Saddam's Bombmaker: The Daring Escape of the Man Who Built Iraq's Secret Weapon |
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You Are Here: Home > History Books > Gallic Wars > Item 256
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Saddam's Bombmaker: The Daring Escape of the Man Who Built Iraq's Secret Weapon
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by Khidhir Hamza and Jeff Stein
Sales Rank: 615801
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List Price: $14.00
$12.60
At Amazon
on 11-1-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 352 pages
Published by: Scribner October 30, 2001
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0743211359
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0743211352
Book Dimensions:
8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
Weighs: 11.2 ounces
Product Review
"I am lucky to be alive," writes Khidhir Hamza on the opening page of this memoir, which reads like a thriller. Hamza describes how he helped Saddam Hussein design a nuclear bomb over the course of 22 years. He has an amazing story to relate, and with the help of collaborator Jeff Stein, he tells it remarkably well. It begins with his cloak-and-dagger escape from Baghdad in 1994, then goes back in time to describe the education he received earlier in the United States. Hamza returned to his native Iraq, and Saddam seduced him into accepting the comfortable life of an atomic scientist trying to build a bomb for a megalomaniac. Hamza presents a terrifying, almost psychotic portrait of Hussein himself: the dictator--a man with "yellow, lifeless eyes"--has a paranoid fear of germs and a taste for Johnnie Walker Blue Label. He's prone to drunken rages and relies on sedatives to keep control of himself: "His personality grew more erratic with the ups and downs of the drugs, the liquor, and the pressures of command." Hamza recounts a story told by one of Saddam's doctors, in which the strongman was found "stomping about his palace bedroom in a blood-splotched shirt" near the body of a lady whose throat was slit.
Hamza was eventually kept under house arrest, and even threatened with torture. His escape was an amazing feat, and the message he brought to the West is vital: "I have no doubt that Iraq is pursuing the nuclear option." The Gulf War slowed development, but failed to shut it down. The coalition that knocked Saddam out of Kuwait has fallen apart, and United Nations inspectors no longer try to keep him in check. Hamza urges policymakers to confront Saddam, and suggests that the CIA redouble its efforts to help topnotch scientists flee from their virtual captivity. If rogue nations experience a brain drain, he says, their capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction will suffer. Saddam's Bombmaker is hard to put down and essential reading for anybody interested in national security. --John J. Miller
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
"Behind every closed door in Baghdad is a scientist or an official who would like to leave," writes Hamza, the former head of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's nuclear program, who defected in 1994Dand was initially dismissed by the CIA as an alarmist; to this day, he remains the only member of Saddam's inner circle to escape and survive. Early in his career, Hamza believed the bomb would serve only as "diplomatic leverage" and would never be completed, much less used. However, as Saddam gained greater control, the nuclear program became his obsession and he appointed Hamza as his right-hand man. Hamza's keen sense of pacing (balancing personal memoir with political history) and his clear and vivid writing serve to indict Iraq under Saddam, painting a detailed and convincing portrait of what it's like to live in a country under a violent dictator where there is no viable opposition or independent judiciary. In the West, Saddam became synonymous with terror only after his invasion of Kuwait, but for Iraqis that terror began far earlier. Hamza recalls colleagues who were tortured and killed, and doctors weeping as they told him of being forced to watch the killings of Shiites, whom Saddam feared politically, or the gassing of Kurds, designed both to eliminate this minority and to test biological weapons. Agent, Gail Ross. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Reader Reviews
This review is from: Saddam's Bombmaker: The Terrifying Inside Story of the Iraqi Nuclear and Biological Weapons Agenda (Hardcover)
"The Egyptian belly dancers jiggled across the stage, shaking their bellies like quivering bowls of crème brulee. The oudh players strummed themselves into a dither. The violinists sawed away. (p. 85)." This book tells and engaging and important story, even if it is told through often amateurish prose which sometimes reads more like the product of a high school creative writing class than a bestseller. The author is entitled to some forgiveness since he is not writing in his native language and his expertise is in physics and not literature. However, he does have a distracting propensity towards cliché phrases and awkward simile. Does crème brulee really quiver? I make this point only because other reviews have described the writing as "superb." I respectfully disagree. I enjoyed this book, but not because it is superbly written. I found the writing to boorish and tired, but the story itself to be enthralling. While the book may lack some elements of style, it tells the interesting story of Khidmir Hamza who headed Iraq's atomic bomb program. This is a tale that is at the same time fascinating and frightening. If you find the author to be credible, then the book gives you insight into Iraq's horrific and brutal regime. While I enjoyed this book, I do have some criticisms. First, there is the difficulty with some of the prose that I illustrated above. Second, it is the story of Khidmir Hamza. The author is writing his autobiography and not an analysis of the political or military status of Iraq. While Saddam Hussein and his regime are interwoven, this is secondary. Indeed, much of what the author writes about Hussein are things that Hamza heard said or suspected may have happened. A fair amount of what he retells is actually nothing more than rumor. When he speaks of torture or murder, its usually prefaced with a statement that he had heard that this had happened. However, he never actually witnessed much of that he writes about nor did he speak directly to persons who had. Sometimes the direct witnesses/victims disagreed with his accounts, but he suspected they were lying. A lot of the sensational aspects of the book are truly based upon gossip. While gossip is sometimes true, it isn't always and eyewitness testimony or direct knowledge would have been more compelling. Thirdly, as some other reviewers have alluded to, Hamza himself has a bit of a credibility problem. Some of what he writes does not ring true. Hamza came to the United States, studied atomic physics at premier institutions, returned to Iraq, began attempting to manufacture an atomic bomb for the purpose of killing civilians, used guile and deception to obtain parts, supplies and research data under false pretenses, but accepts virtually no culpability for his actions. Despite the fact that these efforts made him wealthy and brought him into the inner circle of the Palace with all the privileges that entailed, the author portrays himself as an unwitting and seemingly helpless victim. He would have us believe that the prestige, gourmet food and alcohol, expensive cars, gifts of money were all things thrust upon him that he never sought out nor wanted. This is a gripping book and may be worthy of your time if you are interested. However, I believe that you need to approach any book with an obvious political agenda with a little bit of skepticism. While elements of this book are probably true, the impression that the author sanitized his role in the events detracts from the credibility of what he writes.
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Saddam's Bombmaker: The Daring Escape of the Man Who Built Iraq's Secret Weapon
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Price: $12.60
Updated on 11-1-2008.
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