The Insider: Trapped in Saddam's Brutal Regime

by Ala Bashir

Ala Bashir, former Professor of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Baghdad University and Iraq’s most highly decorated doctor, was Saddam Hussein’s personal physician from 1983 to 2003. From his vantage point as a reluctant “Saddam favorite,” Bashir observed and tracked political events in Baghdad. He also witnessed and recorded the hidden life of Saddam’s regime and family—the fear and the killings, the partying and profligacy, and the total disregard for human life and dignity. When Bashir left Iraq in 2003, he brought his diaries with him. Based on these secret documents, The Insider is the astonishing testimony of a man who found himself an unwilling confidant to one of the most infamous dictators in history.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, History

327 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Ala Bashir is an Iraqi painter, sculptor and plastic surgeon.

Reviews

[Dimitri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bashir had two aces in his position towards Saddam. He was favorably regarded as an artist and never seeked financial gain. Rather he accumulated the invaluable currency of protection in an unpredictable tribal kleptocracy.

Saddam's corns caused by Ill fitting shoes and a nearly severed pink are the chief medical details on display.

That doesn't fill a book. Instead, the medical casualties of both the Iran Iraq War and Desert Storm pass. A soldier who shot himself in the leg. A five year old decapitated: a first not reported on CNN.

They're all snippets, glimpses, mostly from the private clinic from the dictator's close and crazy family. Do we get a look at the regime as a whole or a psychological portrait? No, we don't... Except that a one-on-one smile was a vital barometer to judge whether the Leader was contemplating your torture. In public, it meant nothing. He purged his own Parliament through "tears".

Third star earned by the historical context as built upon Bashir's life from Nasser onward. 1980 as a pre-emptive attack on a Sijite regime poised to overthrow Iraq's Sunni overlords? Kuwait overproducing oil in violation of OPEC agreements, spoiling the revenue for the Iraqi economy after a peak of common comfort in 1974?

I cannot judge the truth behind all this, but it's Food for Tought. It definitely explains the burning of Kuwaiti oil fields as more than scorched earth out of spite.

Bashir is also a different kind of patriot. Proud of his country as Mesopotamia, cradle of civilization. And angry over an embargo that takes milk from babies, but not Lamborghinis from the Tribe.

He left as the gold was being flown out in the wake of the 2003 invasion, as most jackals were fleeing.

What does he make of Iraq today? The book doesn't say.
But I wouldn't mind asking him over tea.

[Hampus Lund · Rating 4 out of 5]

Väldigt intressant men det blir lite långdraget att följa den perfekta människan som alltid gör rätt. Lite för självgod bok.

[Ian Chapman · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting personal memoir. The Iraqi author, one of the leading medical figures in the Arab world, was Saddam Hussein's personal doctor. This book portrays Baghdad society from the late 1950s to 2003, as well as notorious individuals, so it is quite a valuable historical document.

[Gary · Rating 3 out of 5]

based on the diaries of Saddam Husseins personal doctor from 1983-2003.