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Iraqi Informant Lived off "Slop from the Hussein Trough"
Edited for brevity.Nawaf Zaidan Nasiri answered his the front door of his elegant mansion 24 days ago, and greeted a nightmare. Standing there, he told his neighbors Tuesday, were the two sons of Saddam Hussein, Qusay and Uday, Iraqâs second- and third-most wanted fugitives, asking Zaidan to repay years of privilege and favors they had doled out to him. In an interview today, Thahir said Zaidan told his story yesterday while sitting in a U.S. military Humvee, about two hours after the bodies of the Hussein brothers and two other men were removed from the charred remains of Zaidanâs house. The death of the Hussein brothers caused soldiers to break out cigars and caused jubilation from the Iraqi desert to the Oval Office. But the episode posed a difficult dilemma for a 46-year-old man, suddenly in the glare of the global spotlight, who had made a career out of hanging around the Husseins, according to several of Zaidanâs neighbors and long-time friends. "Nawaf was always bragging that he was a good friend of Saddamâs family, and he was a friend of theirs," said Thahir, a tribal sheik who lives in a house just around the corner from Zaidanâs, and described himself as best friends with him. Thahir said his friend was typical of the opportunists and mid-level hangers-on who populated the world of Hussein and his sycophantic Baath Party. In a lengthy interview, Jubori and another neighbor, a Muslim cleric who asked not be named, said Zaidanâs comfortable life, including his opulent home, were essentially slop from the Hussein trough. Heâs no angel, but I still think it was $15 or $30 million well spent. Posted by: Dar 2003-07-23 |
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