it's the thought that counts

Saddam Hussein Really Knew How to Wow Visiting Dignitaries

Former secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has released a video given to him as a “gift” by Saddam Hussein in 1983, when Rumsfeld visited Iraq as Ronald Reagan’s Middle East envoy. The video “shows young Syrians biting the heads off of snakes and stabbing puppies, to the apparent applause of then-Syrian dictator Hafez al-Assad,” an enemy whom Hussein hoped to portray as “barbaric.” Weirdest of all is that the film won Best Original Screenplay at the Syrian Oscars. [Rumsfeld Papers via Politico]

Saddam Hussein Really Knew How to Wow Visiting Dignitaries