Sept. 5, 2008

Bismarck, NDSecrets, secrets and more secrets. Georges Sada, a general under former dictator Saddam Hussein, has plenty of secrets to tell after years in the Hussein regime as the air vice marshall in charge of the Iraqi Air Force.

var hasReqestedVersion = DetectFlashVer(requiredMajorVersion, requiredMinorVersion, requiredRevision);if (hasReqestedVersion) {AC_FL_RunContent("src", "/U-Mary Home/swfs/sada/GeneralGeorgesSada","width", "320","height", "240","align", "left","id", "detectionExample","quality", "high","bgcolor", "#FFFFFF", "name", "detectionExample","allowScriptAccess","sameDomain","type", "application/x-shockwave-flash",'codebase', 'http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/swflash.cab', "pluginspage", "http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer");} else { var alternateContent = 'This video requires the latest version of the Adobe Flash Player.

' + 'Get Flash'; document.write(alternateContent);}

Speaking at a special convocation today in U-Mary's Heskett Hall, Sada, author of "Saddam's Secrets," painted a graphic picture of Hussein's dictatorial control. Sada shared his stories and experiences with to a standing-room-only crowd of students, faculty, and visitors.

Sada is one of very few men to refuse an order by Hussein and live to tell about it. One such directive came when as commander of the Iraq air force, Sada was ordered by Hussein to equip 96 supersonic fighters with chemical bombs that would be dropped on the primary population centers of Israel. Sada persuaded Hussein this would not succeed because of Israel's superior military equipment and the fighters would be spotted before reaching their targetsalthough Sada believed some of the aircraft would have gotten through and reached their intended targets.

According to Sada, there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Some of them were destroyed, but a large number were shipped across the border into Syria, where they remain to this day.

Sada told the New York Sun the pilots of the two airliners that transported the weapons of mass destruction to Syria approached him in the middle of 2004, after Hussein was captured by American troops.

"I know them very well," Sada told the Sun. The pilots told Sada that two Iraqi Airways Boeings were converted to cargo planes by removing the seats.

Another defiant moment came in 1991 when Sada was ordered to execute some American and coalition pilots that were shot down. When he refused the order, he was thrown into prison where he suffered greatly. The pilots whose lives were saved by Sada's stand have since expressed their appreciation for his bravery.

 

General Georges Sada's Biography:

Georges Hormis Sada graduated from Iraq's Air Academy in 1959 and was trained by elite forces in Great Britain, Russia, and the United States. An ace fighter pilot who trained other pilots, he went on to become air vice marshal in Saddam Hussein's military. His acts of bravery, including saving the lives of 40 downed coalition pilots in the Gulf War, have earned him hero status.

Sada was born into an Assyrian Christian family in northern Iraq and became a born-again believer in 1986. Sada had great favor with the former Iraqi dictator, and is one of the few Iraqi men to ever publicly confront Saddam Hussein and live to tell about it. Georges believes a key reason why he served as one of Saddam's most trusted advisors was to persuade him against attacking the nation of Israel with chemical weapons, something Saddam attempted to do on two separate occasions.

Now retired, Georges is director of the Iraqi Institute for Peace and also serves as spokesman for the newly elected prime minister of Iraq. He is also the president of the National Presbyterian Church in Baghdad and chairman of the Assembly of Iraqi Evangelical Presbyterian Churches.

In recent years, Georges held the position of principal advisor to the former Iraqi Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi. Additionally, he acted as the lead consultant for the reconstruction of all three branches of the Iraqi defense system. In June of 2003, Georges received the prestigious International Prize for Peace and Reconciliation, presented by the Bishop of Coventry, England. | save this article / add to your favorites list