Friday, October 8th, 2004

Time

Event

10:42a

Saddam Hussein or Saddam Husayn? Had I ever appeared on a TV quiz program and been asked to spell the name of the former leader of Iraq in exchange for a million dollar prize, I would have said Hussein. But I might have been wrong. The first two words in the condensed 19 page summary of the latest CIA report on the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq confirm they prefer Husayn. I looked back at some older material I have, and discovered on the famous “Deck of Cards” published by the US military that his name there was Qusay Saddam Husayn Al-Tikriti. Aside from the cultural appendages, it was still the same spelling. On the other hand, the Voice of America website uses Saddam Hussein – and so do most of the worlds’ other English speaking media. So which spelling to use? Does it matter? Well I think it does. Seeing as so much money, effort and human lives have been spent on removing him from power, the least everyone can do is get his name correct. An interesting thing in numerous CIA reports which have been published is that they often refer to him simply as Saddam. In some documents, there is not a mention anywhere of Hussein or Husayn, just Saddam. To me, this reads as if he is something of an old chum. I don’t suppose it happened with Hitler. I can’t imagine the OSS habitually using “Adolf” throughout their strategic paperwork after the US eventually entered WW2. A section of the CIA report released yesterday titled “Regime Strategic Intent” makes interesting reading for its creative use of the English language. It has become pretty common knowledge that the original assessments about Iraqi weaponry capabilities were incorrect, so now the CIA seems to have the task of demonstrating for their political masters that the Iraqi leader was just a bad dude who deserved to be toppled anyway. On page one, paragraph two some anonymous person attempts to describe conditions under the Iraqi dictator by saying, “Loyal dissent was discouraged...” What’s this? Loyal dissent? Yes, the CIA has uttered an oxymoron. Personally I find it very reassuring that folks at the mighty spy organisation can’t talk proper at times. But back to “Husayn.” I happen to have an assortment of old books on matters Arabic because I found their culture and history quite interesting – in fact long before September 11. I hope this admission doesn’t see me bunged off in the middle of the night to the US torture chambers at Guantanamo Bay. Yesterday I spent an hour or so rummaging through my collection to see if I could find a precedent for the CIA’s spelling. I couldn’t. There were numerous mentions of the nefarious one, but the standard spelling was Hussein. Furthermore, none of the texts endearingly referred to him as Saddam. “Hussein” was always used as the formal in-text referral. In contrast, the CIA in another section of yesterday’s release called “Regime Finance and Procurement” uses “Saddam” some 18 times on the first page. (But not the “H” word at all.) Perhaps the tedious repetitiveness is to ensure there is no mistake in the reader’s mind about whom is the subject of their attention? Perhaps too it reflects uncertainty and nervousness on the part of the writer? After all, the matters confirmed in the report have the potential to depose President George W. Bush and his cronies. As I was eating my bacon and eggs this morning, it occurred to me that the spooks might have adopted the unorthodox spelling and over-use of “Saddam” in order to differentiate from the aristocratic Husseins who still hang out in Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Concorde with them is a matter of continuing strategic importance. So that’s my conspiracy theory for this week. © MMIV Paul R. Weaver. About the writer Check out the index of my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days. Topical – often humorous – no swearing – no porn – no spam – no soliciting – no religious mania – no smoking – no catches. (Comment on this)

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