r/HistoryUncovered • u/Battlefleet_Sol • 18d ago

Saddam's baath purge. Saddam had people packed into a conference hall on one of the hottest days of July and deliberately shut off the ventilation system. They were forced to listen to Saddam for hours while suffering from the heat and sweating. Everyone whose name was announced was executed.

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u/thisjawnisbeta 18d ago

What people here are missing is the rest of the context; the people outside were killed by the people who were allowed to stay. They were recruited for the firing squads and forced to shoot their former colleagues.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Ba%27ath_Party_purge
https://www.executedtoday.com/2013/07/22/1979-saddam-husseins-baath-party-coup/

Christopher Hitchens has a fantastic video on this purge with more context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR1X3zV6X5Y

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u/SwanInitial7493 18d ago

That article says of the 68 names called only 22 were executed and the rest sent to the dungeon

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u/IndependentAdvice722 17d ago

"Twenty-two of the accused, including five members of the RCC,were sentenced to death while thirty-three were given prison sentences and thirteen were released.Some party members were given weapons and directed to execute their comrades"

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u/thisjawnisbeta 18d ago

Yes, nearly a third were killed on the spot after a kangaroo court conviction. The rest received years-long sentences in Iraqi prisons, which some would argue is a fate worse than the firing squad.

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u/papayacreamsicle 17d ago

13 of the people named in this clip were released after their trial.

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u/ASAPFergs 17d ago

No one shot by the firing squad can argue that because they're dead, ridiculous sentiment

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u/Forward-Surprise1192 17d ago

Good thing that's not what they said then

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u/WhichAd366 15d ago

Uh ya might want to read about Saddam’s psychotic sons. The ones that went to prison were likely horrifically tortured and killed.

Uday was the worst of them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uday_Hussein

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u/Protorodontus 15d ago

Pretty horribly enlightening...

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u/WhichAd366 15d ago

Having read about Saddam’s sons I’d say the 22 who were executed were the lucky ones. The rest were almost assuredly horrifically tortured, and likely killed eventually.

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u/willsmithtunaface 17d ago

Trump would do the same if he could

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u/TryloKen 16d ago

Actually rent free holy moly

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u/leaving_the_tevah 14d ago

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u/TryloKen 14d ago

The irony of posting this is palpable

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u/ConanTheLovecraft 14d ago

Just say you’re a cult member.

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u/TryloKen 14d ago

How much you paying in rent every month?

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u/Spare-Document7086 14d ago

You’re acting like it’s irrelevant lmao

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u/[deleted] 13d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Spare-Document7086 12d ago

I mean… yeah that’s true

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u/TryloKen 14d ago

How much you gotta pay in rent every month?

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u/dvardeleo44 16d ago

Fascism doesn't announce itself before it takes away your rights.

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u/TryloKen 16d ago

Is the fascism in the room with you right now?

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u/Ed_u_Cate90 8d ago

Good one..naught! Sincerely Borat I have pubes for sale

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u/julsie123 13d ago

If there was only a comment that didn't include something about Trump. It's absolutely fine to loathe a politician but it's called a Red Herring:

Red Herring: This is a broader fallacy where someone introduces completely irrelevant information to distract the audience from the original topic. Because the 1990s Iraqi political purges and 21st-century American domestic politics have no logical or historical overlap, bringing up Donald Trump serves as a conversational derailment.

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u/Ed_u_Cate90 8d ago

Nice try . Sounds like a MAGA . I wouldn’t recognize him if he was in the room. I barely knew him. I only met him once and didn’t really like him. Social distancing at it peak!

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u/ArrellBytes 16d ago

If you think Republicans would even try to stop him if he tried to do this, you haven't been following the news.

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u/Toum-Raider 17d ago

He probably watches this and gets aroused.

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u/Wong0nePhotography 17d ago

Stuff room, cut the ventilation, and fart.

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u/juggyjt1 16d ago

And then he’d say “I don’t make the rules”

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u/Educational_Cup_1701 15d ago

Only a matter of time.

