SADDAM ON SALE
EEDLE / OUT THERE NEWS
Dur 5'22''
16x9 Anamorphic
Saddam Hussein at the height of his power in the 1980s.
Saddam loved to be filmed surrounded by cheering crowds.
But he was a terrifying man to be near.
One wrong word and you could be in jail or dead.
Nobody ever took liberties.
So you'd never have imagined that one day, you could buy
his Christian Dior sunglasses from a man who lives
above a shop in Kensington.
But here they are.
...and the gold Rolex.
...and the silk Dior ties
along with a treasure trove of other Saddam memorabilia.
Dr Haitham Wahib worked in Saddam's protocol office
throughout the 1980s until he spoke out against the
invasion of Kuwait and fled the country.
He was a fairly lowly minion -
he looked after visitors and filled Saddam's
fountain pens.
[have tightened this intro]
DR HAITHAM WIHAIB
"I have to go and see if the garden is clean, there is no mud where
he walks. We have to clean it in a very nice way. Also we
have to see that the flowers are in a very nice way. He
liked roses. .... I am not a security man.
Saddam might have been murderous dictator, but Dr Wahib
says he was a personally generous man who hated to
throw anything away.
In the strange and frightening world of Saddam's entourage,
Dr Wahib was given a horde of Saddam's hand me down
clothes and unwanted gifts.
DR HAITHAM WIHAIB
"When his clothes, he wanted to get rid of them, he never throw
them away. He will give them his shirts, his ties... even his
cigar, when he lights his cigar he have to finish it. If
somebody took half his cigar he will be very upset. He says
don't waste things. Although he wasted billions of dollars
on his wars and his plans, but he was careful not to waste
his half cigar."
Dr Wahib's collection began with the Rolex.
DR HAITHAM WIHAIB
"This gift was made especially for him in Switzerland and he
used to wear it most of the time when he goes out.
and one day in one of the palaces it was forgotten next
to his offices where he writes. So I pick the watch and
followed him and said, Excellency you forgot your watch.
and I was so surprised almost amazed when he says,
keep it. I said, Excellency, this is your watch. then he
said, I said, keep it. I couldn't believe my eyes.
Dr Wahib says eBay won't take souvenirs of dictators, so
he's set up his own website to offer all his
Saddam-aralia for sale.
The watch is there for a cool 150,000 dollars.
The iconic sunglasses are yours for 12,000.
Dr Wahib says they really were Saddam's - he's wearing them
in this old photo.
A water pipe given by Saddam's old enemy the Shah
of Iran? 25,000 dollars.
He does say these are just initial asking prices.
Or how about a Cartier pen for 5,000 dollars?
You need a strong stomach.
A stroke of Saddam's pen could make you...
or break you.
DR HAITHAM WIHAIB
I know it was used for an execution because one
bodyguard saw it in my hand, and he was a close
cousin of him. He told me, what are you doing
with this pen, this pen will bring you curse. An
execution was signed by this pen. I said,
never mind, this is history.
Grovelling Iraqis and fawning foreigners all
brought lavish gifts to Saddam. So many
that he built an entire museum to house them.
DR HAITHAM WIHAIB
"Yes, he used, when he receive a gift from kings
or a head of state, he would tell immediately, send
it to the museum. he just look at them, he doesn't
even touch them. "
There certainly wasn't much left in the palace when
we walked round just after Iraq was invaded.
The electricity was off and the marbled rooms had
been stripped bare.
With American tanks roaming the palace grounds,
Dr Wahib now had the chance to get his stash out
to London.
DR HAITHAM WIHAIB
"All this were buried in one of my farms. In the
garden of my farms. I arrange it in a way and I bury
it here. After the collapse of the regime, I started
to bring it... two pieces, three pieces, each time,
whenever I have the opportunity of someone
coming from Iraq to Jordan or even here."
Dr Wahib denies that he's just trying to make a killing
out of having worked for a dictator. He says he wants to raise money
for Iraqi refugees, and is ready to hand the whole collection
over to a charity.
DR HAITHAM WIHAIB
"I am not trying to make money for the simple reason.
I am telling clearly that this money, any organisation
can come and take these items from me and make
an auction of it. But my condition - there is no
commercial profit. They take the money and they
build a clinic or a school for Iraqi children."
But here's his problem. If you're pro-Saddam, selling
memorabilia probably feels like an insult to the
tyrant's memory. And if you're anti-Saddam, why
would you want it?
So far, Dr Wahib says he hasn't sold a single item.
[moved money bite down to end, and rewrote payoff]