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Some Iraqis Think the American Invasion Was A Great Idea
By Don North Soldier of Fortune Magazine
The tape was shocking. In the clinic of the Abu Ghraib
prison, nine Baghdad merchants were undergoing surgery to
remove their healthy right hands, on the orders of Saddam
Hussein. It wasn't hard, in Baghdad, to find the victims
shown in the video. The incident was well known and the
tape widely shown, to terrorize other merchants who might
dare to deal in foreign currency.
From the moment I saw this gruesome video I knew it
would be central to the story. Nothing shows better the depth
of cruelty and inhumanity of the Saddam regime. Iraqis often
say, "Cruelty is the tyrants art." And Saddam takes his place
among history's cruelest tyrants.
Of the nine who lost their hands in 1995, six were still in
Baghdad, one had died, one escaped to Germany and one to
Holland. I tracked them down and proposed a documentary
that would incorporate the brutal amputation scenes, and tell
their story to the world.
They agreed. They were not unique in
Saddam's Iraq. In his thirty-five year reign of
terror, Saddam and his Baathist cohorts had
punished its citizens by cutting hands, ears,
tongues, feet, or simply executing them.
Thousands more were mutilated and lost limbs
in Saddam's senseless wars with Iran and
Kuwait. As many as three million Iraqis may
have been eliminated during the Saddam years,
and are now turning up in mass graves
throughout the country.
Saddam and his sons, Uday and Qusay
Hussein, often used videotape to document
the punishment of those who were not enthusiastic
supporters of the regime. An Iraqi
General who fled to Jordan received a videotape
showing the rape and torture of his wife
and daughters. Uday, the eldest son is reported
to have taped his pet lions killing and eating
two young Iraqi men that Uday considered
rivals for the affection of a woman he was
interested in.
Such tapes are scarce now and were probably
destroyed as Baghdad fell last April 9th.
Mukhabarat
A knock on the door at midnight brought Saddam's
secret police, the Mukhabarat, to the Baghdad video studio
of Sahib Bazoum in 1995. "Make ten copies of this twentyminute
VHS tape," demanded Saddam's henchmen. "We are
watching you, so don't try to make any copies for yourself."
But, risking his life, Bazoum flipped a switch and activated a secret recorder.
Suspecting that their severed right hands had been buried in the
prison yard, six Baghdad merchants assemble at the main gate of
Abu Ghraib prison.Left to right they are: Qasim Kadhim, Salah
Zinad, Nazar Joudi, Laith Aggar, Al'aa Shubber, Basim Al Fadhly. (Photo courtesy of Cyril J. O'Brien)
He kept the copy for eight years, hoping that someday the
cruelty the tape portrayed would expose the madness of
Saddam's regime.
An Iraqi journalist friend brought me the tape and urged
me to make a documentary. I was aware that incorporating
such grizzly scenes could limit distribution, or make it unusable
to many TV stations throughout the world.
As a TV journalist who has covered over fifteen wars since
starting as a reporter for ABC News in Vietnam, a great many
of my stories are about suffering. Putting a spotlight on heartbreaking
conditions, crimes and injustice always left me with
hope the story would have an effect. As I was often working
freelance, every story put on the air represented a battle with
yawning editors, and budget conscious accountants.
Entrusted by Fate
The stories seemed to vanish as they faded from the
screen, disappearing into the vast indifference of a public
that didn't really watch, listen, or care. I had been a witness
in Vietnam, Cambodia, El Salvador, Afghanistan and Iraq, to
things historic and terrible, entrusted by the Fates with the
truth. But I was left with the realization I had somehow failed
to deliver the message.
This time it would be different. As I began production of
the documentary "Remembering Saddam", I also started
looking for doctors and hospitals who would be willing to
undo Saddam's brutal surgery. It would be months before the
documentary would be finished or on the air anywhere in the
world, to bring a spotlight on the amputees plight. In mid-
June in a Baghdad restaurant, sitting with journalist friends
and brainstorming loudly, "Where in the world can I find
doctors to help the amputees of my documentary?"
Roger Brown, an oil engineer from Houston TX, overheard
the conversation and came forward with a suggestion. "I'm
from Houston," said Roger, "I'll bet Marvin Zindler at KTRK,
Channel 13, might help you out."
Bordello Crusader
Within days Roger had put me in touch with the legendary
Marvin Zindler, and his producer, Lori
Reingold, in Houston. He is famous as
the crusading reporter whose expose in
1973 led to the closing of the Chicken
Ranch Bordello. The story later became
the play and movie "The Best Little
Whorehouse in Texas."
