Saddam's son makes a killing from drugs
By Con Coughlin

VITAL medical supplies shipped to Iraq to prevent its civilians suffering
unnecessary hardship are being smuggled out of the country and sold on the
black market in neighbouring Arab countries to finance Saddam Hussein's
brutal dictatorship.

The operation, which is worth millions of pounds to Saddam's cashstarved
regime, is being masterminded by Uday Hussein, the Iraqi dictator's son.

Some of the profits have been spent on expensive medical equipment from
European companies to assist Uday's recovery from the severe injuries he
suffered during an assassination attempt as he left a Baghdad nightclub
last December.

Iraq was forbidden from buying medical supplies under United Nations
sanctions imposed in 1991 at the end of the Gulf war. But the sanctions
were relaxed to allow Baghdad to sell limited quantities of oil to buy
medicines and other vital humanitarian supplies after the Iraqi regime
claimed that thousands of its civilians including women and children
were dying and suffering from serious illnesses.

The UN Security Council set strict controls designed to ensure the medical
supplies reached civilians, and were not used by the regime.

But a Telegraph investigation has discovered that large quantities of the
UNapproved medical supplies form the centrepiece of a sophisticated
smuggling operation being conducted by Iraq's security services to finance
Saddam's dictatorship. The main black market outlet for the Iraqi medicines
is the Jordanian capital, Amman, although the smuggling operation is also
understood to be active in Iran and other Gulf states.

Last week The Telegraph was able to acquire a wide variety of Iraqi
pharmaceutical products from street vendors and pharmacies in Amman's main
shopping district. Products purchased included creams for burns, eczema
ointment, and pills for asthma, flu and severe stomach disorders.

All were made by the State Enterprise for Drug Industries, Iraq's main
pharmaceutical production complex at Samarra. The medicines were
manufactured from materials shipped to Iraq with UN approval.

The smuggling operation is undertaken by Iraq's main intelligence service,
the Mukhabarat, which is under the direct control of Saddam's two sons,
Uday and Qusay.

In Jordan the drugs, which are cheaper than those manufactured by Western
companies, are delivered to pharmacies sympathetic to the Iraqi regime. The
Jordanian authorities, which have always adopted an ambivalent approach to
Saddam's regime, have so far shown no inclination to interfere with the
illegal trafficking.

Profits made from the drugs, which are estimated to earn Saddam millions of
pounds each year, are handed over to Mukhabarat agents. Some of the money
is used to finance and equip Iraq's intelligence service regarded as
vital to the survival of the dictatorship. But a large percentage of the
profits is given directly to Uday and Qusay to help finance the ruling
family's lavish lifestyle.

Uday recently spent an estimated £7 million on medical equipment from
European companies to aid his recovery. He was shot several times in the
abdomen and legs when a group of gunmen opened fire on his car as he was
being driven by his bodyguards. Uday also suffered severe internal injuries
and, in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, it was thought that he
would never walk again.

Although he has made a partial recovery making a dramatic appearance on
Iraqi television last summer to announce his return to health Uday has
suffered permanent paralysis in one leg.

He has also been rendered impotent since the shooting as a consequence of
his injuries, a grave blow for someone whose penchant for womanising is
legendary in Baghdad. His sexual escapades may even have been the motive
for the assassination attempt.

Apart from wheelchairs and crutches, he has acquired a body brace that
enables him to stand unaided. He has also bought dialysis machines and
invested in treatments that might help him regain his virility.

The revelation that vital medicine supplies are being sold on the black
market to fund the Hussein family's regime will further fuel the
controversy at the Security Council over whether maintaining sanctions
against Iraq is achieving any success.

"These medicines are supposed to relieve the suffering of the Iraqi
people," said Dr Ayad Alawi, the Londonbased head of the dissident Iraqi
National Accord organisation."Instead they are being used to pay for
Saddam's corrupt regime. It is time the UN took action to stop Saddam's
cronies exploiting the suffering of the Iraqi people," he said.

Iraqi dissident groups also believe that Saddam's regime is involved in
selling oil and other commodities on the black market. But the chances of
the UN taking firm action to curtail Iraq's black market operations look slim.

Britain and America, which favour maintaining wideranging sanctions
against Baghdad, this weekend find themselves at odds at the Security
Council with Russia, China and France which oppose Washington's
determination to punish Iraq for Saddam's latest confrontation with a team
of UN weapons inspectors.

In an attempt to defuse the crisis, the foreign ministers of France and
Russia, Iraq's two sympathisers on the council, yesterday issued an "urgent
appeal" to Baghdad to rescind its demand for 10 Americans on the 40member
UN weapons inspection team to leave the country.

But all the indications are that Iraq has every intention of escalating the
last standoff with the UN, even at the risk of incurring punitive air
strikes. Western intelligence reports from Iraq indicate that Saddam has
ordered a mass mobilisation of all males over 30, an order that is only
given when Iraq is being placed on a war footing.

There are also unconfirmed reports of troops and heavy armour, including
tanks, being assembled in the southern Iraqi province of Zubair, the area
surrounding Basra.

Whatever intentions lie behind Saddam's latest posturing, it can be assumed
that the wellbeing of the Iraqi people, as his handling of their health
care shows, is not high on the Iraqi dictator's list of priorities.