The Reality of Uday Hussein

Summary

Podcast Summary: Camp Gagnon - "The Reality of Uday Hussein"

Podcast Information:

• Title: Camp Gagnon
• Host: Mark Gagnon
• Episode: The Reality of Uday Hussein
• Release Date: July 10, 2025
• Description: Home to the most interesting conversations on the internet. I'm Mark Gagnon and welcome to Camp!

---

1. Introduction to Uday Hussein

Mark Gagnon opens the episode by introducing Uday Hussein, labeling him as "The Butcher of Baghdad" and describing him as one of the most evil men to ever live. Uday, the eldest son of Saddam Hussein, surpassed his father in cruelty and brutality, acting out of sheer sadism rather than any political agenda.

Mark Gagnon [00:00]: "He was being cruel just for the sake of his own sadistic mind."

2. Early Life and Background

Born on June 18, 1964, Uday was Saddam Hussein's oldest son. Saddam missed Uday's birth due to being imprisoned for an assassination plot, setting a tumultuous start for Uday. In 1979, at the age of 15, Uday witnessed his father's rise to the presidency of Iraq, a period marked by violence, ruthlessness, and immense accumulation of wealth and power.

Joey Avery [06:00]: "Uday is the quintessential Nepo baby and kind of a bad guy."

3. Uday's Lifestyle and Cruelty

Uday led an extravagant and hedonistic lifestyle, indulging in luxury cars, designer clothes, and excessive partying. His obsession with appearance was so intense that he enforced strict dress codes among his staff, punishing anyone who wore his clothing.

Mark Gagnon [10:00]: "His vanity was so extreme that if any of his staff members wore clothing that he owned, Uday would force them to take it off and never wear it again."

4. The Body Double Story

To protect himself from assassination attempts, Uday employed body doubles—individuals trained to look like him. One notable story involves Latif Yahya, a soldier chosen to be Uday's body double. Latif underwent intense training, including plastic surgery, to mimic Uday's appearance and behavior meticulously.

Mark Gagnon [23:15]: "Uday, seeing the threats here, he was like, I need my own body double."

5. Uday's Violence and Atrocious Acts

Uday's reign was characterized by extreme violence and sadism. He was notorious for torturing and murdering individuals, including athletes whom he targeted to instill fear. His methods ranged from physical beatings to psychological torture, such as forcing athletes to kick concrete balls or subjecting them to electric drills.

Joey Avery [25:31]: "He takes an electric drill and murders him."

Additionally, Uday conducted brutal wedding raids, forcibly taking newlywed brides from their husbands, further cementing his reputation as a tyrant.

Mark Gagnon [70:54]: "He was legit. Finding weddings actively happening and then try to find brides."

6. Attempts on Uday's Life and His Death

Due to his extreme cruelty, numerous attempts were made to assassinate Uday. His aggressive behavior made him a primary target for rebel groups like Al Nahda. On July 22, 2003, a joint operation by the American military forces led to a fierce gunfight at Uday's hideout in Mosul. Despite his violent resistance, Uday was ultimately killed in the assault.

Joey Avery [85:08]: "And there they are, dead as..."

Following his death, Iraqi citizens expressed their relief, with celebratory gunshots heard across Baghdad, signaling the end of his terror.

7. Conclusion and Lessons

Mark Gagnon concludes the episode by reflecting on Uday Hussein's life as a stark example of how absolute power corrupts absolutely. Unlike other dictators who may have grandiose agendas, Uday's cruelty appeared to stem from a personal sadism devoid of any constructive purpose. His story serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of unchecked power and the corrupting influence it can have, especially on those born into it.

Mark Gagnon [74:51]: "Uday just seemed like he was being cruel for... He just would go around and try to exercise his brutality as much as possible and had no goal that he was working towards."

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Notable Quotes:

• Mark Gagnon [00:00]: "He was being cruel just for the sake of his own sadistic mind."
• Joey Avery [06:00]: "Uday is the quintessential Nepo baby and kind of a bad guy."
• Mark Gagnon [10:00]: "His vanity was so extreme that if any of his staff members wore clothing that he owned, Uday would force them to take it off and never wear it again."
• Mark Gagnon [23:15]: "Uday, seeing the threats here, he was like, I need my own body double."
• Joey Avery [25:31]: "He takes an electric drill and murders him."
• Mark Gagnon [70:54]: "He was legit. Finding weddings actively happening and then try to find brides."
• Mark Gagnon [74:51]: "Uday just seemed like he was being cruel for... He just would go around and try to exercise his brutality as much as possible and had no goal that he was working towards."

