Saddam Hussein's Ba'th Party

Saddam Hussein's Ba'th Party
Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Total Pages : 337
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780521193016
ISBN-13 : 052119301X
Rating : 4/5 (16 Downloads)

Synopsis Saddam Hussein's Ba'th Party by : Joseph Sassoon

A unique and revealing portrait of Saddam Hussein's Iraq which was every bit as authoritarian and brutal as Stalin's Russia or Mao's China.

Compulsion in Religion

Compulsion in Religion
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Total Pages : 305
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780190843311
ISBN-13 : 0190843314
Rating : 4/5 (11 Downloads)

Synopsis Compulsion in Religion by : Samuel Helfont

This book draws on newly available archives from the Iraqi state and Ba'th Party to present a revisionist history of Saddam Hussein's religious policies. The point of doing this, other than to correct the current understanding of Saddam's political use of religion through his presidency, is to argue that the policies promoted then directly contributed to the rise of religious insurgencies in post-2003 Iraq as well as the current and probably future crises in the country. In looking at Saddam's policies in the 1990s, many have interpreted his support for state religion as evidence of a dramatic shift away from Arab nationalism, toward political Islam. But this book shows that the 'Faith Campaign' he launched during this time was the culmination of a plan to use religion for political ends, begun upon his assumption of the Iraqi presidency in 1979. At this time, Saddam began constructing the institutional capacity to control and monitor Iraqi religious institutions. The resulting authoritarian structures allowed him to employ Islamic symbols and rhetoric in public policy, but in a controlled manner. By the 1990s, these policies became fully realized. Following the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, religion remained prominent in Iraqi public life, but the system that Saddam had put in place to contain it was destroyed. Sunni and Shi'i extremists who had been suppressed and silenced were now free. They thrived in an atmosphere where religion had been actively promoted, and formed militant organizations which have torn the country apart since.

State of Repression

State of Repression
Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Total Pages : 376
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780691211756
ISBN-13 : 0691211752
Rating : 4/5 (56 Downloads)

Synopsis State of Repression by : Lisa Blaydes

A new account of modern Iraqi politics that overturns the conventional wisdom about its sectarian divisions How did Iraq become one of the most repressive dictatorships of the late twentieth century? The conventional wisdom about Iraq's modern political history is that the country was doomed by its diverse social fabric. But in State of Repression, Lisa Blaydes challenges this belief by showing that the country's breakdown was far from inevitable. At the same time, she offers a new way of understanding the behavior of other authoritarian regimes and their populations. Drawing on archival material captured from the headquarters of Saddam Hussein's ruling Ba'th Party in the wake of the 2003 US invasion, Blaydes illuminates the complexities of political life in Iraq, including why certain Iraqis chose to collaborate with the regime while others worked to undermine it. She demonstrates that, despite the Ba'thist regime's pretensions to political hegemony, its frequent reliance on collective punishment of various groups reinforced and cemented identity divisions. At the same time, a series of costly external shocks to the economy—resulting from fluctuations in oil prices and Iraq's war with Iran—weakened the capacity of the regime to monitor, co-opt, coerce, and control factions of Iraqi society. In addition to calling into question the common story of modern Iraqi politics, State of Repression offers a new explanation of why and how dictators repress their people in ways that can inadvertently strengthen regime opponents.

The Ba'thification of Iraq

The Ba'thification of Iraq
Author :
Publisher : University of Texas Press
Total Pages : 321
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781477305591
ISBN-13 : 1477305599
Rating : 4/5 (91 Downloads)

Synopsis The Ba'thification of Iraq by : Aaron M. Faust

Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq as a dictator for nearly a quarter century before the fall of his regime in 2003. Using the Ba’th party as his organ of meta-control, he built a broad base of support throughout Iraqi state and society. Why did millions participate in his government, parrot his propaganda, and otherwise support his regime when doing so often required betraying their families, communities, and beliefs? Why did the “Husseini Ba’thist” system prove so durable through uprisings, two wars, and United Nations sanctions? Drawing from a wealth of documents discovered at the Ba’th party’s central headquarters in Baghdad following the US-led invasion in 2003, The Ba’thification of Iraq analyzes how Hussein and the party inculcated loyalty in the population. Through a grand strategy of “Ba’thification,” Faust argues that Hussein mixed classic totalitarian means with distinctly Iraqi methods to transform state, social, and cultural institutions into Ba’thist entities, and the public and private choices Iraqis made into tests of their political loyalty. Focusing not only on ways in which Iraqis obeyed, but also how they resisted, and using comparative examples from Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia, The Ba’thification of Iraq explores fundamental questions about the roles that ideology and culture, institutions and administrative practices, and rewards and punishments play in any political system.

Defiant Dictatorships

Defiant Dictatorships
Author :
Publisher : Springer
Total Pages : 229
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780230376380
ISBN-13 : 023037638X
Rating : 4/5 (80 Downloads)

Synopsis Defiant Dictatorships by : P. Brooker

Why did some Communist and Middle-Eastern dictatorships, those in China, Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba, Syria, Iraq, Libya and Iran, remained defiantly stable during the onset of a democratic age in the 1980s and early 1990s? The book offers an explanation based upon external relations - the regimes' defiance of external military or political foes - and then searches for alternative or supplementary explanations by examining the changes that occurred in these dictatorships' political structures, ideologies and economic policies during 1980-94.

