STATEMENT
The Sunday Times in preparation for this article interviewed a man by the name of Dhafir Mohamed Jabir , who reportedly was the closest person to Uday Saddam Hussein. Yes, I know that Dhafir was very close to Uday as a aide, only Arabic people truly understand what is meant by "close aide" it is on par with "concierge" the man that can get you 'anything'.
Mr Dhafir M Jabir claims that my life story is untrue and that I was never the double for Uday Saddam Hussein but the alternative life that he supplies for me is far more unlikely than my own, Mr Dhafir M Jabir alleges that I was a deserter from the army, under Iraqi law this is an offence punishable by hanging, as a first lieutenant there would have been an extra punishment given. It was also illegal in Iraq to have a fax machine, so for instance if someone was found to be driving around Baghdad in a dark Mercedes (which only the intelligence service used) with lots of aerials, a walkie talkie and a 9mm gun belonging to an Iraqi military officer, the chances of being imprisoned and then taken out and shot were extremely high, there would no t have been any file as an inquiry. If anyone in Iraq impersonated an Iraqi policeman or an Intelligence officer they were taken out and shot, not warned, not watched, just shot.
Now if that was the punishment for impersonating a member of the security forces, do you really think that impersonating a member of the Iraq Presidents family would attract a lesser punishment?
Was Uday such a nice guy that he would say "just don't do it again"?
Uday was renowned for his temper, for his brutality and heartlessness, he would degrade people for his own amusement and it did not cost him a thought to have people killed. Why then if there was not some need to keep me alive would he? Mr. Jabir was right when he said that he came to visit me in prison with Uday, he did, but not for the reasons that he states. Uday had thrown me in prison because one of his girlfriends, Beida, had come to me the day before, she had been my girlfriend before she went with Uday but once a woman went with Uday she was exclusively his and a don't look, don't touch policy was adopted. I had refused Beida's advances knowing full well what Udays' anger would bring, but she had gone to him in spite and told him that I had tried to re-kindle our relationship, I was dragged from my house that night still in my pyjamas and brought before Uday, he was in his moods, I could tell that he had been taking cocaine again his eyes were red and anger floated across his face.
He screamed at me about Beida, why? He demanded, did I try to take his woman, did I not know the rule? I tried to explain, my words fell on stone, he asked me was I trying to make a liar of his woman, and there was no right answer to this question. I knew what lay ahead of me, my prison cell awaited. My parting words were that the truth would out as I was dragged away.
For twenty one days I lived, just, with the torture and conditions of the prison and then Uday came back, he had been told by the prisons doctors that if he did not release me I would die. So he had returned, I was taken from my cell still bleeding, before me stood Uday, Dhafir and the rest of Uday's bodyguards, Uday mocked and said that surely I had learned my lesson and would never look at another of his women again but I was to be given a final insult, Uday called for razors to be brought for him and began to shave my head, my beard and my eyebrows when he was called away he handed over this task to Dhafir who continued with relish, insulting me hitting me and degrading me further. I spent forty days in hospital recovering from my injuries.
One month later, I was called to Uday's office, he wanted to see me, he had found out the truth about Beida, being Uday he could not bring himself to apologise but instead sent her to the same prison for three days to taste what she had done to me, she was the given by Uday to Dhafir Mohamed Jabir to marry, which he did.
Mr Dhafir M Jabir fled Iraq after the fall of Saddam, with good reason. As the regime fell the Iraqi people saw that those who had beaten tortured and raped them were now no longer holding the power, they were now as vulnerable as the Iraqi people had been for the past thirty five years and they were going to take their revenge. Dhafir M Jabir has blood on his hands, he may want to make people here in the West believe that he was a victim, that he stayed with Uday out of fear of repercussions, Dhafir liked his power and liked being with Uday, but everyone who knows Dhafir knows who and what he was and what he did.
Dhafir asks the question in the article that if I was the double of Uday why did the opposition parties not take me. The answer to that question is, that to me the opposition were just as much criminals as Saddam, they sold Iraq to the highest bidder and fabricated the WMD "intelligence"
I am not proud of the fact that I was the double of Uday Saddam Hussein but it was a part of my life that I cannot change. If there had ever been a file in Iraq about me impersonating Uday would it not have been in Saddams' interest to have given it to the media in 1991 to discredit me there and then?
Why has this document only surfaced now? Thirteen years have passed since I left my country and now when the official stamps and headed paper of the Iraqi intelligence service can be bought on the streets of Baghdad and official letters can be made for three dollars a copy, this appears?
According to the article Mr. Dhafir M Jabir now lives in the relative safety of Jordan, it is strange then that he is regularly seen driving down Edgeware rd in London in his Lamborgini or Mercedes S class and at the roulette wheels in the Palm Beach Casino or the Park Tower Casino in Knightsbridge where he likes to while away the hours and spend the money he makes from doing interviews. It amuses me that he has come to the UK as a refugee, a refugee of the Iraqi people when so many Iraqi refugees are here because of the old regime, him and people like him.
At this moment there are five hundred and sixteen people lodging complaints of torture, rape and unlawful killing against Mr. Dhafir M Jabir to the Crown Prosecution. There is photographic and video evidence to support these allegations plus several rape victims of Mr. Dhafir M Jabir have been contacted in Norway, Denmark and Sweden.
These allegations could not be made publicly if there was not concrete evidence to support them, this evidence will be brought out when the time is right.
It confounds me that a respected newspaper as The Sunday Times should take this story, as Nick Fielding states in the article I have been interviewed by the newspaper, nine years ago and also during the war, if they are to change their take on my experiences does this mean that my story suited their agenda then but not now? Am I now experiencing the consequences of standing against the war and the UK's involvement? Or maybe the news of my life story being made into a movie has upset someone whose interests would not be served by the worldwide exposure that a movie would generate? If Nick Fielding really wants to write a story maybe he should pay a visit to the Ferrari rental , Georges street off Baker street London W1 where all of the ex-regime congregate each night to plan how to put Saddam and Udays' money to good use Dhafir being one of them.
The owner of the showrooms Ziad Al-Shawai was the car washer in Udays' garages, he came to the UK as a refugee four years ago and worked as a chauffer on Edgware rd. London. After that a member of Saddam's family offered him an opportunity, to buy luxury cars in the UK and ship them to Iraq with a percentage payable to him. He accepted, in 2002 he started work on this project with the Iraqi intelligence service to send him intelligence officers as refugees which he would then employ.
Best Regards to the Sunday Times,
Latif Yahia
