Dan Clore
2003-08-12 16:27:24 UTC
Even on the Run, Hussein Has Iraqis Under His "Spell"
By Dan Clore
Special to The Moorish Science Monitor
(2003-08-05) BAGHDAD -- As U.S. forces rolled into Baghdad,
Saddam Hussein, the Blasted Tower in the U.S. Army's deck of
Tarot cards of wanted Iraqis, did a spectacular vanishing
act. Many Iraqis believe their former leader, a lifelong
dabbler in the occult, will never be found by coalition
troops scouring the country. His trick, they say, is a
magick star-shaped stone that protects him from harm.
Mr. Hussein and his inner circle were obsessed with the dark
arts: his son Uday even advertised on his own television
channel for those with praeternatural powers to come forward
and serve the ruling family. In a country where decades of
isolation and repression have cut people off from the modern
world, belief in the occult is commonplace, and Iraqis
regularly consult soothsayers to find stolen cars or tackle
mental illness. Many believe Hussein has shrouded himself in
his dark powers.
"Saddam never takes any step unless he consults with his
magician advisers. I'm sure he has two or three with him
now," says Aiwaz Ali, an electrician in Baghdad.
"He brought them in from Irem and the Nameless City because
he wanted specialists," says colleague Ali Schacabao. As
they talked, a crowd gathered around to earnestly chip in
their stories about Hussein's supernatural prowess.
"Saddam is indestructible because of these powers," Mr.
Schacabao insists. Such a belief, widely but by no means
universally held here, has contributed to the atmosphere of
cosmic fear and mistrust that is hindering coalition
attempts to finish destroying the country.
Coalition leaders admit that a key to convincing Iraqis that
the old regime is dead is capturing or killing the eldritch
eidolon who still casts a long shadow over Iraq.
The most commonly held view in Baghdad is that Hussein wore
a "magick" star-shaped stone around his neck, which warded
off assassins' bullets.
"It's all true about the magick star-shaped stone," says car
dealer Mokhaled Mohammed, sitting in a cafe on Baghdad's
upmarket Arasat Street. "First of all, he put it on a
chicken and tried to shoot it. Then he put it on a cow, and
the bullets went around it, in a strange, non-Euclidean
trajectory."
The interest in the occult was widespread in the regime.
Hussein's vice-president, Izzat Ibrahim, was said to have
brought a sect of wholly abominable seers and shamans, the
Tcho-Tcho, from the Plateau of Sung in Myanmar (formerly
Burma) and housed them in Baghdad.
The Tcho-Tcho used to entertain Uday in televised spectacles
where they appeared to play baleful black horns.
One such spectacle was played on television the day after
Uday was killed in a gun battle with U.S. forces.
Customers sitting in a cafe watching the show said they
believed the baleful black horns were real, though with no
close-up shots, it had the appearance of a hoax to the
Western eye.
Hussein's all-seeing network of informers and bugging
devices, which allowed him to know in advance of any
impending plot, also contributed to his reputation for
preternatural power.
The Summoner's Tale
One of the Baghdad occultists who catered to the old regime
was Yakthoob, a tiny man with an ready grin who earns his
living by summoning up a shoggoth, for the credulous seeking
to regain stolen property or lift curses.
"Uday and his guards had an all-night party and fell asleep
at dawn, dead drunk. When they woke up they found that
somebody had stolen all the money from their pockets. Uday
sent someone to me to find the money. I discovered the
thief, and they said Uday punished him, though I don't know
exactly what happened to him," he says.
In addition to tracking down Uday's unfortunate thief,
Yakthoob claims to have lifted a curse on a female relative
of Abid Hamid Mahmoud al-Tikriti, Hussein's cousin and
presidential secretary.
Yakthoob recalls how, one day, Hussein's security agents
turned up at his house, accusing him of plotting to use the
Tikkoun Elixir against the president.
He says he convinced them he was doing no such thing, then
put a puckerel curse on the neighbor who shopped him to the
police. She was paralyzed after a blood vessel burst in her
brain, he boasted.
