Saddam novel is 'good v evil'

Saddam Hussein’s new novel returns to his favourite theme of good v evil – the good being Arabs and Muslims, the bad being the West.

The first excerpt of Get Out, You Damned, the manuscript of which was found in the Ministry of Culture after Baghdad’s fall, appeared in Asharq al-Awsat, a London-based Arab newspaper, in Cairo. The paper said it would publish the entire novel over the next several days.

The newspaper said it had received a copy from Saddam’s physician, Alla Bashir, who fled Iraq after the war and was believed to be in Qatar.

Ali Abdel Amir, an Iraqi writer and critic who has read the whole manuscript, said the novel was similar in style to three attributed to Saddam when he was still in power. All four novels were signed simply: “its author”.

Abdel Amir said Get Out, You Damned describes a Zionist-Christian conspiracy against Arabs and Muslims and with an Arab leading an army that invades the land of the enemy and topples one of their monumental towers, an apparent reference to the September 11, 2001 bombing of the World Trade Centre in New York.

Saddam “was completely out of touch with actual reality and novel-writing gave him the chance to live in delusions”, Abdel Amir said.

Saddam’s close aide and deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, was quoted by his American interrogators shortly after his surrender to US troops after the war as saying Saddam used to spend most of his time in recent years writing novels, leaving key decisions to be taken by his sons and other trusted relatives.

“Everything in these novels look naive and superficial. They look like political leaflets,” said Egyptian novelist Youssef al-Qaeed.