Senator McConnell Comments on the Deaths of Qusay and Uday Hussein

Senator McConnell Comments On The Deaths Of Qusay And Uday Hussein
Senator McConnell praises the role the 101st Airborne Division played in the mission
Tuesday, July 22, 2003

WASHINGTON, DC—U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell today delivered the following statement on the Senate floor.

"Mr. President, normally in our country we don't applaud the death of anyone. We value life greatly. But today we do indeed applaud the death, the removal, of two of the most vicious criminals who ever lived. Yesterday we heard confirmation that the 101st Airborne—I can proudly say headquartered in Fort Campbell, KY—in a raid on a house in Mosul, killed Uday and Qusay Hussein, two of the biggest monsters who ever walked the face of the Earth.

"Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that two Associated Press obituaries be printed in the RECORD at this point, but I want to take a look at those obituaries because I think they tell you a lot about what this war was all about.

"First, let's take a look at Qusay Hussein. Qusay was No. 2 on our list of 55 most wanted men from the former Iraqi regime, behind only his father Saddam. He is also on the Bush administration list of former Iraqi regime members who could have been tried for war crimes. Let's take a look at what he did, not only to help control the regime but apparently also for his own personal amusement. The AP says:

"Quiet, handsome, and every bit as brutal as Saddam, the 37-year-old Qusai headed Iraq's intelligence and security services, his father's personal security force and the Republican Guard, [which we all know was supposedly] an elite group of 80,000 soldiers responsible for defending Baghdad.

"That was his portfolio in the regime.

"Iraqis nicknamed Qusay "The Snake" for his bloodthirsty but low-profile manner. He was a leading figure of terror in the conflict aftermath of the gulf war in 1991, using mass executions and torture to crush the Shiite Muslim uprising after the Persian Gulf war.

"The AP says Qusay also helped engineer the destruction of the southern marshes in the 1990s aimed at Shiite Marsh Arabs who had lived there for over 1,000 years.

"Qusay also oversaw Iraq's notorious detention centers and was believed to have initiated "prison cleansing"—a means of relieving severe overcrowding in jails.

"That is a unique way to deal with jail overcrowding—the way they did it in Iraq—by eliminating the prisoners.

"Citing testimony from former Iraqi intelligence officers and other state employees, New York-based Human Rights Watch said several thousand inmates were executed at Iraq's prisons over the past several years.

"One of the things Qusay liked to do in overseeing these prison executions was to feed the prisoners into shredders. The lucky prisoners were the ones who got fed into the shredders head first because they died quickly. The unlucky prisoners were the ones who were fed into shredders feet first.

"This was Qusay Hussein—eliminated by the 101st Airborne yesterday, No. 2 on our list of most wanted from the Saddam Hussein regime.

"Qusay was made chief of the army branch for the ruling Baath Party in 2000, meaning virtually all of the movements were under his supervision.

"This man was a complete monster. Thanks to the 101st Airborne, he is no longer able to terrorize Iraqi citizens.

"Let's take a look at Uday, No. 3 on the list, the murderous and erratic oldest son of Saddam Hussein.

"He controlled the propaganda in Iraq and allegedly oversaw the torture of athletes who failed to perform. Talk about an incentive. In Iraq, if you were an athlete and you didn't measure up, you got to meet Uday Hussein, No. 3 on the most wanted list, only eclipsed by his younger brother, whose activities I just described, and his father, who is No. 1 on the list.

"Uday was head of the paramilitary Fedayeen Saddam unit. Uday helped his father eliminate opponents and exert iron-fisted control over the 25 million people in Iraq. Iraqi exiles tell us that Uday murdered at will and tortured with zeal—Murdered at will and tortured with zeal, and routinely ordered his guards to snatch young women off the streets—routinely ordered his guards to attack young women on the streets—to bring them in for his personal pleasure. So he was raping them.

"Uday was fascinated with prisoners as well. Like his younger brother, he would order the prisoners to be dropped into acid baths as punishment. His tendency toward erratic brutality even eclipsed his father's. That is pretty hard to imagine—that you could be so outrageous and so brutal that you could outrate Saddam Hussein. But apparently that is what happened. He was temporarily banished after he killed one of his father's favorite bodyguards in 1988.

"Much of Uday's notoriety abroad stemmed from his position as head of the National Iraqi Olympic Committee, which was accused of torturing and jailing athletes. The London-based human rights group Indict said the committee once made a group of track athletes crawl on newly poured asphalt while they were beaten, and he also threw some of them off a bridge. Indict also said Uday ran a special prison for athletes who offended him.

"This was Uday Hussein.

"One defector told Indict that jailed soccer players were forced to kick a concrete ball after failing to reach the 1994 World Cup finals. Another defector said athletes were dragged through a gravel pit and then dunked in a sewage tank so that infection would set in.

"While millions of Iraqis suffered dire poverty, Uday lived a life of fast cars and expensive liquor. When U.S. troops captured his mansion in Baghdad, they found a personal zoo.

"The man had his own personal zoo with lions and cheetahs—and an underground parking garage for his collection of luxury cars, Cuban cigars with his name on the wrapper, and $1 million in fine wines, liquor, and even heroin.

"This was Uday Hussein.

"In this country, we rarely applaud the deaths of anyone. But these two monsters—No. 2 and No. 3 on the list of the regime that we are tracking in Iraq—will no longer be able to prey on the citizens of Iraq for their own amusement. No longer will Iraqis live in fear of night-time visits from the Fedayeen and the secret police. No longer will Iraqi athletes fear being tortured for failure to win a soccer game. No longer will young Iraqi brides be forcibly taken from their families on their wedding day to be exploited by Uday Hussein.

"Knowing what we now know about the Saddam Hussein regime and its penchant for brutality, it is abundantly clear that as a result of ridding Iraq of this evil Iraqi, the world is a better place.

"Are we finished with the job in Iraq? Not yet. But yesterday was a day of great progress. No. 2 and No. 3 are no longer available to prey on the citizens of Iraq. We believe No. 1 -- Saddam Hussein—is still alive. And we are on his trail. And he will been brought to justice.

"I yield the floor."