And yet, for all his brutality, Uday Hussein could also be mercurial. Ismat Abu Halima, a Jordanian national who joined the Iraqi army during the Iran Iraq War when he was a teen, experienced that first hand.
Abu Halima, who has since moved to the United States, said his first encounter with Uday came in the early 1990's at the Al Said, a fashionable Baghdad nightclub when Abu Halima challenged Uday's right to kidnap and rape a young woman who was, at the time, dating Abu Halima's brother.
As always, Uday's bodyguards led the way, clearing a path and rolling over any unfortunate Iraqis who got in their way. At least this time they didn't come in shooting. That was something Uday had a penchant for, Abu Halima told Crime Library, and it was a very effective way to clear the dance floor. "If I'm dancing and I know that Uday is coming, sit down," Abu Halima told Crime Library. "Sometimes...he starts shooting at the sky or whatever, so it's better to sit down, or leave."
Uday situated himself at a choice table. He was wearing a leather jacket and reached into his pocket to pull out a good Cuban cigar. He lit it with a $100 American bill, as his bodyguards scrambled to lay his table with his favorite drinks, a Cuervo 1800, a Dansk vodka, and of course a Miller beer. There would be no pretense for Uday Hussein. If there was one man in all of Iraq who didn't have to pretend that he was drinking Pepsi, it was Uday.
And then he began his hunt.
Uday Hussein was looking for new occupants for his not-so-secret sex lair, but that night at the Al Said, the pickings were slim.
Most of the women were typical Iraqi hookers, Abu Halima later recalled, the kind of women who barely fit into their faux Western clothes and looked as if they had just been rescued from an explosion in a makeup factory.
Compared with the other women in the nightclub that night, the beautiful, statuesque Kurdish girl at Abu Halima's table was a vision, like one of the virgins that are supposed to be awarded to martyrs and heroes in the Islamic afterlife.
"She was a very high-class girl," Abu Halima recalled. "She'd never been...in a nightclub before. She (had) long black hair and (was) wearing...high-class clothes."
To this day, Abu Halima is not really certain why he, his brother and his brother's fiancée tempted fate that night. All the same, they headed out onto the dance floor.
That was when Uday Hussein decided that he had to have her.
The hulking psycho stood up and sauntered toward the Kurdish girl. He invited her for a drink, Abu Halima recalled.
"We all knew that meant he would kidnap and rape her," Abu Halima later wrote. The young lieutenant took stock of his position. He was standing a few feet away from one of the most dangerous men on the planet, a guy who had personally gunned down several of his own friends and relatives, a guy who was the driving force behind the Feyadeen Saddam, the most lethal and bloodthirsty private army in the Middle East.
All the same, Abu Halima figured he had to do something.
"See, the thing is, in my country, in Jordan...a girl is a very great treasure," he told Crime Library. "You take care of her. So, I was like, 'Wait a minute, this guy is going take my brother's fiancée, for what? For two or three hours' fun, and then what?'"
Abu Halima had already been hardened by the time he had spent in Iraq. He had seen Uday's thugs beat men for the slightest of provocations. One man had been thrashed within an inch of his life because he had accidentally dropped a dinar note on the floor, allowing the heroic portrait of Saddam to touch the ground. He had seen his fellow soldiers disappear, and had seen unspeakable horrors during the eight year Iran-Iraq war. His unit had been dispatched to the Kurdish village of Halbja to pull gold teeth from the thousands killed by Iraq's own poison gas. That's the sort of thing that makes a man hard and Abu Halima decided to take his best shot.
The young Jordanian lieutenant jumped to his feet. "She's with my brother," he snarled at the hulking psychopath. "They're engaged."
Uday's frustration mounted. He grabbed Abu Halima by the shirt.
"Don't you know who I am?" he shouted.
"Yes, I do," Abu Halima answered calmly. "But he's my brother and this is his girlfriend."
For a moment, it seemed, Uday Hussein softened. Perhaps, Abu Halima speculated, he was thinking of his own younger brother, Qusay, who years later would die fighting at his side
Quietly, Uday Hussein asked, "Are you willing to die for your brother and this girl?"
"Yes, I am," Abu Halima replied, just as quietly.
The killer smiled.
"I respect a man with courage," Uday Hussein said, releasing Abu Halima's shirt. "I have a younger brother too."
That night, Uday Hussein bought a round of drinks for Abu Halima's table.
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