---

Key Takeaways:

• Absolute Power and Corruption: Uday Hussein exemplifies how immense power, especially when unchallenged and unaccountable, can lead to extreme corruption and cruelty.

• Psychological Impact of Dictatorship: Growing up in Saddam's brutal regime deeply influenced Uday's behavior, illustrating the impact of one's environment and upbringing on personal development.

• Isolation and Madness: Uday's enforcement of strict dress codes, use of body doubles, and violent tendencies highlight the isolation and madness that often accompany unchecked authority.

• Legacy of Terror: Uday's actions left a lasting scar on Iraqi society, fostering widespread fear and hatred that persisted even after his death.

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Conclusion: In this gripping episode of Camp Gagnon, Mark Gagnon delves deep into the dark and twisted life of Uday Hussein, uncovering the layers of his brutality and the mechanisms that fueled his sadistic behavior. Through vivid storytelling and firsthand accounts, listeners gain a comprehensive understanding of how Uday became a symbol of terror in Iraq, ultimately meeting his end in a violent confrontation that resonated across the nation.

Transcript

[Mark Yagnon]

The Butcher of Baghdad, also known as Uday Hussein. One of the most evil men to ever live. The son of a brutal dictator who outshined his father in his cruelty and his brutality. He did it for no purpose. He was not trying to further an agenda. Instead, he was being cruel just for the sake of his own sadistic mind. And today we'll be going through all the details, how he got radicalized, the type of lifestyle he lived before all the violence, and of course, all of the atrocious acts that he did. Killing and murdering the people closest to him, stealing newlywed brides from their very own husbands. And of course, all of the brutal and atrocious acts that he did as the dictator's son. I mean, he would take his own body double, a guy that was trained to be identical to him, and tortured him for 21 days, only to release him to then get shot by people trying to kill Uday himself. This story is absolutely tragic, but fortunately, at the end, we'll discover how he eventually died. So if you were interested in the morbid and dark stories and how power can corrupt absolutely, this is the episode for you. So join me in the tent. Sit back, relax, and welcome to camp.

[Gabe]

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[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah.

[Gabe]

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[Mark Yagnon]

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[Gabe]

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[Mark Yagnon]

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations. What's up, people? And welcome back to camp. My name is Mark Yagnon, and thank you for joining me in my tent, where every single week we explore the most interesting, fascinating, controversial stories from around the world, from all time, forever that has ever happened. I'm also joined, as usual, by my dear friend, Gabe. Gabe, how are you? I'm good. All right, all right, all right. Enough of that. I'm also joined by by my dear friend and friend of the show. You've seen him, you love him. His name is Joey Avery.

[Joey Avery]

Oh, it's great to be here.

[Mark Yagnon]

How are you, sir?

[Joey Avery]

Good. Did you say the Best stories of all stories of all time or something right there.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, I think so.

[Joey Avery]

It was wild, and I liked it. I was like, I don't think that's right, but it feels right.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, exactly. That's. That's kind of my whole thing with the shows. You over promise, underd deliver. Yeah. Yeah. That's how you got to do it.

[Joey Avery]

I like that.

[Mark Yagnon]

How are you feeling from last night?

[Joey Avery]

Last night was fun. Yeah. You almost said it to me. Like, we went out drinking, but what we did was we did our show in New York at Mary Lou lovely French restaurant on our comedy show, a little. Had a little piano going on, some improvised comedy. It was very fun.

[Mark Yagnon]

I loved it. It was a wonderful time.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

And as we were there in this beautiful French restaurant doing comedy, experiencing the joy of laughter, I was like, you know what? We need to talk about Uday Hussein.

[Joey Avery]

Hey, Uday. Do you know, you're not a big football fan, but the Cincinnati Bengals, I believe their whole thing is Houde.

[Mark Yagnon]

Houde.

[Joey Avery]

Or maybe that's the Saints.

[Mark Yagnon]

Who that right?

[Joey Avery]

Oh, it's who Dat. There's a who? There's who Day, bro. I'm not kidding. There's who Day and who Dat, which also might be Saddam Hussein's kids.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

Well, who dat is Saints. Okay. Who Day, I think, is Bengals. Yeah. Who Day? Yeah, Who Day?

[Mark Yagnon]

Who Day?

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

Well, Uday notoriously tortured many athletes throughout. Throughout Baghdad, so it is a tough place to play. Yeah. I mean, evidently, as we will learn. What do you know about Uday Hussein?

[Joey Avery]

I actually don't know anything. I think my. My general going in knowledge of him is. Is kind of what I think the average American knows, which is, like, we knew. Spoiled, rich, very bad behavior, Middle east version of succession, I imagine.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yes.

