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Extensions of Remarks 5585 Extensions of Remarks March 7, 1991 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 5585 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS THE GODFATHER OF BAGHDAD This goal-known as "pan-Arabism"-is es­ ace,' according to Hanna Batatu, whose ac­ sentially utopian in that it naively believes count is based on official government that the separate Arab states can erase their sources, •were found all sorts of loathsome HON. PHIUP M. CRANE borders, ignore their profound cultural dis­ instruments of torture, including electric OF ILLINOIS tinctions, and smoothly merge into a single wires with pincers, pointed iron stakes on IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Arab nation. Pan-Arabism has existed since which prisoners were made to sit, and a ma­ Thursday, March 7, 1991 the turn of the century, and there are many chine which still bore traces of chopped-off versions of it. fingers. Small heaps of bloodied clothing Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, it would be dif­ What makes Baathist Pan-Arabism unique were scattered about, and there were pools ficult to envision a greater success story than is that it is profoundly racist (despising for­ on the floor and stains over the walls." that which we have witnessed on our tele­ eigners, especially Jews), socialist (deriving After the Baath lost power in November, vision sets over the past several weeks. The its economic outlook from Marx and Lenin), 1963, Hussein had to (temporarily) end his job totalitarian (following methods laid down by as state torturer, and was forced under­ outcome of the Persian Gulf war was nothing Stalin), and willing to use violence to short of spectacular, and our service members ground. Revealing himself to be a genius for achieve its ends. Michel Aflaq (1910-1989), a subversion. Saddam became the party's prin­ deserve every ounce of gratitude and respect French-educated Syrian who was the prin­ cipal organizer; he forged the Baath into a Americans will no doubt heap upon them cipal founder and ideologue of the Baath powerful, clandestine apparatus capable of when they return home. Party, was "full of enthusiasm for Hitler and staging a military coup and holding power As the conflict winds down and the celebra­ other German fascists," according to Miller thereafter. tions begin, we must not forget that the man and Mylroie. "Aflaq saw in Nazi Germany a Throughout the 1960s, Baathist rebels cre­ model for his ideas of a synthesis between who was responsible for the devastation has ated great instability inside Iraq and at­ nationalism and socialism." tempted to seize power numerous times. yet to be held accountable for his actions. As a young man, Saddam Hussein became However, given the unspeakable horrors They finally succeeded-for good-on July attracted to Aflaq's fascist vision of pan­ 17th, 1968. A Baathist general, Ahmad Hasan which Saddam Hussein has inflicted upon his Arabism, and joined the Baath Party in 1957. al-Bakr, became head of state; Saddam Hus­ own people, justice will no doubt be best He immediately established himself by com­ sein was appointed his deputy; and Adnan served by leaving his punishment in the hands mitting his first important political act: the Khairallah, Hussein's brother-in-law, became of those who suffered most egregiously. assassination of a prominent Baathist oppo­ minister of defense. While Americans have only recently been nent. That the victim happened to be his own brother-in-law did not faze Saddam one ENEMIES OF THE STATE exposed to Saddam's cruelty, his countrymen bit. The party leadership subsequently re­ have been long-time observers of his mon­ Immediately after assuming power, the warded Hussein by selecting him to be a Baathist regime outlawed opposition to their strous behavior. I have recently come across member of a hit team that intended to assas­ rule, thus destroying whatever remained of an excellent article, in the form of a book re­ sinate General Abdel Karim Quassim, Iraq's political pluralism inside Iraq. To consoli­ view, which chronicles a number of repugnant leader at the time. (Quassim, a popular army date their regime-and terrify the popu­ activities which Saddam Hussein has spear­ officer, had overthrown Iraq's pro-British lation into submission-the Baath Party pro­ headed throughout his career in the Ba'ath monarch, King Faisal IT, in 1958; but ceeded to round up supposed "enemies of the Quassim's regime was equally opposed to Party. After reading the following account, I state" whose punishment served as a warn­ Baathism, seeing it as a new form of tyr­ ing to the regime's critics. am sure my colleagues will be confident, as I anny.) am, that the Iraqi citizenry will not