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Insightful, penetrating, and shocking, the defining
biography of Iraq's deposed tyrant

Drawing on an unparalleled network of sources, contacts, and firsthand testimonies, Con Coughlin takes us to the center of Saddam Hussein's complex, bewildering regime -- and beyond. Fully updated and revised, Saddam: His Rise and Fall meticulously describes how Hussein took power and immediately set about controlling every aspect of Iraqi life.

Coughlin examines Hussein's regime both before and after its fall, exploring the contradictions of Saddam's private life: his sponsoring of Islamic fundamentalism while whiskey drinking and womanizing as well as his reliance on and celebration of family negated by his violent and temperamental treatment of them. With evidence from family members, servants, and staff, Saddam: His Rise and Fall is unique in its close-up representation of this elusive and secretive world.

In all-new chapters and an epilogue, and with shocking new disclosures, Coughlin also vividly recounts the last few months of Saddam's reign and his eventual capture by American forces.

In July 1979, Saddam Hussein became the President of Iraq. His dictum was simply expressed—power through terror. During the first decade of his presidency, Saddam engaged in three wars: the Iran-Iraq War, the invasion of Kuwait, and the Gulf War of 1991. After September 11th, the war on terrorism led to the war against Iraq that began in March 2003 and the eventual capture of Sadddam Hussein effecitively ending his rule over the Iraqi people. On April 9, 2003, a handful of U.S. Marines helped a small crowd of Iraqis gathered in Firdos Square to tear down a statue of Saddam Hussein. Since his capture, Saddam has been transferred to Iraqi legal custody and awaits his trial for atrocities committed during his regime.

This biography details Saddam's difficult childhood in Tikrit and his politically influential teenage years in Baghdad with his uncle. His involvement with the Iraqi Baath Party led to his participation in an assassination attempt on then Prime Minister Qassem. In his early political life, Saddam retained the lessons of village life learned in his difficult Tikrit childhood, but they would become enmeshed with his discovery of Baathism and pan-Arabism. Once he became President of Iraq, Saddam often ruled with force and a carefully cultivated image throughout the use of visual imagery and books. Though Saddam no longer rules Iraq, the legacy of his reign will likely shape Iraqi history for years to come.

• ISBN13: 9780061714474
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Everyone has seen the footage: a heavily bearded Saddam Hussein blinking under the bright lights of infantry cameras, dazed to find himself in U.S. Army custody. Yet while the breaking news was broadcast around the world, the story of the remarkable events leading up to that moment on December 13, 2003, has never before been fully told. Mission: Black List #1 offers the complete, behind-the-scenes account of the search for Saddam Hussein, as related by the Army interrogator whose individual courage and sheer determination made the capture possible.

In July of 2003, Staff Sergeant Eric Maddox was deployed to Baghdad alongside intelligence analysts and fellow interrogators. Their assignment was clear: gather actionable intelligence—leads that could be used to launch raids on High Value Targets within the insurgency. But, as Maddox recounts, hunting for the hidden links in the terrorist network would require bold and untested tactics, and the ability to never lose sight of the target, often hiding in plain sight.

After months of chasing down leads, following hunches, and interrogating literally hundreds of detainees, Sergeant Maddox uncovered crucial details about the insurgency. In his final days in Iraq, he closed in on the dictator's inner circle and, within hours of his departure from the country, pinpointed the precise location of Saddam's Tikrit spider hole. Maddox's candid and compelling narrative reveals the logic behind the unique interrogation process he developed and provides an insider's look at his psychologically subtle, nonviolent methods. The result is a gripping, moment-by-moment account of the historic mission that brought down Black List #1.

At the end of 2005, as the war in Iraq goes from bad to worse, the trial of Saddam Hussein with its foregone conclusion flies largely under the radar of international scrutiny. When thirty-six-year-old public defender Malcolm X Heinlein is asked to travel to Iraq to represent a little-known co-defendant at the trial, he understands he is being chosen because of his strange pedigree and, possibly, his conspiratorial history with Ayesha Qaddafi, trial counsel for Saddam and the thirty-year-old daughter of Muammar Qaddafi. Malcolm and his friend and mentor Sophia soon learn that their client, Mohamed Jabbouri, is a former Saddam body double who wants desperately to testify against Saddam in exchange for freedom for himself and his family in America. At first, arranging Jabbouri s deal seems almost too easy. But the murder of Malcolm s Iraqi co-counsel on Baghdad s streets, the near murder of Sophia, and shadowy threats from an unknown source prove that Jabbouri s life, and Malcolm s, are far from secure. Malcolm realizes that his mission requires him to confront the very heart of the hypocrisy of the Hussein trial Chief Investigating Judge Ra id al-Juhi. Al-Juhi presents as a perfectly self-interested Iraqi ladder climber, but Malcolm learns that his motives are more complex than the Americans or Ayesha could ever have imagined. Malcolm also asks himself a key question which everyone else seems to be ignoring why would the Americans want Saddam dead? With help from Ayesha, an alcoholic British reporter, and Saddam himself, Malcolm slowly begins to take in the full conspiracy underlying the trial, and chooses to risk everything to save his client s life. In a dramatic endgame culminating with the famous cell phone video of Saddam s execution, Malcolm learns that Ayesha Qaddafi s cryptic warning could not have been more accurate Nothing is what it seems in the matter of Saddam Hussein.