[Joey Avery]

Probably, like, shot people. And I know. I bet he was using that dick on him, but probably in a bad way that I don't support.

[Mark Yagnon]

You support the way you said it. But what.

[Joey Avery]

Well, that's why I'm clarifying. As you know, when you say somebody using that dick there, it's like. But then it's like. But also, you got to. Respectfully.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah. As a weapon. Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

Well, yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah. For all intents and purposes, he was the ultimate Nepo baby and kind of a bad guy, if I do say him so myself. I don't like to get political on the show.

[Joey Avery]

I think this is a fair take. I think it's a relatively fair.

[Mark Yagnon]

I don't call him this, but many have called him the Butcher of Baghdad. He's also Been known as the Ace of hearts. The. The U.S. military deck of most wanted Iraqis. He was the Ace of Hearts. One of the. Why do they give.

[Joey Avery]

I mean, he's a bad guy, but they gave him such cool nicknames. Yeah, well, Ace of Hearts.

[Mark Yagnon]

Are you familiar with, like, the US Military like. Like, playing cards of most wanted criminals?

[Joey Avery]

I actually didn't know that.

[Mark Yagnon]

This is a fascinating, hilarious thing that they did during, like, the Iraq war. I think they still do to this day, probably. But they would do these playing cards with, like, faces of terrorists on them and be like, hey, if you're playing poker, just, like, keep an eye on these guys.

[Joey Avery]

Well, it's an effective way to do it. I would love to get my hands. I'd love to play with that deck.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, yeah. This is, like, a notorious little thing right here. Ace of spades right there, dude. Saddam Daddy.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah, the ace of spades.

[Mark Yagnon]

So that's what they were doing. This is where our tax dollars are going. Shout out usaid. Anyway, Uday Hussein.

[Joey Avery]

I was on the USAID episode, by the way.

[Mark Yagnon]

That's right.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

People loved it.

[Joey Avery]

Good. We learned.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, we did learn.

[Joey Avery]

We learned.

[Mark Yagnon]

Uday is a fascinating guy. Morbid, dark, but I think is an important sort of footnote in how power corrupts people. Specifically the children of very powerful people.

[Joey Avery]

It is tough. Everyone wants to be powerful. But then you raise shitty rich kids.

[Mark Yagnon]

Oh, yeah.

[Joey Avery]

And it's not good.

[Mark Yagnon]

Uday is the quintessential. So 18th of June, 1964, little Uday pops out of the world. He's the oldest son of Saddam Hussein, the heir apparent of Saddam's regime. Saddam actually missed Uday's birthday because at the time, he was in prison for his part in an assassination plot. So already off to not a great start.

[Joey Avery]

Who is he trying to kill?

[Mark Yagnon]

That is a great question. I actually have no idea.

[Joey Avery]

But one of these guys.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, one of these guys. Some shenanigans. I mean, it seems like Saddam missing his father or his kid's birth, you know, not a great father.

[Joey Avery]

Well, but, you know, he was trying to kill some other guy. That's like, allegedly, maybe for his family. You know what I mean?

[Mark Yagnon]

That's a good point. Maybe he's the best father.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah, it's possible. Once you say you. You're doing something for your family, it, like, excuses, whatever it was. Why you kill that guy's family? Dude, I did it for my family.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, dude, you sound like Vin Diesel. I mean, it's all about family at the end of the day, you know? What's interesting is that Saddam and his wife, Sajida al Talfa, were first cousins. Ah. Not that it matters.

[Joey Avery]

Okay.

[Mark Yagnon]

It's.

[Joey Avery]

Are we saying Uday was a little.

[Mark Yagnon]

There might have been a little. The gene pool might have been a little shallow.

[Joey Avery]

That's all I'm saying. That cocktail was tequila, and tequila a little strong.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

Has the strength.

[Mark Yagnon]

So 1970, strength 79. Saddam becomes the President of Iraq. And uday is just 15 years old.

[Joey Avery]

Okay.

[Mark Yagnon]

So he sees his dad rise the ranks. And Saddam, for all intents and purposes, he was violent, ruthless, brutal, and amassed a lot of wealth, much of it stolen and a lot of power. And was feared throughout Iraq.

[Joey Avery]

Yes.

[Mark Yagnon]

During his regime. And no one dared to question his authority because they knew that if you did, there'd be some consequences.

[Joey Avery]

And what we ended up learning is that that kind of was how you had to run it. I'm keeping a lid on the whole thing.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

As I understand it, I'm not an expert in Iraq.