rest until The first people to be purged were Jews, a Though the assassination attempt failed. favorite target of totalitarian regimes. In Saddam Hussein is brought to justice: Hussein-who immediately fled Iraq after the fall of 1968, dozens of Iraqi Jews were THE GODFATHER OF BAGHDAD the aborted scheme-became a hero among suddenly arrested, accused of being "Zionist (By William Doino, Jr.) Baathists for his "bravery and sacrifice" in spies,'' subjected to humiliating show trials, support of their cause. ("Saddam Hussein and the Crisis in the and finally hanged. The executions were car­ Gulf," By Judith Miller and Laurie Mylroie) NEW EMPLOYMENT ried out in public, with great fanfare. The ("Republic of Fear: The Inside Story of In exile first in Syria and then in Egypt, Baathist regime gathered 500,000 Iraqis to Saddam's Iraq," By Samir al-Khalil) Hussein quickly climbed the ranks of the witness the proceedings. As the Jewish Baath Party. In early 1963, after a group of corpses dangled in the wind, from their re­ As the crisis in the Persian Gulf mounts, Baathists had succeeded in ousting and kill­ spective nooses, the crowd listened to fiery and a war between America and Iraq be­ ing General Quassim, Hussein hurried back anti-Jewish speeches for an incredible 24 comes more likely. Americans should be in­ to Baghdad (Iraq's capital) to assume his hours. terested in knowing more about the man part in the new regime. He immediately Among the speakers was Salah Umar al­ who may yet trigger a conflagration in the found work, though not of the ordinary kind. Ali, the minister of guidance, who told the Mideast. As Miller and Mylroie reveal: chanting, hysterical crowd: Two books have just been published which "Saddam quickly found his place in the "Great People of Iraq! The Iraq of today document Saddam Hussein's grisly rise to new regime. He became an interrogator and shall no more tolerate any traitor, spy, power and examine his psychotic personality torturer in the Qasr-al-Nihayyah, or 'Palace agent, or fifth columnist! You foundling Is­ and future plans. of the End,' so called because it was where rael, you imperialist Americans, and you Zi­ The books are Saddam Hussein and the Cri­ King Faisal and his family were gunned onists, hear me! We will discover all your sis in the Gulf by Judith Miller, a New York down in 1958. Under the Baath the palace was dirty tricks! We will punish your agents! We Times reporter, and Laurie Mylroie, a Middle used as a torture chamber. will punish your agents! We will hang all East scholar at Harvard: and Republic of "Few in the West are aware of Saddam's your spies, even if there are thousands of Fear: The Inside Story of Saddam's Iraq by activities there. But an Iraqi arrested and them! ... Great Iraqi people! This is only Samir al-Khalil, an expatriate Iraqi scholar. accused of plotting against the Baath has the beginning! The great and immortal PROFOUNDLY RACIST told of his own torture at the palace by Sad­ squares of Iraq shall be filled with the As both books make clear, in order to un­ dam himself: 'My arms and legs were bound corpses of traitors and spies! Just wait!" derstand the present crisis in the gulf, one by rope. I was hung on the rope to a hook on (Quoted by al-Khalil in Republic of Fear.) must know about Iraq's ruling Arab Baath the ceiling and I was repeatedly beaten with Al-Ali was right: this was only the begin­ Socialist Party, and how Saddam Hussein rubber hoses filled with stones.' He managed ning of the Baathist reign of terror. Conspir­ came to control it. Formed in the 1940s as a to survive his ordeal; others were not so acy and spy trials became the rage over the response to Arab despair over the emergence lucky. When the Baath, riven by internal next few years. And as they did, the ranks of of Israel, the Baath (or Renaissance) Party is splits, was ousted nine months later in No­ the persecuted reached all segments of Iraqi a militant political movement dedicated to vember, 1963 by the army, a grisly discovery society. As al-Khalil notes, "The victims the creation of a single, united Arab nation. was made. 'In the cellars of al-Nihayyah Pal- now were Muslim or Christian Iraqis with • This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. 5586 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS March 7, 1991 the occasional Jew thrown in for good meas­ the traditional family structure to Baathist is the bitter truth. In a chapter entitled ure." fascism. Under strict orders from Hussein, "The Manufacture of Death," Miller and As deputy to President al-Bakr, Saddam every Iraqi schoolchild is indoctrinated in Mylroie document Hussein's enormous arse­ Hussein played a major role in the Baath the principles of Baathism.
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