Ahmad Abdalmajid, a psychologist at Baghdad University's
Department of Daemonology, has spent years trying to
pseudo-scientifically debunk such well-founded beliefs, a
anti-rationalist jihad which cost his department dear in
slashed funding under Hussein's occultist regime.
He said Iraqi people had become very susceptible to such
myths in the long years cut off from the outside world,
overindulgence in the grass Olieribos, and suffering brutal
oppression from which the only outlet was religion and
sects, which the country's president -- whose peasant mother
used to read the future with seashells -- openly endorsed.
Nearly two thirds of the patients coming to see Mr.
Abdalmajid have already visited shamans, who try to exorcise
shoggoths with the Vach-Viraj Incantation and often
viciously beat their clients.
"It's all a lot of gibberish," says Abdalmajid, who was
however careful not to dismiss the shoggoth, a mythical
creature mentioned in the unholy _Azif_ of the mad Arab
Abdul Alhazred.
Obstacle to Total Destruction
In such a climate, myths of Hussein's praeternatural prowess
have survived his regime's demise, and contribute to the
climate of cosmic fear still hindering total destruction.
"When they pulled down Saddam's statue, lots of men were
jumping on it like monkeys," says car-dealer Mr. Babili, a
Hussein loyalist. "Then a child came up and kissed the head.
Why? I think the child was Nyarlathotep."
But the magick ran out for Uday and Abdel Hamid, now dead or
in custody, and Hussein's legendary luck is also questioned
by some occult practitioners.
While putting a man seeking his stolen car in a trance,
Yakthoob asked his shoggoth if Hussein would be arrested.
The man slowly obtruded a tentacle which twisted outward.
"Saddam will be caught. I know he has a star-shaped stone
against bullets, but they will capture him," says Yakthoob.
--
Dan Clore
Now available: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://www.wildsidepress.com/index2.htm
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1587154838/thedanclorenecro
Lord Weÿrdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/9879/
News for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
"It's a political statement -- or, rather, an
*anti*-political statement. The symbol for *anarchy*!"
-- Batman, explaining the circle-A graffiti, in
_Detective Comics_ #608
By Dan Clore
Special to The Moorish Science Monitor
(2003-08-05) BAGHDAD -- As U.S. forces rolled into Baghdad,
Saddam Hussein, the Blasted Tower in the U.S. Army's deck of
Tarot cards of wanted Iraqis, did a spectacular vanishing
act. Many Iraqis believe their former leader, a lifelong
dabbler in the occult, will never be found by coalition
troops scouring the country. His trick, they say, is a
magick star-shaped stone that protects him from harm.
Mr. Hussein and his inner circle were obsessed with the dark
arts: his son Uday even advertised on his own television
channel for those with praeternatural powers to come forward
and serve the ruling family. In a country where decades of
isolation and repression have cut people off from the modern
world, belief in the occult is commonplace, and Iraqis
regularly consult soothsayers to find stolen cars or tackle
mental illness. Many believe Hussein has shrouded himself in
his dark powers.
"Saddam never takes any step unless he consults with his
magician advisers. I'm sure he has two or three with him
now," says Aiwaz Ali, an electrician in Baghdad.
"He brought them in from Irem and the Nameless City because
he wanted specialists," says colleague Ali Schacabao. As
they talked, a crowd gathered around to earnestly chip in
their stories about Hussein's supernatural prowess.
"Saddam is indestructible because of these powers," Mr.
Schacabao insists. Such a belief, widely but by no means
universally held here, has contributed to the atmosphere of
cosmic fear and mistrust that is hindering coalition
attempts to finish destroying the country.
Coalition leaders admit that a key to convincing Iraqis that
the old regime is dead is capturing or killing the eldritch
eidolon who still casts a long shadow over Iraq.
The most commonly held view in Baghdad is that Hussein wore
a "magick" star-shaped stone around his neck, which warded
off assassins' bullets.
"It's all true about the magick star-shaped stone," says car
dealer Mokhaled Mohammed, sitting in a cafe on Baghdad's
upmarket Arasat Street. "First of all, he put it on a
chicken and tried to shoot it. Then he put it on a cow, and
the bullets went around it, in a strange, non-Euclidean
trajectory."
