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| Iraq |
| Saddam signed my 'Most Wanted' ace |
| 2008-05-02 |
| A US soldier who guarded Saddam Hussein and his cronies yesterday revealed he has an almost complete set of signed ‘Iraq’s most wanted’ playing cards. The US military developed the special deck to help troops identify the fugitive members of Saddam’s government. And as they were rounded up and taken to Camp Cropper near Baghdad Airport Sergeant Mark Heinbaugh was able to get them to sign their card. Even Saddam gave his signature, under the word Victor in red ink — the guards’ codename for him. Those on the cards were all high-ranking Baath Party members or from the Revolutionary Command Council. Each card contains the wanted person’s name, a picture if available, and their job. The highest-ranking cards, starting with the aces and kings, were used for the people at the top of the most-wanted list. Saddam’s card was the ace of spades. Mark’s other signed cards were of Saddam’s cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid al-Tikriti — dubbed CHEMICAL ALI for his use of chemical weapons. He was the king of spades. He is now on death row for the massacre of 200,000 Kurds. Saddam’s cigar-smoking deputy prime minister TARIQ AZIZ, 72, was the eight of clubs. Mark said he was "living in a mess" at the camp, throwing his unfinished food on the floor and leaving it to rot. Aziz has lung disease and is so ill that he is expected to die before his trial. Saddam’s half-brother, BARZAN EBRAHIM AL TIKRITI was the five of clubs. He was hanged last January. Mark said: "He was aggressive. He tried to grab one of our guards and drag him into his room by his neck and shoulder." Saddam’s minister of the interior MAHMUD DHIYAB AL-AHMAD scribbled "with my respect" on his card — the seven of spades. The infamous ‘Anthrax Annie’ — HUDA SALIH MAHDI AMMASH, the five of hearts, used her card to protest her innocence. She scribbled: "Leadership? Yes. Scientist? Indeed. But WMD??!! By no means. A truth that’ll shine one day . . . by the grace of god not far away." Mark said: "We also called Annie ‘Shadyside’. Before the war she had worked as a scientist in the US and had been treated for cancer in Shadyside, Pennsylvania." Mark, 45, who was serving with the Pennsylvania National Guard, was dispatched to Camp Cropper for a year from March 2004 — three months after Saddam’s capture. Saddam was hanged in 2006. Mark added: "A lot of the detainees were happy to sign the cards. They said it made them look like celebrities. They were happy to be remembered. I think I am the only soldier with practically a full set of signed cards. And I got a signature from Saddam himself. "A friend was guarding him and got him to sign my ace of spades. "They said he did it with no complaint at all." |
| Posted by:Seafarious |
| #9 not cards but comic books for me. My family moved and I had 8 shelves of comic books in pristine condition, we were moving and my mom said we could buy more when we got to our new place.... Real agony to remember that. |
| Posted by: Jan 2008-05-02 22:58 |
| #8 Sell... Sell Mom.... ~:) |
| Posted by: RD 2008-05-02 12:26 |
| #7 KA-CHING! |
| Posted by: mojo 2008-05-02 12:12 |
| #6 SteveS, very funny. Painful but funny. My mom chucked all my Star Wars cards. I looked up the values in the early 90s to find she'd tossed roughly $4.50 worth of cards because every kid had the red, blue and gold sets. Now they are probably worth something but I might have tossed them after Jar Jar so my mom gets off. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2008-05-02 11:58 |
| #5 Did Uday and Tuesday sign any cards ? |
| Posted by: wxjames 2008-05-02 10:51 |
| #4 Hopefully, his Mom won't throw them away. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2008-05-02 10:01 |
| #3 This guy couuld walk into any baseball card shop in the country and...get offered $22.50 for it. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-05-02 09:13 |
| #2 A pity he doesn't have Izzy's signed card. |
| Posted by: doc 2008-05-02 08:55 |
| #1 What an amazing story. Sergeant Mark Heinbaugh has created something that may well end up in the Smithsonian someday. Way to go, Sergeant! Thanks for the link, Seafarious. |
| Posted by: ryuge 2008-05-02 06:50 |