The Seizure of Saddam Hussein's Archive of Atrocity

The Seizure of Saddam Hussein's Archive of Atrocity
Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages : 259
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781498556989
ISBN-13 : 1498556981
Rating : 4/5 (89 Downloads)

Synopsis The Seizure of Saddam Hussein's Archive of Atrocity by : Bruce P. Montgomery

The Seizure of Saddam Hussein's Archive of Atrocity examines the capture of the Baathist security files and the discovery of an invaluable Iraqi Jewish archive amid the Kurdish uprising and the US-led invasion of Iraq. The events ignited a fierce struggle for the files, which documented Saddam Hussein’s vast humanitarian crimes. The various battles to control the memory of Saddam Hussein's genocidal regime and reclaim Jewish patrimony reflected Iraq's inability to confront its past. The author examines these controversies, arguing that Iraq's failure to face its totalitarian history has condemned it to a future of vengeance.

Saddam

Saddam
Author :
Publisher : Harper Collins
Total Pages : 412
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780061852824
ISBN-13 : 0061852821
Rating : 4/5 (24 Downloads)

Synopsis Saddam by : Con Coughlin

Insightful, penetrating, and shocking, the defining biography of Iraq's deposed tyrant Drawing on an unparalleled network of sources, contacts, and firsthand testimonies, Con Coughlin takes us to the center of Saddam Hussein's complex, bewildering regime -- and beyond. Fully updated and revised, Saddam: His Rise and Fall meticulously describes how Hussein took power and immediately set about controlling every aspect of Iraqi life. Coughlin examines Hussein's regime both before and after its fall, exploring the contradictions of Saddam's private life: his sponsoring of Islamic fundamentalism while whiskey drinking and womanizing as well as his reliance on and celebration of family negated by his violent and temperamental treatment of them. With evidence from family members, servants, and staff, Saddam: His Rise and Fall is unique in its close-up representation of this elusive and secretive world. In all-new chapters and an epilogue, and with shocking new disclosures, Coughlin also vividly recounts the last few months of Saddam's reign and his eventual capture by American forces.

Republic of Fear

Republic of Fear
Author :
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Total Pages : 360
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780520214392
ISBN-13 : 0520214390
Rating : 4/5 (92 Downloads)

Synopsis Republic of Fear by : Kanan Makiya

First published in 1989, just before the Gulf War broke out, REPUBLIC OF FEAR was the only book that explained the motives of the Saddam Hussein regime in invading and annexing Kuwait. This updated edition relates how the Arab Ba'th Socialist Party has transformed and controlled Iraq with fear since 1968. An important and timely book.

Zabiba and the King

Zabiba and the King
Author :
Publisher : Virtualbookworm Publishing
Total Pages : 212
Release :
ISBN-10 : 1589395859
ISBN-13 : 9781589395855
Rating : 4/5 (59 Downloads)

Synopsis Zabiba and the King by : Saddam Hussein

"This is an allegorical love story set in the mid-600s to the early 700s between a mighty king (Saddam) and a simple, yet beautiful commoner named Zabiba (the Iraqi people). Zabiba is married to a cruel and unloving husband (the United States) who forces himself upon her."--P. [4] of cover.

The Trial of Saddam Hussein

The Trial of Saddam Hussein
Author :
Publisher : SCB Distributors
Total Pages : 421
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780932863744
ISBN-13 : 0932863744
Rating : 4/5 (44 Downloads)

Synopsis The Trial of Saddam Hussein by : Dr. Abdul-Haq Al-Ani

The trial of Saddam Hussein marks the first time since the UN was created that a head of state has been put on trial by an invading, occupying power. This book, by the UK coordinator of Saddam Hussein's defense team, seeks to alert public attention to the threat this precedent poses to developing nations worldwide, and to its distortive influence on the further development of international law. Al-Ani documents the trail of illegalities marking the destruction of Iraq at the hands of the US and UK, from the genocidal sanctions of the 1990s, the US State Department pre-invasion planning that commenced in 2001, and the 2003 invasion, to the setting up and proceedings of the Tribunal that swiftly dispatched Saddam Hussein. While the Tribunal was intended to promote the image of a triumphant Iraqi democracy, the US was actually in control of all stages of the trial. It drafted the Tribunal's Statute, decided where the trial would be held, and what charges would be brought; researched, compiled, stored, and prevented access to evidence and documentation; elected and trained the judges, and micro-managed the proceedings. Al-Ani follows the trial step by step, detailing its many failures and US micro-management: * Important documents were not given to defense lawyers in advance * no written transcript of the trial was kept * paperwork was lost * The defense was prevented from cross-examining witnesses * judges and numerous witnesses participated incognito, * defense lawyers were intimidated, three were assassinated * defense witnesses were frightened to come forward * defense lawyers could not communicate with their client or review the evidence The trial itself was so farcical as to provoke international condemnation. International human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as UN bodies such as the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, have stated that the Iraqi Special Tribunal and its