Saddam Hussein's Letter to an American

In 2001, American software engineer Christopher Love wrote a letter to Saddam Hussein.  Much to his surprise, Saddam Hussein responded.  This used to be on the website for the Iraqi Mission to the UN, but it has been scrubbed there.   I am publishing this letter here in hopes of keeping this recorded in the logbook of history

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A Letter from President Saddam Hussein to an American citizen

In the name of God, the Merciful,

the Compassionate

From: Saddam Hussein

To: Christopher J. Love

xxxxx @xxxxx

Dear brother in the Family of Mankind,

I read your e-mail message of October 2nd carefully and I have well pondered over your emotions regarding the victims of the two towers.

All I can say is presenting my condolences to you, and to reiterate the Muslims linguistic formula on occasion, like this: (God has created us, and to him we return. May God give you long life )

In a letter of reply like this, there may be no room to say all I want, not to acquaint you with Saddam Hussein's and his comrades in the leadership way of thinking, or of how Iraqis think through them, and of the kind of principles they believe in.

Nevertheless, as you have come to me to know about things, as I understood from your message: the way my people, the Arabs and Muslims, for whom the Arabs are a model, think. You wanted an answer to these questions by addressing yourself to an official in the leadership of this people, and this religion, as well as to someone from the region, you call the Middle-East.

I may give you an explanation to what happened to the two towers, and made America mourn, and inflicted pain and sorrow on others, because such an event has been inflicted on other people in the past, including Arabs and Muslims, in many cases.

I began this letter, by addressing you by the word 'brother', although you are neither Iraqi or Arab, nor a Muslim, as can be seen by your name.

Christopher, do you know why I called you brother? Because I never forget, that all mankind come from Adam and Eve. They are all brothers, although they later became different nations and adherent to different religions. Hence, to our understanding,, we are one family within the peoples of our earth.

In this family, there is vice and virtue, good and bad people. As long as a man safeguards his rights and duties, within himself, and with humanity, avoids transgressing other peoples' rights, greed, and harming others, and tries to be useful to others, only if they ask for his help, he becomes their brother. But, when any member of this family of mankind oppresses, exploits, unjustly wages wars on them, or lies and deceives others, he would be acting like a devil in the form of man.

We, Arabs, have learned this, brother Christopher, before any nation on earth. We have taught it to you, and to all the adherents of divine religions in the Universe, because God the Almighty, had created Adam and Eve on our land.There is no other chronicle or religion, that pretends, or can prove the contrary. Abraham, the friend of God and the father of all prophets, is one of us, as are all the other prophets. Whenever, God made a revelation, the Arabs were the people to undertake the mission of spreading it to other non Arab nations, after believing in it themselves. Again, I say that this the fundamental basis of the humanitarian viewpoint of, not only Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi people with him, but also of all Arabs, in all their great homeland, which was divided by British and French colonialism, and which the US is trying to halt its people's unity, and forbid them from enjoying their rights which God bestowed on them on their proper land.

Once again I say, that the basic general rule is that, he who wants to avoid the harm of others, must not harm them. He who wants to enjoy the fruits of his corps must not damage the crops of others. In Iraq, and in the Arab rural regions, and that could be true in different degrees, allover the world, people would fight each other, and some of them maybe killed, but no one ever burns the corps of others. If a criminal ever did so, he would be considered an outcast, and his blood would be shed. Why is such an act so severely judged, although, in comparison, the killing of a man is much more a serious act than the burning of corps ? This customary law in the Iraqi countryside, and maybe in the Arab and world also, is based on two reasons: First: a man, can think, hide, and confront others, while corps cannot run, hide, or draw a gun on who wants to harm them. Second: a man cannot live without corps, and for this reason, burning his corps is equal to depriving him from his right to live, and also, because more than one family may have a share in these corps. The damage would be inflicted, not only on the share of the person who is meant to be harmed. It would include the shares of the entire family: women, children, old people, or even young men, who can carry weapons. It is for this reason, that our religion prohibits the killing of woman, children and old men, as well as the uprooting of trees, when a war is fought, by necessity, between two armies.

Do you know, brother Christopher, that your administration, in its war against the people of Iraq, has been burning not only the cereals in silos, but even the harvest by throwing flares in order to make Iraqi people starve?

Do you know what does this mean ? It means collective death. Your successive administrations have killed one million and a half Iraqis in eleven years as a result of the blockade it has imposed on Iraq, according to statistics published international organizations, including American humanitarian organization. You can ask them for details, by Internet.

Food is important and holy to people, because it is related to man's right to live. In the same way medicine has the same sanctity. This is something we have learned from our history and civilization which are thousands of years old, Hence I remind you of the Crusades in 1096-1291 by which the western aggressors came to occupy the land of Arabs, under the pretext of saving Al-Quds from the infidel Muslims as confirmed by documents issued by the west itself. Notice the motto, dear Christopher: 'Saving Al-Quads from the infidel Muslims'! So, the Muslims are infidels, not in the eyes of the church, but in the eyes of the Western leaders who mobilized the nations of the West to come as invaders to the holy land of Al-Quads, which is the land on which landed Prophet Mohammed 'Peace be upon him' in his divine nocturnal journey.

