Saddam Hussein

Saddām Hussein ʻAbd al-Majīd al-Tikrīt, sometimes spelled Husayn or Hussain; (Arabic صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريتي; born April 28, 1937 {{fn|1}}) was President of Iraq from 1979 until his removal and capture during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

1991-2003

Relations between the United States and Iraq remained tense following the Persian Gulf War. In April of 1993 the Iraqi Intelligence Service attempted to assassinate former President George H. W. Bush during a visit to Kuwait. However, Kuwaiti security foiled the car bomb plot. On June 26, 1993 the U.S. launched a missile attack targeting Baghdad intelligence headquarters in retaliation for the attack against President Bushhttp://www.clintonfoundation.org/legacy/062693-speech-by-president-address-to-nation-on-iraq.htmhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/iraq/timeline/062793.htm.

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June 26 - 1993

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The UN sanctions placed upon Iraq when it invaded Kuwait were not lifted, blocking Iraqi oil exports. This caused immense hardship in Iraq and virtually destroyed the Iraqi economy and state infrastructure. Only smuggling across the Syrian border, and humanitarian aid ameliorated the humanitarian crisis. UN organizations (such as UNICEF and the WHO) have estimated between 500,000 and 1.2 million deaths were caused by the sanctions, mostly in the under-5 age group http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~progress/pamp_ed3.html. Skeptics have estimated that only 350,000 excess deaths occurred between 1991 and 2000 http://www.alternet.org/story/11933, and that many deaths were actually due to the bombing of Iraqi infrastructure. Some object to the accusation that these deaths were caused by the sanctions. They argue that Hussein's hoarding his country's resources was the true cause of the crisis. On December 9, 1996 the United Nations allowed Saddam's government to begin selling limited amounts of oil for food and medicine. Limited amounts of income from the United Nations started flowing into Iraq through the UN Oil for Food program. However, it alleged that, due to corruption on both sides, very little food and medicine was actually delivered to the Iraqi people.

Related Topics:
UNICEF - WHO - December 9 - 1996 - United Nations - Oil for Food program

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U.S. officials continued to accuse Saddam Hussein of violating the terms of the Gulf War's cease fire, by developing weapons of mass destruction and other banned weaponry, refusing to give out adequate information on these weapons, and violating the UN-imposed sanctions and "no-fly zones." Isolated military strikes by U.S. and British forces continued on Iraq sporadically, the largest being Operation Desert Fox in 1998. Charges of Iraqi impediment to UN inspection of sites thought to contain illegal weapons was claimed as the reason for crises between 1997 and 1998, culminating in intensive U.S. and British missile strikes on Iraq, December 16-19, 1998. After two years of intermittent activity, U.S. and British warplanes struck harder at sites near Baghdad in February, 2001.

Related Topics:
Weapons of mass destruction - Operation Desert Fox - 1998 - 1997 - December 16 - 19 - February - 2001

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Saddam's support base of Tikriti tribesmen, family members, and other supporters was divided after the war, and in the following years, contributing to the government's increasingly repressive and arbitrary nature. Domestic repression inside Iraq grew worse, and Saddam's sons, Uday Hussein and Qusay Hussein, became increasingly powerful and carried out a private reign of terror. They likely had a leading hand when, in August 1995, two of Saddam Hussein's sons-in-law (Hussein Kamel and Saddam Kamel), who held high positions in the Iraqi military, defected to Jordan. Both were killed after returning to Iraq the following February.

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Uday Hussein - Qusay Hussein - August - 1995 - Hussein Kamel - Saddam Kamel

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Iraqi cooperation with UN weapons inspection teams was intermittent through much of the 1990s, and access to inspectors was ultimately blocked in 1998. It is speculated that Iraq was playing a game of bluff, hoping to convince the Western powers and the other Arab states that Iraq was still a power to be reckoned with, rather than that Iraq was hiding significant stockpiles of prohibited materials.

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Saddam continued to loom large in American consciousness as a major threat to Western allies such as oil-rich Saudi Arabia and Israel, to Western oil supplies from the Gulf states, and to Middle East stability generally. Bush's successor, U.S. President Bill Clinton (1993-2001), maintained economic sanctions, as well as military control of the "Iraqi no-fly zones". In 1998, in response to the Iraqi ejection of U.N. weapons inspectors, President Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act, declaring that regime change was necessary in order for Iraq to "rejoin the family of nations"http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/libera.htm and allocating funding to support Iraqi exile groups. This was soon followed by the three-day Operation Desert Fox, an air-strike effort to hamper Saddam's weapons-production facilities. Soon after this several newspapers in London, Paris, Moscow and Milan published reports of Saddam's "alliance" or "pact" with al-Qaeda to attack U.S. targets. http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/850ikvwv.asp?pg=2 Such reports turned out to be inaccurate; see Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. Ground invasion plans were drawn up by Pentagon strategists while some analysts believed that the external pressure might be enough to trigger a domestic uprising to depose Saddam causing a division of opinions within the administration on how to deal with Saddam.

Related Topics:
Bill Clinton - 1993 - 2001 - Iraqi no-fly zones - 1998 - Iraqi ejection of U.N. weapons inspectors - Iraq Liberation Act - Operation Desert Fox - Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda

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