Marvin didn't have to look far to find
a doctor willing to work on the guys. At
82, Marvin projects a youthful wrinklefree
image, and admits to more (but
better) cosmetic surgery than Michael
Jackson. His doctor, Joe Agris, one of
Houston's premier plastic reconstructive
surgeons, agreed to operate on the
Baghdad merchants.
Marvin Zindler, Houston’s most famous broadcaster, chats with
Al'aa Shubber from Baghdad in the Methodist Hospital, Houston
recovering from the surgery necessary before prosthetic hands
could be fitted.
Soon he had also enlisted the
Methodist Hospital to provide surgical
facilities. Dr. Fred Kestler, a specialist
hand surgeon, joined in to work with
Dr. Agris in the two-hour operations
necessary to prepare the men for bionic
hands. Tom DiBello, President of
Dynamic Orthotics and prosthetics
stepped up to provide the training to
help the guys operate the new hands.
The Otto Bock Company, a leading
manufacturer of prosthetic limbs
agreed to donate the $50,000 bionic
hands. Next, Houston-based
Continental Airlines said they would
fly the guys from Europe to Houston.
The Pentagon, the Coalition
Provisional Authority (CPA),
Homeland Security and the U.S. Air
Force all combined forces to get the
guys traveling papers and fly them out
of Baghdad to the U.S. Rhine Main Air
base in Frankfurt.
Meanwhile, a long editing process
had produced a final cut of
"Remembering Saddam" in both Arabic
and English versions. They are currently
looking for broadcast opportunities in
the U.S. and internationally. True to
their word, the Baghdad merchants
shared their story with me in great detail
in spite of threats from insurgents, for
cooperating with American journalists.
I also interviewed their wives, children
and neighbors to document the
depth to which their cruel punishment
had blighted their lives. Over 15 hours
of interviews had to be translated and
edited in PAL, the European VHS
process, and voiced-over in English.
Brutal Surgery
The footage of the brutal surgery in
the prison is used carefully, but in
increasingly shocking increments, as
the documentary unfolds. In the final
scene, a severed hand is placed on a
table with forceps. "Is this the hand
that threatened Saddam?" asked Basim
Al Fadhly, as he watched the tape of his
amputation for the first time. "The
Coalition doesn't need to find Weapons
of Mass Destruction to justify the war.
Saddam killed our children without
Weapons of Mass Destruction, They are
embedded in his brain."
Al'aa Shubber following surgery to prepare for a bionic hand greets documentry
producer Don North, Doctor Joe Agris who performed the surgery and veteran
broadcaster Marvin Zindler who brought the four together in Houston.
I re-united with the seven-man
"band of brothers" at Rhine Main when
they flew in from Baghdad on a C-130,
and we all flew together to Houston on
April 6th. The medical assessments
began immediately and the Baghdad
merchants were soon confronted with a
decision they had not expected.
To properly fit the new bionic
hands, and to alleviate the constant
pain still experienced in the badly
amputated arms, Dr. Agris recommended
surgery to repair the nerve endings
and trim up to an inch off the arms to
accommodate the new state of the art
bionic hands. "We showed them a
hook, a cosmetic only hand and then
the bionic hand, "said Dr. Agris. "It
became an easy decision for them."
Saddam's "Doctors"
The surgery went well, although
some of the men required up to two
hours on the operating table to repair
the damage of Saddam's "doctors." After
only three or four days of healing, the fitting
process for the new hands began. It
will be followed by four weeks of learning
to use the bionic hands to grasp anything
from a hammer to a tea cup.
I have been documenting the Iraqis
medical odyssey for a second documentary
which I may call "Forgetting
Saddam". In addition, a weekly news
report has been sent back to Iraqi TV in
Baghdad by Basim Al Fadhly, a reporter
who is one of the amputees.
Not surprisingly my seven Iraqis are
supportive of the United States initiative
to oust Saddam and put Iraq on its
feet as a new democracy in the Middle
East. In spite of the current chaos and
continued terrorism they say they are
optimistic that life in Iraq will stabilize
soon and improve. "I ask the whole
world not to let this tragedy that happened
to us be repeated," says Nazaar
Joudi punching the air with the stub of
his right arm for emphasis. "The age of
tyrants is over, the age of good remains.
God willing. Good is coming in Iraq."
Don North is a war correspondent and
television documentarian. [Have an opinion on this article? Check in at the Soldier
of Fortune Discussion Forum.]