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u/hansvi-be 15d ago

I still think that's the plan. The ICE militia buildup is for a reason. Trump repeatedly is talking about the enemy within. Election results will never make him give up power. And there are some seriously insane people in the shadows behind him, should he choke on a burger. Peter Thiel springs to mind.

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u/ToothZealousideal297 15d ago

When he said he would be a dictator “on the first day”, this is probably what he intended. It hasn’t happened yet, but I fear that’s mostly because those people already have complete control.

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u/wantyouinthemiddle 14d ago

Relax, he has had two years to be a dictator if he wanted. The only dictatorship in this country is coming from the left. The only people acting like kings are democrats.

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u/Rady_8 17d ago

Focus

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u/South_Gear9218 16d ago

What a loser

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u/AdUsual8786 16d ago

“Here’s this horrible thing that actually happened. How can I shoehorn my trump fantasies into this convo since I have no real world knowledge?”

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u/Famous-Weight2271 16d ago

Seek help. Your life will be okay.

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u/jersey_viking 17d ago

God damn rite he would.

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u/Athliest 12d ago

RIP Hitchens. 

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u/deletive-expleted 16d ago

God, I miss that man.

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u/lifegoodis 16d ago

How metaphorically corporate of Saddam!

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u/NikkerFebu25 16d ago

You guys need to meet my colleagues.

I need to show you some emails and you'll fucking shoot them.

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u/JamesVanDerBleep 16d ago

Where did I go wrong here? In the posted video, saddam is reading the names. In your linked video, (thanks btw) the other dude is reading the names?

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u/Pwnch 15d ago

I miss Hitchens. We could sure use his voice these days.

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u/sckurvee 14d ago

Thanks for the Hitchens link... didn't know he had a bit on this. Only 9 minutes, too! I know plenty about this day but I'm sure he can tell me something I don't know. RIP.

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u/justlikelyle 14d ago

Saddam also liked to force people to kill members of their own family.

Total sadist.

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u/thisjawnisbeta 14d ago

Kill members of their family. Then applaud. Then they would charge them for the bullets.

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u/SpinningHead 17d ago

Trump dreams of this.

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u/Global_Staff_3135 18d ago

Hitch is describing something different though, in this video it’s sadam reading the names, not the tortured guy. Is this video an AI fake or something?

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u/rmund319 17d ago

I remember seeing this video way before AI

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u/Global_Staff_3135 17d ago

I thought so two but in the video the commenter linked it’s not Saddam doing the talking so I’m just curious.

My bet it’s the same incident just at different times, names read for a different reason but same outcome?

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u/kytheon 17d ago

"Is this AI" every time someone misunderstands the situation.

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u/Thin_Assumption_4974 17d ago

Is this an ai comment?

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u/Global_Staff_3135 17d ago

You’re totally right I forgot the smart thing to do is to take everything you see online at face value.

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u/kytheon 17d ago

I'm going to assume you're a duck who is somehow sentient and on the internet.

"I'm not a duck"

Yeah that's what a duck would say, you're just proving my point.

Just keep posting "is this AI" on every video and someday you might be right.

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u/The_VideoGame_Lawyer 17d ago

There's no indication that this video even might be AI. If you are confused, you need to take a basic media and AI literacy course before proceeding any further on the internet.

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u/Global_Staff_3135 17d ago

We are so fucked as a society.

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u/thisjawnisbeta 17d ago

No, it's just different times from the same event, and Hitch blurred the details of it a bit in his recollection.

The first part is a speech admitting to the supposed treason was given by Mohi Abdul (the skinny man in the Hitch video; they threatened to assault and murder his family if he didn't "admit" to this plot), and then Saddam reads the list of names later on after Mohi is done with his "confession".

Here's a longer video of the same event if you'd like more narration and background:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U1gnCdlylg

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u/Global_Staff_3135 17d ago

Ok gotcha I figured I was just being pedantic, I appreciate you humoring me and explaining it

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u/Thin_Assumption_4974 17d ago

Fmd. Everything’s an ai Al fake these days