[Mark Yagnon]

I'm not an expert either. You know what I mean? But, I mean, the CIA saw something in Saddam, so, you know, they. Did. They put him in power for a reason, you know, did we do that? I wouldn't say that, but we might have. That's a gross over generalization. But I think there was a partnership at one point.

[Joey Avery]

There's.

[Mark Yagnon]

There's vibes, but people felt the same way with. With Uday. So this had an effect on Uday growing up. Your dad is like the most feared, you know, dictator of. Of all time in your country.

[Joey Avery]

Dad.

[Mark Yagnon]

Uncle. Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

Literally.

[Mark Yagnon]

Dunkle, the little Dunkin daddy. Dude. And he was basically just given free reign. He was a little prince living in Iraq and was given whatever he wanted. He did whatever. He. He had servants and. Yes, men.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

Just hand and foot doing whatever he needed.

[Joey Avery]

I'm sure this gets to a bad place, but it was probably a fun start.

[Mark Yagnon]

Right?

[Joey Avery]

Probably a nice time for a while.

[Mark Yagnon]

That's what.

[Joey Avery]

Live in Iraq and have great service and some fun and diverse romantic experiences is how it started.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

But it kept going.

[Mark Yagnon]

But it is a good lesson. I have a child. I have a nine month old boy.

[Joey Avery]

That's right.

[Mark Yagnon]

I have my own little uda.

[Joey Avery]

You have your own little day.

[Mark Yagnon]

And I'm looking at this, and I'm like, you know what? I can't give my child, you know, palace and. Yeah. I just can't. Because this is what happens. Right. All of a sudden, things will take a little bit of a turn, as we'll see.

[Joey Avery]

Because if you keep. Not to, like, make this a human nature thing, but it's like if. If there's nothing other than the next thing, the next thing. The next thing. You keep pushing out what the next thing is.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, no, it is. Yeah. I think it is a human nature thing. I think absolute power corrupts absolutely, as they say. But, you know, as the firstborn son, he kind of was given whatever he wanted. No one dared question his son because they feared the father so much. So you can imagine a Nepo baby, but instead of, you know, how you'd be treated within. Like a company party. The whole country's a company party.

[Joey Avery]

It was like when the little league coach made his son the leadoff hitter.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

And he wasn't very good.

[Mark Yagnon]

No.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

Just automatic out, you know, starting off with this guy.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

And.

[Joey Avery]

But the whole world houde.

[Mark Yagnon]

So he's a spoiled rich kid. Right. He's partying all the time. He's sleeping with women. He's getting luxury cars, designer clothes. Rolex is gold. All if it was designer, he wanted it.

[Joey Avery]

That's right.

[Mark Yagnon]

And everything was paid for by his father's money, which was also the money of the nation that he kind of usurped.

[Joey Avery]

Gucci, Saint Laurent.

[Mark Yagnon]

He loved French suits, Rolexes, and high end cologne, which is nice. And he was also obsessed with his appearance. He was extremely vain, allegedly. His vanity was so extreme that if any of his staff members wore clothing that he owned, Uday would force them to take it off and never wear it again. Even if they wore it by accident.

[Joey Avery]

How would they end up wearing his clothing by accident?

[Mark Yagnon]

So either I'm assuming it was like they. They acquired it through like a donation system, or even if it was like a similar piece of clothing, they'd be like, dude, that. Which I don't even get because they all kind of wear similar outfits anyway.

[Joey Avery]

What is that, a white robe? Take that off.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, your Kendor looks like, huh? Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

But he was so, like. It didn't have to be literally his shirt. It would just be like, you pulling up. Wear my shirt.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, dude, you're wearing the same Armani tee that I have. The same tight one that shows my nipples.

[Joey Avery]

I remember this is a little off topic, so you don't have to keep it in, but I remember the first one of the first times I worked with Schultz. I walk into the green room and he's wearing like a denim jacket with denim pants and like a black T shirt. Or it was like a black shirt, black pants, and like a blue jean denim jacket. And I walk in wearing a black shirt, black pants, and a blue jean denim jacket. First thing he says, he just goes, well, one of us is gonna have to change. Any guesses? I was like, I'll go get something else.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, that. That one. It's like Spider man meme. The two of you guys are walking in, being like, dude, what? And then, secondly, it is a weird look for the show if, like, three comments in a row.

[Joey Avery]

No, I did. I supply. Would do the same thing.

[Mark Yagnon]

Because it almost. It almost looks worse that it's like, dude, this guy has all of his openers. Wear the same.

[Joey Avery]

The same thing.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

Looks like he's a tyrant.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, that looks insane.

[Joey Avery]

The show has a look.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah. Yeah. So he's helping you out.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah, 100.

