7 Iraqis hands chopped off by Saddam Hussein

Originally from Random Jottings, I’d like to call attention to the story of 7 Iraqis who had their hands chopped off and an “x” tattooed on their foreheads by Saddam’s regime for punishment in 1996 for allegedly dealing in foreign currency and sentenced to lose their healthy right hands. This is similar to the story I heard where children who were selling Cokes to US soldiers had their hands chopped off. Dealing with the infidel can mean a terrible price, as people who’ve had their heads chopped off in the Middle East cannot tell you.

It’s quite a different Abu Ghraib story.

Saddam arrested nine Iraqi businessmen to scapegoat them as dollar traders. They got a 30-minute “trial,” and were sentenced, after a year’s imprisonment, to have their right hands surgically cut off at Abu Ghraib prison.

The amputations were performed, over two days, by a Baghdad anesthesiologist, a surgeon and medical staff. We know this because Saddam had a videotape made of each procedure. He had the hands brought to him in formalin and then returned to Abu Ghraib. Oh, one more thing: The surgeon carved an X of shame into the forehead of each man. And the authorities charged the men $50.

The beauty of the story is they were flown to the US and given prosthetic hands.

“Generally, the past year has been positive for them, though they’ve faced some of the same difficulties of all Iraqis,” said Don North, a Virginia filmmaker who helped get the men to Houston and who chronicled their experiences in a documentary called A Show of Hands. North has kept in touch with the men through e-mails and occasional telephone calls.

You can order North’s film, Remembering Saddam, here. North is having difficulty finding a place to run his film, as people would rather hear about the atrocities Americans have committed at Abu Ghraib, rather than what the butcher of Baghdad did to his own people; part of the reason we’re there to begin with.