Saddam Paid “Arab Fedayeen”

The latest translation from jveritas indicates that during the Iraq war, Saddam paid the “Arab Fedayeen” volunteers–i.e., terrorists–just as he paid members of Iraq’s own military. This document is dated April 4, 2003. For reference, it was April 9, 2003, when Baghdad fell and the statues of Saddam were toppled:

In the Name of God the Most Merciful The Most Compassionate
Republic Of Iraq
Directorate of the General Military Intelligence
No 9/39/1/

Date: 4 April 2003

Secret

To: The 8th Directorate

Subject: Order

The secret and urgent letter of the Presidential Secretariat K-1997 on 29/3/2003 including… The order of The President The Leader to the armed forces God protects him and according to the following:

The Volunteers Arab Feedayeen will be treated the treatment of the solider in the army (Special Forces) regarding the salary and benefits.

Please review and take what is necessary.

Signature

Staff General
Director of the General Military Intelligence
April 2003

This isn’t a big surprise; Saddam was encouraging volunteers to come from other Arab countries and there obviously was plenty of military cooperation. But it’s interesting that the Arab Fedayeen were so fully integrated into Saddam’s forces that they were paid salary and benefits on the same basis as Iraq’s own troops. (Or were supposed to be paid, anyway.) It would be interesting to know whether some of the Arab Fedayeen volunteers were terrorists who had been trained in Iraq’s camps prior to the war; it would also be interesting to know whether Saddam continued to fund the Fedayeen as “insurgents” after his regime fell.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses