Page 219 - The Winter of Islam and the Spring to Come

HARUN YAHYA (ADNAN OKTAR)
217

Although he has some- TURKEY
times spoken in religious
SYRIA
terms in order to try and
win Muslim support, IRAN
that is nothing but a hyp- IRAQ
JORDAN
ocritical policy.
A brief look at SAUDI ARABIA
Saddam's past will let us
KUWAIT
see the foundations of
the regime he estab-
lished.
The events that
brought Saddam to
power in Iraq began with
a coup. In February 1963, a group of army officers and street activists
calling themselves the Baath (Resurgence) Party overthrew General
Abdul Karim Kassem, who was in power at the time. Among these mil-
itants one man, a member of a six-man team charged with killing
Kassem, stood out: Saddam Hussein al-Takriti, in other words Saddam
Hussein from Takrit. Although not a soldier, Saddam was seen fre-
quently in uniform and immediately after the coup, he was brought in
by the Baath regime and tasked with committing acts of terror and
murder. His first action was to develop effective new torture methods
with which to interrogate those opposed to the coup. This Baath admin-
istration which began with a palace coup came to an end in November
of the same year. Saddam's torture center then came to light, full of
pain-inflicting devices of his own invention.
The Baath administration of less than 10 months' duration had also
been ended by a coup. However, the party staged another coup on July
17, 1968, and this time it was to last. The deputy leader of this second
coup was none other than torture specialist Saddam Hussein himself.
By appointing his own relatives to key posts and doing away with his
political rivals, he soon held all political power in his own hands. The
pitiless torturer had become dictator of Iraq.