Uday Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti (or Odai) (June 18, 1964 - July 22, 2003) was the eldest son of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his first wife, who was also his first cousin, Sajida Talfah. Although this kind of marriage may be regarded as incestuous in some parts of the world, they are quite common among Muslims. He was for several years seen as the likely successor of Saddam. He produced the newspaper Babel, a youth radio channel Voice of Iraq (which even ran US pop songs), as well as running Iraq's Olympics teams, and serving as a Member of Parliament.

Although his status as Saddam Hussein's oldest son once made him the prospective successor to his father, Uday fell out of favor with Saddam for his extravagance and recklessness. In October 1988, at a party thrown in the honor of the wife of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Uday beat and stabbed to death one of his father's favorite servants, Kemal Hana Gegeo . Gegeo had recently introduced Saddam to a beautiful, younger woman who later became Saddam's second wife. Uday took this as an insult to his mother, Saddam's cousin and first wife. Uday carried out the murder coolly and coldly, bludgeoning Gegeo repeatedly in front of horrified guests before finishing him off with a steak knife. President Mubarak later called Uday a "psychopath."

As punishment for the murder, Saddam briefly imprisoned Uday. As a result of personal intervention from King Hussein I of Jordan, Saddam released Uday, banishing him to Switzerland. Saddam made him the assistant to the Iraqi ambassador to Switzerland, hardly an auspicious posting. The Swiss expelled him after he threatened to stab someone in a restaurant.

The dictator later rehabilitated Uday, making him the head of the Olympic committee, and later, the head of one of Saddam's myriad security organizations. But Uday never regained his former status as his father's favored son. Saddam began to give this status to his second son Qusay.

On December 12, 1996 Uday was seriously injured in an assassination attempt, allegedly organised by Qusay. Hit by eight bullets while driving, he was at first thought to be paralyzed. Instead, he recovered his ability to walk, albeit with a limp. Despite surgeries, a bullet remained lodged in his spine. As a result of the attempted assassination and Uday's subsequent disabilities, Saddam gave Uday's younger brother, Qusay Hussein, more powers. In 2000, Saddam designated Qusay as his heir.

On March 17, 2003, US President George W. Bush gave Saddam Hussein and his two sons 48 hours to leave Iraq, or face war. Uday sarcastically responded to the ultimatum by demanding Bush and his family leave the United States.

A report on March 20, 2003 by ABC news made several allegations against Uday:

• As head of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, Uday oversaw the imprisonment and torture of Iraqi athletes who were deemed not to have performed to expectations. According to widespread reports, torturers beat and caned the soles of the soccer players' feet. The experience is intensely painful, but leaves no marks on the rest of the body.
• A former member of the French foreign ministry claimed that Uday and his bodyguards had forced their way into the hotel room of a French couple and forced them at gunpoint to perform sex acts so that Uday could video tape them for later re-viewing.
• A former Uday look-alike who had served in the past as a body double, now living in the West, claimed that Uday was unable to perform sexually without causing pain and drawing blood from his sexual partners. The double said that Uday had raped numerous women, including a visiting Russian ballerina.
• Uday has purchased or stolen approximately 1200 luxury automobiles, including a Rolls-Royce Corniche valued at over $200,000. Uday is reported to have arrived at a polling station during a referendum on his father's regime in a pink Rolls-Royce.

Other allegations include:

• Uday feeding victims into a wood-chipping machine, or throwing them into an acid vat. No evidence of such torture has been found.
• Uday kidnapping young, attractive Iraqi women from the streets in order to rape them.

After the war, a New York Times correspondent verified that one of the torture devices in the basement of the Olympic building was an iron maiden (a sarcophagus with spikes facing inward that puncture the victim's body).

"Around 7 feet tall, three feet across and deep enough to house a grown man, the sarcophagus-shaped device found in Baghdad was clearly worn from use, its nails having lost some of their sharpness. It lay on its side within view of Uday's first-floor offices in the soccer association. Ironically, the torture device was brought to TIME's attention by a group of looters who had been stripping the compound of anything of value. They had left behind the iron maiden, believing it to be worthless." [1] http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,444889,00.html

On July 22, 2003, troops of the American 101st Airborne, aided by U.S. Special Forces, killed Uday, his younger brother Qusay and Qusay's 14 year old son during a raid on a home in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Acting on a tip from an unidentified Iraqi, a special forces team attempted to apprehend the inhabitants of the house. After being fired on, the special forces withdrew and called for backup. As many as 100 American troops, later aided by Apache helicopters and an A-10 "Warthog" gunship, surrounded and fired on the house. After three hours of battle, the soldiers entered the house and found four dead, including the brothers, and three others wounded.

According to news reports (including the BBC and the New York Times), many of the people of Baghdad celebrated word of the brothers' death by firing rounds into the air. (It should be noted that the firing of rounds is very common at funerals in Arab culture, and could signal either celebration or mourning.)

The praise for Uday's and Qusay's deaths was not universal, however, with a correspondent for Al-Jazeera calling the demise of the brothers a "crime" carried out "in cold blood."

On July 23, 2003 the American command said that it had conclusively identified two of the dead men as Saddam Hussein's sons, using dental records. They also announced that the informant, possibly the owner of the house, would receive the combined $30 million award on the pair.

On July 24, 2003 pictures of the killed brothers were released to the press (photo of killed Uday Hussein). The U.S. military command stated that photos of brothers were released to combat widespread rumors in Iraq that the brothers are still alive and the whole episode is a hoax.

Some criticized the U.S. for creating a double standard in releasing the photos of the dead brothers, given that the Bush Administration condemned Saddam Hussein for releasing photos of American dead during the conflict. The U.S. military answered these criticisms by pointing out that these men were no ordinary dead combatants, and that confirmation of the deaths would bring "closure" to the Iraqi people.

Uday was buried in a cemetery in the Tikrit area alongside Qusay and the latter's son Mustapha. He was the Ace of Hearts on the most-wanted Iraqi playing cards.

External links

• GlobalSecurity.org: Uday Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/uday.htm
• DesertVoice.net: Saddam's sons http://www.desert-voice.net/saddam_sons.htm
• BBC News: Saddam pounces on son's newspaper, 20 Nov 2002 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2495481.stm
• BBC News: Saddam's son steps into debate, 14 Nov 2002 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2475925.stm
• BBC News: Saddam's rival sons, 10 Sep 2002 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2236137.stm
• BBC News: Saddam sons 'dead', 23 July, 2003 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3088393.stm
• Wired.com article on Uday's Yahoo! email address and password, 11 Nov 2002 http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,56292,00.html
• Album of Photos taken of the raid that killed Uday et al http://media.militaryphotos.net/photos/Battle_at_hideout_of_Oday_and_Qusay_Husse
  in --Militaryphotos.net