 senior army officers killed.
36) Following the Gluf War, he fired 1,500 senior army officers and 180 senior police officers.
37) After one assassination attempt he had more than 200 people arrested, including the commander of the Republican Guard's tank battalion, Brig Sufiyan al-Ghurairi, and former parlimentarian Jasser al-Tikriti.
38) Due to fear of being poisoned, will not shake hands with anyone.
39) If he decides you're worthy of greeting him, you are allowed to lick his armpits.
40) His favorite song is "Saddam, Oh Saddam, You Great and Powerful One."
41) In October 1995, held a plebiscite to see if Iraqis wanted him. He received 99.9% of the votes. It's commonly believed that the 45 people not voting for him were either blind of shot afterward.
42) The October 1995 plebiscite had a 99.47% turnout. This means only 3,300 voters of 8.4 million were unaccounted for.
43) Took his son Uday to the torture chambers when Uday was 4 to entertain the two of them.
44) His son, Uday, was shot, through his supposedly bullet-proof Porsche, 8 times on his way to Baghdad's al-Masur Club. Fidel Castro's personal doctor saved his life, although he lost a lung and part of his calf-muscle.
45) When he discovered who had tipped off the men that shot his son, he had Ra'ad al Hazaa's (the tip-off man) uncle's tongue cut out before torturing and killing him. Ra'ad al Hazaa was never found.
46) His son, Uday, married, for his third marriage, the daughter of Ali Hassan al Majid. Majid is the same cousin of Saddam's that killed 200,000 Kurds.
47) His son, Uday, formerly ran a newspaper at http://www.index.com.jo/iraqtoday/index.html
48) He had chemicals poured into rivers and marshes to kill the Ma'dan people and "every living thing in the area."
49) His cousin, Ali Hassan al Majid, personally strangled Ayatollah Baqir al-Sadr, leader of the Dawa party (which represents the Ma'dan people), and had al-Sadr's two sisters hanged.
50) He banned the Dawa party and had bombs dropped on them regularly, along with artillery fire.
51) Had his soldiers burn hundreds of acres in attempt to eliminate the Ma'dan people.
52) When America decided to get involved in his business, he had his military installations rebuilt to look like suburbs.
53) Used the 3,000 civilian casualties of the Gulf War as propaganda. 227,000 bombs (8,000 of which were smart) were dropped during the war.
54) Transported refugees in caravans along with military vehicles so the bombing of the military vehicles would create more propaganda. Plus, it helped him eliminate refugees without having to waste ammunition.
55) Full name is Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti.
56) He has had more than 40 of his relatives killed.
57) On June 1, 1972, he led the process of expropriating Western oil companies, which had had a monopoly on the country's oil. A year later, world oil prices rose dramatically as a result of the 1973 world oil shock.
58) He convened an assembly of Ba'ath party leaders on July 22, 1979. During the assembly, which he ordered videotaped, Saddam claimed to have found spies and conspirators within the Ba'ath Party and read out the names of members who he thought could oppose him. These members were labeled "disloyal" and were removed from the room one by one to face a firing squad.
59) He ordered thousands of portraits, posters, statues and murals to be erected in his honor all over Iraq, appearing on the sides of office buildings, schools, airports, shops, and Iraqi currency.
60) In 2001 made homosexuality and sexual offenses punishable by death.
61) After violating the no-fly zones 110 times by sending more than 190 MiG-23s at U.S. Air Force planes using radar lock on, he put up a bounty of 25 million Iraqi dinars (US $14,000) for anyone who can bring down a U.S. plane.
62) In March 1997, he sued a French magazine for defamation for calling him an "executioner," a "murderer," a "monster," and a "perfect cretin."
63) In contrast to the 3,000 civilian deaths in the Gulf War, he lost 41 of the 42 Iraqi army divisions to capture, neutralization or destruction. Estimated Iraqi prisoners of war (from the Gulf War) are 175,000, with casualties being estimated at 85,000-100,000. He lost 3,700 or 5,500 tanks, 1,857 of 7,500 armored vehicles, and 2,140 of the 3,500 artillery pieces.
64) He ordered that all chemical and biological weapons be tested on Iranian prisoners of war, rather than animals, to insure effectiveness.
65) While civilians not living near a government ministry get about 30 minutes per day of electricity, Saddam gets what he wants. in 2000, he had a US $16,000 liposuction machine delivered and a US $126,000 teeth whitening laser delivered. He has more than 76 palaces in Iraq. He celebrated his 60th birthday with a procession of 60 yachts on the Tigris River. For his 62nd birthday, every loud-speaker in Baghdad played "Happy Birthday, Mr. President." He has a team of 12 Russian doctors that are on call 24 hours a day. His personal yacht, the Al Mansur is 394 feet long, can accommodate more than 200 people and has every room bugged. His palace in his home town is actually a complex of 13 different palaces with interiors lined with gold and marble.
66) In 1995, his son, Uday, got into an argument over purchasing a car from his uncle, Watban al Tikrit, which ended in Uday shooting his uncle in the leg. Saddam had oil poured on Uday's sports cars and burned them. Saddam's sons in-law, Hussein Kamal al Majid and Saddam Kamal al Majid fled the country because of this. Saddam offered them pardon if they returned. Upon their return, their wives were granted divorces within 24 hours. Uday and his father-in-law, Ali Hassan al Majid (the man that raised Saddam), gunned both sons in-law down.
67) While Saddam would be worth US $4 billion (which would rank him 47th in Forbes' list of billionaires), most of the money was stolen and the vast majority of it has been frozen by the banks holding it.
68) Saddam Hussein was captured by the United States on December 13, 2003. He will stand trial under the Iraq Special Tribunal, established by the Iraq Interim Government.

That took an extremely long time to write. All of it is about as factual as you're going to get, from a country that out-lawwed anything anti-Saddam. I'll allow anyone that read this far to form their own opinions about him, but I personally think the American version of the death penalty is too polite for someone as horrible as him. I don't even know that stoning would be adequate. For anyone that doesn't believe some of these facts, do an internet search for "Saddam Hussein" background.