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a Saddam Husseins Daughter, Raghad.
What's She Up To?

With the Iraqi dictator gone, the new head of the Hussein family is now a woman, she suggests. Already, she had organized her father's legal defense from exile in Jordan. The word is, she can be tough. But does she really act in the way she is portrayed in the Western media?

When the telephone call came, giving her the message, that her father had lost the legal appeal and would be executed by hanging, it was widely reported, that she was relaxing in a Jordan beauty salon at the time. "There was much arm waving, cursing and shrieking", wrote the British newspaper Daily Mail. Reporter Ian Gallagher remarked in an update, added on December 31, 2006: "This kind of behaviour from Raghad is hardly unusual!"

The 39-year old energetic mother of five children is even widely called "Little Saddam", because of her attitudes, and the fact, that, with her sharp tongue, she has been able to accomplish a lot in her own life.

Today's democratically elected government in Iraq accuses her of much illegal activity. Particularly, they say, she has been using millions of dollars, allegedly stolen by her father, to help finance insurgents in her home country. But such action would be illegal even in Jordan, where she lives as a refugee on humanitarian grounds, with her sister Rana and their nine children, since July 2003. She is not allowed political activity or public statements against the Iraqi government. And, indeed, she has said very little since the Iraq war. Her lifestyle seems to revolve around frequent visits to gyms, beauty salons and shopping centers.

One could imagine, that the American and several Arab governments are watching her as closely as possible. Officials at the FBI and the United States State Department would like to locate about $4 billion in illegal profits, which Saddam's regime is alleged to have skimmed from an oil-for-trade pact, signed with Syria. Additionally, in a report submitted to the Central Intelligence Agency in Washington by a former United Nations arms inspector, it was estimated that Saddam had collected almost $11 billion "through illicit means" between 1990 and 2003. More cash is supposedly hidden in banks in Japan, Germany, Switzerland and in other foreign countries. Unquestionable, many government officials would like to have some talk with Raghad, in order to find out where some of those funds might be deposited today.

But, although she took charge of many family affairs after her father's capture, and particularly after the death of her brothers Uday and Qusay, when they were killed by American troops in the summer of 2003, she is protected by paramilitary police officers around the clock, as guests of the royal family. And no one seems to know, what her own present financial situation exactly is.

She certainly does not live a quiet, anonymous life. As a matter of fact, she has granted interviews to several publications, CNN among them. She has only spoken well of her father. One of her most public statement came after he was arrested by American troops: "Saddam was tranquilized when captured. He would have been a lion, even when caged. Every honest person who knows Saddam, knows that he is firm and powerful."

The public in Jordan seems to believe that she does not pay their own way for all the designer clothes and accessories, her cosmetic surgery and a truly overall luxurious lifestyle. Witnesses say, that she loves $800 Sergio Rossi boots as well as Gucci handbags, and everything else that costs money and that she can get her hands on. And she pays for everything in cash.









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