BY The Associated Press
Saddam Hussein's Iraq has endured two devastating wars, eight years of misery under U.N. economic sanctions and a history of political turbulence. Yet, Mr. Hussein has retained control in a country once the Arab world's most powerful and now among its most pitiful.
His relentless repression has kept his 22 million people fearful, his hold on power complete.
Mr. Hussein, a peasant boy who clawed and killed his way from poverty to power, became effective ruler in 1968, when the Arab Baath Socialist Party took over in a coup he helped organize.
He quickly became the power behind the country's new leader, Gen. Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr, and eventually pushed him aside to become the undisputed leader in July 1979.
His absolute intolerance of dissent was always evident.
After he pushed aside Mr. al-Bakr in 1979, Mr. Hussein rose at a meeting of the Baath Party in Baghdad and read off the names of 66 officials he said were involved in an anti-government plot.
They were led, ashen-faced, from the hall. A total of 55 were convicted and 22 sentenced to death. The executions were carried out by firing squads that included Mr. Hussein himself.
That ruthlessness is evident in the treatment of his relatives. He has trusted few other than his sons — Odai and Qusai. In August 1995, two of his sons-in-law, both his cousins, defected to Jordan with their wives. In February 1996, they returned home after receiving what they believed was a pardon. Within 72 hours, they were dead.
In 1980, he invaded neighboring Iran. Iraq became locked in an inconclusive war despite his attempts to secure a cease-fire.
In 1990, two years after that war finally ended, he invaded neighboring Kuwait. The United States responded by amassing a military coalition that included much of the Arab world.