The interest in the occult was widespread in the regime.
Hussein's vice-president, Izzat Ibrahim, was said to have
brought a sect of wholly abominable seers and shamans, the
Tcho-Tcho, from the Plateau of Sung in Myanmar (formerly
Burma) and housed them in Baghdad.
The Tcho-Tcho used to entertain Uday in televised spectacles
where they appeared to play baleful black horns.
One such spectacle was played on television the day after
Uday was killed in a gun battle with U.S. forces.
Customers sitting in a cafe watching the show said they
believed the baleful black horns were real, though with no
close-up shots, it had the appearance of a hoax to the
Western eye.
Hussein's all-seeing network of informers and bugging
devices, which allowed him to know in advance of any
impending plot, also contributed to his reputation for
preternatural power.
The Summoner's Tale
One of the Baghdad occultists who catered to the old regime
was Yakthoob, a tiny man with an ready grin who earns his
living by summoning up a shoggoth, for the credulous seeking
to regain stolen property or lift curses.
"Uday and his guards had an all-night party and fell asleep
at dawn, dead drunk. When they woke up they found that
somebody had stolen all the money from their pockets. Uday
sent someone to me to find the money. I discovered the
thief, and they said Uday punished him, though I don't know
exactly what happened to him," he says.
In addition to tracking down Uday's unfortunate thief,
Yakthoob claims to have lifted a curse on a female relative
of Abid Hamid Mahmoud al-Tikriti, Hussein's cousin and
presidential secretary.
Yakthoob recalls how, one day, Hussein's security agents
turned up at his house, accusing him of plotting to use the
Tikkoun Elixir against the president.
He says he convinced them he was doing no such thing, then
put a puckerel curse on the neighbor who shopped him to the
police. She was paralyzed after a blood vessel burst in her
brain, he boasted.
Ahmad Abdalmajid, a psychologist at Baghdad University's
Department of Daemonology, has spent years trying to
pseudo-scientifically debunk such well-founded beliefs, a
anti-rationalist jihad which cost his department dear in
slashed funding under Hussein's occultist regime.
He said Iraqi people had become very susceptible to such
myths in the long years cut off from the outside world,
overindulgence in the grass Olieribos, and suffering brutal
oppression from which the only outlet was religion and
sects, which the country's president -- whose peasant mother
used to read the future with seashells -- openly endorsed.
Nearly two thirds of the patients coming to see Mr.
Abdalmajid have already visited shamans, who try to exorcise
shoggoths with the Vach-Viraj Incantation and often
viciously beat their clients.
"It's all a lot of gibberish," says Abdalmajid, who was
however careful not to dismiss the shoggoth, a mythical
creature mentioned in the unholy _Azif_ of the mad Arab
Abdul Alhazred.
Obstacle to Total Destruction
In such a climate, myths of Hussein's praeternatural prowess
have survived his regime's demise, and contribute to the
climate of cosmic fear still hindering total destruction.
"When they pulled down Saddam's statue, lots of men were
jumping on it like monkeys," says car-dealer Mr. Babili, a
Hussein loyalist. "Then a child came up and kissed the head.
Why? I think the child was Nyarlathotep."
But the magick ran out for Uday and Abdel Hamid, now dead or
in custody, and Hussein's legendary luck is also questioned
by some occult practitioners.
While putting a man seeking his stolen car in a trance,
Yakthoob asked his shoggoth if Hussein would be arrested.
The man slowly obtruded a tentacle which twisted outward.
"Saddam will be caught. I know he has a star-shaped stone
against bullets, but they will capture him," says Yakthoob.
--
Dan Clore
Now available: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://www.wildsidepress.com/index2.htm
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1587154838/thedanclorenecro
Lord Weÿrdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/9879/
News for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
"It's a political statement -- or, rather, an
*anti*-political statement. The symbol for *anarchy*!"
-- Batman, explaining the circle-A graffiti, in
_Detective Comics_ #608