A son-in-law of Saddam Hussein revealed ugly secrets of family feuding and violence Saturday and said Saddam's son Uday wanted to overthrow the Iraqi president.
Saddam Kamel Hassan, who was head of Saddam's special guards until he defected in early August, also said Saddam based a plan to invade Kuwait again on the belief that the United States would be unable to rally the same support for a military response as it had during the 1991 gulf war.Since his defection, Saddam Kamel has poured out accusations and revelations about Saddam and his government, although the truth of what he says has been largely impossible to verify.
In an interview Saturday with the London-based al-Hayat, Sad-dam Kamel described Uday as "reckless, murderous and licentious."
He said Uday shot and wounded his uncle, Watban Ibrahim al-Hassan, Saddam Hussein's half brother, and two other people in Baghdad recently in a business dispute. Six women were killed in the shooting, he said.
Watban, a former interior minister who was dismissed in May, appeared on Iraqi television this month with a bandaged leg. He said he was hurt in an incident on Aug. 7 in which two other people were injured.
Uday's newspaper Babel said Watban was attending a celebration when a man firing in the air shot him by mistake.
Saddam Kamel also said it was a "known reality" that Uday killed Kamel Hanna, Saddam's favorite retainer, in 1988.
The British Sunday Times newspaper reported in January that Uday killed Kamel Hanna for not inviting him to a party. He crashed drunkenly in to the celebration, cut Hanna's neck and beat him.
Uday also shot and wounded an employeee working at the Iraqi embassy in Geneva. The man was paralyzed, Kamel added.
Saddam Kamel said Uday hoped to seize power and oust his father.
"Uday would not hesitate to topple his father if he has a chance but the army would not accept that," he added.
Saddam Kamel defected with his brother Lt.-Gen. Kamel Hassan, the mastermind of Iraq's military industries, and their wives, both daughters of Saddam, to Jordan on Aug. 8.
The two men are also cousins of Saddam and their defections caused disarray in Iraq because of their key positions.
Saddam Hussein's recent plan to invade Kuwait and Saudi Arabia was discussed in the ruling Baath Party's regional leadership, the Revolutionary Command Council and by army commanders, he told al-Hayat.
Saddam "believed the (Western) alliance was incapable of massing huge troops similar to the gulf war and that the troops would only come from the United States."
He said retired generals were asked to pinpoint mistakes made during the August 1990 invasion of Kuwait to avoid repeating them. Iraq started to store up fuel for the offensive.
Saddam Kamel said Iraq's former oil minister was dismissed because he opposed the invasion plan during a cabinet meeting.
He said Saddam has escaped three attempts to overthrow him in the 1991 gulf war.