An individual person in a nation, may be fanatic because of a wrong reasoning, or awareness, but could leaders be so too?

You may say that this is something that happened a very long time ago. But what made me mention it in my letter to you, is what I saw, and heard of some leaders, not ordinary Western citizens. It seems that as if those leaders have recalled all this inventory of fanaticism and hatred of the times of the Crusades, in which the Western leaders considered the Arabs, who are the people of the country and the owners of the land, as infidels who must be expelled from their land by force.

They have, now, planted the Zionist entity in our land to replace that hatred. They have revived the memory of the old Crusades wars by a new war of Crusades, called for by the highest ranking rulers in your country, and in other countries of the west.

Isn't it a paradox, and double standards, to accuse a citizen of fanaticism, to denounce his fanatic attitude and than to mobilize armies against him, and against the country in which he is living, on the basis of nothing but suspicions, while waging an outrageous campaign of hatred and fanaticism to the maximum, which even includes calling for, and the recalling the old Crusades wars against Arab and Muslims, as we mentioned ? !

Nevertheless it is well-known, that when the Arabs and Muslims leader Salahdin Al-Ayoubi, was told that the leader of Crusades, Richard, who was called the (Heart of Lion), was ill, he sent him a doctor, and that when his horse was killed in a battle, he refused to fight anyone before mounting another horse.

But do you know that your administration has, one way or the other, deprived the people of Iraq from food and medicine?

Do you know the meaning of the death of one million and a half human beings, in addition to those who are killed by bombs and missiles?

Maybe, you and the majority of the peoples of America, do not know that American bombardmen, and death harvest caused by fighter jets, and missiles, are ongoing in Iraq for the last eleven years, and have not stopped until the moment of writing this letter? Do you know why you don't know?! Because the media in your country which is controlled by Zionism, do not want you to known. And because your administration, which says that it is necessary for the peoples of the world to know, does not want you to know. You should ask your administration, why doesn't it speak to you about facts ? Why doesn't present you any information except its devilish fancies ?

As for me, I can tell you why Zionism doesn't want you to know the harm inflicted on the people of Iraq. The Zionist and the American administration believe that it is necessary that Iraqis die. The Jewish Albright, the former US Secretary of State, spoke in this way, or in a similar case, when she said that the objectives of the US foreign policy, justify the death of Iraqi children. The reason is that the Iraqis refused the Zionist usurpation of Arab and Palestinian territories. They refuse to accept the crimes of occupying Palestine, the Golan, and the Lebanese territories, and refuse do accept the Zionists confiscation of the holy places of the believers in God, including Muslims there.

Hence, whenever Zionism has the upper hand over high ranking officials in America, it pushes the administration toward a confrontation with the Arabs, and reinforces Zionist entity, at the expense of Arab and Palestinian rights.

By the way, please ask for the videotapes to see how the Jews, in the occupied territories, kill old men, children and women, in front of the cameras. Do you know that all these crimes have been perpetrated since 1935 by using Western weapons, and in fact, American weapons in particular, weapons that cost billions of dollars, the administration takes from American tax-payers to be granted as an aid to the Zionist entity ?

So, the Arabs and Muslims did not cross the Atlantic, as invaders or aggressors. They did not colonize America. It is America that brought them all kinds of sufferings. If any of your rulers says something different, please discuss it with them. For example, if they say that they crossed the Atlantic to make sure that you get your oil supplies, tell them that oil is guaranteed by mutual interests and non-aggression, not by aggressions, killing, violating other people's rights, and destroying all sanctities.

If your rules say that , they crossed the Atlantic in the past to fight Communism so that it does not invade the West, tell them that the ex-Soviet Union has fallen apart, as has the Warsaw Pact, although I personally don't accept the contradiction between the call for the freedom of thinking, and saying that the Western way of thinking is more vital and modern, as the intellectuals and leaders of the West say, and between fearing Communism.

Do you know, brother Christopher, that the NATO, which was created under the pretext of confronting Communism, still exists, and was even enlarged after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. Decisions of death are taken in its name, against some peoples of the world sometimes, as was the case against Yugoslavia, because it is an independent, and Slovak country, and because the majority of its people are Orthodox, not because their oppression of Muslims in Bosnia, as was claimed, to fool the Muslims, and falsely win their support in international forums?

If we go on, we can give thousands of examples on the blind fanaticism exported by the West to the world with American participation during the last 50 years. But I don't want to burden you. I only want to tell you that the people of Iraq are against all kinds of fanaticism, whether based on religion, nationality or race. They are against the use of fanaticism as a cover for harming people whom God does not accept to harm. They call for love between the peoples and nations of the world. Nevertheless, we do not believe in love on one side only.

Iraq has been harmed severely by the fanaticism of others, including America. It was also severely harmed by terrorism. Maybe you don't know that many the members of our leadership were victims of terrorism and terrorist. Some of them escaped death, by the will of God, after being injured or missed by the terrorists, in addition to the pain inflected to our people.

