Fear and murder inside Saddam’s cabinet

Iraq’s offer to allow the unconditional return of UN weapons inspectors came after three days of meetings of his top officials in Baghdad. Saddam called a rare joint meeting of his revolutionary command council and his cabinet.

But the setting for these secretive gatherings is hardly conducive to free and frank discussion. Serving as one of Saddam’s henchmen is a dangerous business; opposing him can be downright suicidal.

Photographs of Saddam’s cabinet show them wearing the same black berets and military uniforms - like boy scouts following the leader.

Independent, up-to-date information on their discussions is hard to come by. In the absence of hard information, it is left to the exiles and the dissidents to tell their tales.

One widely believed story dates from the height of the war that Saddam launched against Iran, when things were going badly wrong for Iraqi forces and the Iranians were demanding that he resign the presidency.

"One of his cabinet ministers said, ‘Sir, why don’t you pretend to have resigned, and then after a peace treaty with the Iranians you can take over again?’," said the Middle East writer Hazhir Teimourian.

"Saddam said, ‘I want a word with you outside’. Everybody heard the shots ring out."

Ministers will look for signs of Saddam’s mood, and are terrified of being asked questions. One later recalled the fear that a buzzing fly would land on his head, singling him out.

The pressure that persuaded Saddam to take the diplomatic way out came from the outside, not a democratic process within. Saudi Arabia joined other Arab countries in urging Saddam to make a deal, threatening to allow the US to use its bases if it did not.

One of the few men, if not the only, able to talk safely to Saddam is his younger son, Qusay. He is the country’s crown prince, singled out as Saddam’s heir after the psychopathic tendencies of his murderous older brother, Uday, became too dangerous to ignore. He has wide control of the military and intelligence services.

It is believed Qusay recently flew to Iran and proposed a deal: If Iran came out in support of Iraq against the US, Qusay would quell the mujahideen guerrillas that Iraq finances to harry Iran. Iran’s reluctance to challenge the US may have also tipped Saddam’s hand. The fate of those who fall from grace is clear. Hardan Takriti, the former head of the air force and minister of defence, was assassinated by Iraqi agents in Kuwait. Eight years ago, 120 military officers accused of plotting a coup were purged.

In 1995, Hussein Kamel, an Iraqi hard-liner who oversaw the country’s programme to develop weapons of mass destruction, and Saddam’s cousin and son-in-law, fled with several relatives to Jordan.

He told Time magazine back then: "If there is a conversation between two people in which one of them criticises any subject related to the regime, the fate of both of them is execution.

"Anybody who criticises the regime, even in the slightest way, faces execution."

Asked whether other members of the government ever criticise the regime, he answered: "It never happened."

Hussein Kamel returned to Iraq armed with an amnesty agreed by Saddam. He was killed in a shoot-out, one day after his divorce from Saddam’s daughter was announced.

Later, Ali Hassan al-Majid, another Saddam cousin, is said to have cut off his head with a knife. It cemented Ali Hassan’s role as loyal member of Saddam’s inner circle, known as "chemical Ali" for his involvement in the use of chemical weapons against the Kurds.

The deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, is a hardened veteran of Saddam’s regime. His position as the cabinet’s only Christian, his urbane manner, and his experience at the highest levels of world diplomacy gives outsiders the impression of a moderate. He is valued by Saddam because of his skill in communicating with the outside world. He was picked, for example, to re-open relations with the United States, which he did in 1984, after meetings with the former president, Ronald Reagan, and other prominent members of the Reagan administration.

Another key figure is the vice-chairman of the revolutionary command council, Ezzat Ibrahim. He was given the job this year of organising a referendum on whether Saddam should stay in office - chairing a committee to ensure a "successful result".

In the last referendum, Saddam won the approval of more than 99 per cent of the voters. Experts agree that Saddam is a ruler of one.

"I don’t think he takes advice from anybody," says one retired diplomat, who spent 30 years of his working life in the Gulf region.

"He doesn’t take advice, he makes up his mind. If they give him advice, he suspects them and ruthlessly knocks them off.

"They are all too scared of him, though some are as big blackguards as he is. He is a strong, ruthless man and he has a protection apparatus second to none, in the way everybody informs on everybody else."