Ali Ibrahim Al-Tikriti, a southern regional commander for Saddam’s Fedayheen in the mid-to-late 1980’s. Due to his ruthlessness in heading the brutal campaign to terrorize the population, he was known as the “Butcher of Basra.” :
“The crimes against humanity didn’t make me second guess what I was doing. I was very desensitized to death and mass graves at this point but not the explanations for why. The man and the party that I followed and was willing to sacrifice my family for was justifying their acts upon what Hitler and Stalin did made me realize that I was no different than the regimes I despised. I wasn’t doing good or progressing the Middle East and the Arab people by doing the same acts and following the same road of these two regimes.”
“The relationship between the Ba’ath Party in Baghdad and Damascus were one in the same. There is no doubt in my mind that if Saddam wanted to he could have sent such weapons (WMD) and documents to Syria with ease. Assad and especially his generals would have welcomed such an idea or proposal from Saddam.”
