Qusay Saddam Hussein

Iraqi government official and son of dictator Saddam Hussein

• Born: May 17, 1966
• Birthplace: Baghdad, Iraq
• Died: July 22, 2003
• Place of death: Mosul, Iraq

Cause of notoriety: While serving as deputy chairman of the Special Security Committee of the Iraqi National Security Council, Hussein presided over a network of spies and informers in the Iraqi security services. He likely authorized torture, interrogation, jailing, and execution of thousands of political prisoners and their families.

Active: 1991-2003

Locale: Iraq

Early Life

Qusay Saddam Hussein (kew-SAY sah-DAHM hew-SAYN) was the second and youngest son of future president of IraqSaddam Hussein . He and Saddam’s other son, Uday, were educated at the Al Khararkh al Namouthajiya. The school reportedly provided a high-quality education. Both boys received special treatment and security protection while at the school. Later, Qusay studied law at Baghdad University. He was the quieter of the two sons and initially was less favored by Saddam. However, as Uday became more vulgar and less reliable, the more calculating and serious Qusay emerged as Saddam’s heir apparent. In 1985, Qusay married Sahar, daughter of General Maher al-Rashid, a Sunni Muslim. The marriage produced three children but was dissolved after the birth of the third child.

Political Career

Qusay kept a low profile throughout most of his early life. He first emerged as a key actor in Iraq after the liberation of Kuwait by American-led forces in 1991. He oversaw the brutal suppression of an uprising against the Hussein regime by Shiite Muslims in the south of Iraq. After proving himself against the Shiite in 1991, Qusay quickly rose through the ruling Ba’th Party structures, taking command of Iraq’s intelligence, security forces, and the elite of the Republican Guard.

The Iraqi security directorate that became Qusay’s personal power base included the hated mukhabarat (secret police), which claimed a higher percentage of the national budget than any similar service in the world. Qusay was willing and able to use blackmail, and he forced confessions in order to control and prevent threats to Saddam’s regime. Reports indicate that he ordered the interrogation, jailing, and execution of political prisoners and their families. He was alleged to have ordered mass executions of thousands of prison inmates.

After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Qusay’s Special Security Organization was responsible for hiding Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs. During this period, Qusay’s power and influence increased greatly. While Saddam retained formal control of the Iraqi military machine, Qusay regularly presided over the military in the late 1990’s. He led a crackdown against the al-Dulaymi tribe in 1995 and another against a local Shiite revolt in 1997. His reputation for brutality was undoubtedly the cause for several attempts by opponents of the regime to kill him; in 2001, he was wounded in the arm during one such attempt.

Qusay had attained the height of his power just prior to the start of the Iraq War in 2003 and had clearly become the heir apparent to Saddam. Just days before the war, he was given absolute charge of four key regions, including the capital and the family seat of Tikrit. Until his death, he was Saddam’s main strategist during the war. On July 22, 2003, troops of the American 101st Airborne, aided by U.S. Special Forces, killed Qusay and his older brother Uday in a fierce three-hour gunfight in the town of Mosul in northern Iraq.

Impact

Qusay Saddam Hussein was a key target of the coalition forces, just behind his father. Many military and political leaders believed that Saddam’s sons were behind the daily attacks on American troops, both in practical and in symbolic terms. Thus, it was thought that their deaths would contribute to demoralizing the resistance and perhaps even result in its demise. To this end, on July 24, 2003, gruesome photographs of the killed brothers were released to the press and shown on television and in newspapers.

Many people—within and outside Iraq—criticized the United States for having a double standard in releasing the photos of the dead brothers, since the administration of George W. Bush had condemned Saddam Hussein for releasing photos of dead American soldiers during the conflict. The Bush administration responded by arguing that it was necessary to combat rumors that the brothers were still alive and that confirmation of the deaths would bring “closure” to the Iraqi people.

The deaths of the brothers failed to have the desired effect, as the days following the deaths saw some of the deadliest attacks against American personnel since the insurgency had begun. Although the deaths appeared to have little effect on the ongoing insurgency in Iraq, they may have contributed to the eventual capture of Saddam Hussein in December, 2003.

Bibliography

Aburish, Said. Saddam Hussein: The Politics of Revenge. New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2000. Aburish worked with Saddam Hussein in the 1970’s, and thus his personal experiences and access to inside sources lend depth and veracity to this book. It provides a compelling and sometimes frightening biography and psychological profile of Saddam Hussein.

Cerf, Christopher, and Micah Sifry, eds. The Iraq War Reader: History, Documents, Opinions. Carmichael, Calif.: Touchstone, 2003. This book provides historical documents, speeches, essays, and commentaries that cover the history and politics that led to war in Iraq. It is divided into four sections, which cover relevant information from 1915 to 2003.

Johnson, James Turner. The War to Oust Saddam Hussein: The Context, the Debate, the War, and the Future. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. This book attempts a moral analysis of the war in Iraq, asking questions about the justifications for, and implications of, the war.

Keegan, John. The Iraq War. New York: Knopf, 2004. John Keegan is recognized as one of the top military writers of the past fifty years. Here he provides valuable insight into the social and political history of Iraq and, in particular, Saddam Hussein and his closest supporters. The book does not address the insurgency that followed the initial invasion.