Do you know brother, that your administration's reaction to that, was one of encouraging it and rejoicing ? Do you know that your administration has been encouraging terrorism against us for the past eleven years, calling to overthrow us by force, allocating special funds to do so, and boasting about not fearing God, as it publicly announces that on TV screens, because Iraq does not have the same destructive force and armament of America ? The Palestinians, whose right to resist the occupation forces are guaranteed by the international law, promulgated by America and the other big powers, are considered terrorists because they resist the Zionist occupation of their territories, and holy places.

Tell me, brother, if the Vatican is occupied by Arabs, or non-Arab Muslims, wouldn't its people fight the occupying forces? Wouldn't the English people fight for the Westminster cathedral? Or wouldn't the French people, defend Notre Dame? I say they must fight for them ! Why, then, are your armies occupying Mecca and the land of our Prophet? Why are you occupying the regional waters in the Arab Gulf, in addition to territories in its countries ? Why is your ally, the Zionist entity, occupying our holy places, and territories, in Palestine, by using your arms, and financial, political, media, and moral support? And, why are your administration killing people, including children in Iraq, Afghanistan, and in Palestine now, just as it did, before that, in Lebanon, Sudan, Somalia and Libya, and the list of Arabs and Muslims to be killed is long ?!

I know that Arabs are far from being fanatic. Do you know why? Because, God, the Almighty, assigned them with the mission of delivering the messages of all religions to humanity, and not to Arabs alone. They have fulfilled their mission, so that all Christians is now indebted to Arabs for guiding them to Faith, which God wanted them to have when, He made it possible for them to reach you, or for you to reach them, so that you know what they believe in, and be affected by it.

I know that Arabs, in general, do not adopt fanatic stances against any people for religious reasons. But, can anyone guarantee that one fanaticism does not create another ? Can anyone guarantee that the death toll and killing, inflicted upon Arabs and Muslims by the American armies, would not lead to a counter-reaction, whether that reaction is well guided, or is a random one, that pleases no one except those who carry it out?

These words are general rules and principles, although I still do not know who is behind what happened to the towers on September 11, 2001. Your government did not help me, or anyone else, by showing, or communicating the information it possesses, so that we can elaborate an opinion, if it needed to know the opinion of those whose people it daily attacks with bombs, starves to death, and deprives from the right to live, construct, and deploy their creativity.

Our law, which is borne of our religion and heritage, and of our reasoning which is thousands of years deep, stipulates: ' the Plaintiff should present evidence and the defendant should take an oath.' But the plaintiff, which is your administration did not present any evidence so far. Nevertheless, it accused the people it accused, without showing us, or anyone else, any evidence, except for Blair and the ruler of Pakistan, as they both said. The people accused have not pleaded guilty.

Anyhow, I don't think that your administration deserves the condolences of Iraqis, except if it presents its condolences to the Iraqi people for the one million and a half Iraqis it killed, and apologizes to them, for the crimes it committed against them. As for the American people, we have sent them our condolences through Mr. Tareq Aziz's letter to the Voices in the Wilderness, and Mr Ramzi Klark, the former Attorney General, on Sept. 18,2001.

Dear brother,

He who does not want his harvest to be burned must not set fire to the harvest of others. He, who wants to live in security, should accept the right of others to live in security, and he who is irritated, or raged by an aggression, should not aggress others. He who cherishes the lives of his people, should remember that God created all people equal at birth, in death, and in their human values, that's why he should remember that the lives of others are also cherished by their people. He who strikes people with remote control missiles should except, that there would be someone to seek revenge, for his dignity and the dignity of his people, and consequently does something harmful, or fatal, by stabbing a dagger in his body, or taking his life by a sword.

He who sees himself as a man, who revenges his dignity, should not deprive other men from their dignity, and he who calls for the respect of his people, men and women, should respect the people of other nations.

He who remembers God, must not ignore or forget, that God the Almighty, is capable of everything, and of providing the weak with what makes those who underestimate them, make heed of their rights and respect them.

In any case, the security of humanity is, in our view, a responsibility on the shoulders of all good people. Any irresponsible action on the part of superpowers may give way to a counter irresponsible action by the people, even if the smaller nations do not take such a course of action.

Finally there is something in your letter that you asked to be corrected, if it was wrong about the ex President Bush, is giving us reason to believe that he was our ally in the issue of Kuwait, but he was forced to abide with the United-Nations'¦.The Fact, Mr. Christopher, is that, it was President Bush who adopted the logic of war, right from the first day of those events. He refused solving the problem politically, and entering into a dialogue with us. The resolutions of the United Nations were, in fact, adopted under pressure from Bush and his administration. He then waged the war against Iraq, in a way that had nothing to do with the issue of Kuwait. His objective was to destroy all Iraq, and to deprive its people of the edifice they built, in several decades, and not merely getting the Iraqi armed forces out of Kuwait. He did that in 1991, and he later committed similar things, and he and his administration, are still doing so under different pretexts and justifications.

Wishing that you will have the opportunity to see the fact as they are, and not as your administration present them,

Yours truly

Saddam Hussein

Baghdad, Shabban 2,1422 H.

Oct. 18, 2001