[Mark Yagnon]

But yeah, he's got a elite group of bodyguards. This is Uday. And they were devoted, and they. You know, he made sure these followers would basically just obey anything that he did, no matter what. And if you. If you stepped out of line, you were gone. And again, he's just like a young kid at this point, 17, 18. But then the violence starts, because so far, he's just like a rich kid. I know, I know.

[Joey Avery]

Kids like that general piece of taking advantage of things. Obviously, no one likes him. He sucks, but what you gonna do? He's cooking.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yes, but Uday is Saddam's son. And as a result, he was aware of what his father was doing. And his father, it seems like, had some interest in kind of like, teaching his son how the world worked.

[Joey Avery]

Right.

[Mark Yagnon]

And by the world, I mean his specific world.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

And as a result, he watched many violent acts growing up. I mean, allegedly from torture to people being killed as, like, a young man. And this is kind of like his education into, like, how power functions. And so he admires his father. He wants to be exactly like him, not only in the power and the money, but also in the cruelty. And like many children, the student eventually outshines the master. So he goes from nightclubs and parties and, you know, he's doing all sorts of stuff. He would order his bodyguards to gather all the attractive women and make them line up in front of him. Uday would then examine all the women to decide who was most beautiful, and he would select one or two of them to come to his bedroom. And the woman.

[Joey Avery]

Everyone does that in their own way.

[Mark Yagnon]

That's the thing. If you don't line them up, it's kind of like, all right, you're just in a frat. You know what I mean? As soon as you Line them up.

[Joey Avery]

The lineup really is the problem. I mean, most people, you're just supposed to scan the place at large and look for other factors. You're not supposed to be that detailed. It's not very nice.

[Mark Yagnon]

But this is how, you know, this guy's kind of a psycho because he's now using his power to line them up and, like, coerce them and basically be like, you. You. You hit the G wagon.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah, it's like a scene from Rush Hour where they go into the. Have you not seen Rush Hour?

[Mark Yagnon]

I have seen the first one.

[Joey Avery]

Okay.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

They go into, like, a, you know, some sort of brothel of some kind. And it's like, take your pick. And it's like all the girls are just looking at them.

[Mark Yagnon]

Basically this. Basically exactly that. But the only downside is that these women can't really say no.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah, that's not. That's not great.

[Mark Yagnon]

But it's also like, dude, you're the prince. Yeah, they know you're the prince. Yeah, you can just walk in there and be like, hey, do you want to hang out? And they'd be like.

[Joey Avery]

And he's probably thinking, they've all got to be just pumped, like, just hoping to get picked, dude. Like, I'm the prince. But they probably were not. They probably were not all pumped.

[Mark Yagnon]

They could have. He could have just gone in and been like, do you want to roll with me? They would say yes. Like, you know, I mean, like, I'm a nice prince.

[Joey Avery]

Could have done it in a nice way. A nice prince, but that's how you.

[Mark Yagnon]

Know, he wasn't in it for the romance. He was in it for the power.

[Joey Avery]

He's a bad guy.

[Mark Yagnon]

Allegedly.

[Joey Avery]

Allegedly.

[Mark Yagnon]

I don't want to speak ill of the dead. Of course he does die. Okay, what's up, guys? We're gonna take a break really quick because you own a small business, or maybe you work for a small business, and I am about to make your life so much easier. Let's say, hypothetically, you own a little, you know, furniture business, right? And you're struggling to keep track of the raw materials, the production schedule, invoicing clients, all that stuff. Well, that's why I want to tell you about Odoo. Okay? Because with Odoo, it's an all in one business platform that streamlines everything. Now you have inventory management, you have manufacturing, you have accounting apps that will make everything so simple. So now if you have a small business, you can monitor the inventory in real time, schedule productions calls more effectively, and you can send invoices automatically, all from one platform. Plus you get a customized CRM to track sales leads and follow up with potential clients, boosting your closing rates. Back in the day, you'd probably have to get, you know, some, you know, Ivy League operator, business person that's, you know, able to make everything happen for you. But now with Odoo, it cuts it all out. And I'm sure you're thinking, okay, if this is going to make my life easier, give me more free time to spend with my friends, family and playing softball and make me more money. It must be crazy expensive. This is the good news. Listeners of this program are going to get a 14 day free trial. That's right, you get two weeks with Odoo completely for free. When you go to odoo, that's right, odoo.com use the promo code camp and you will get 14 days for free just to try it out, see if you like it. If it's not for you, you don't need it. All right? But Odoo is going to make your life so much easier. Everything you need all in one place. Save time, make more money. Let's get back to the show. What's up guys? We're going to take a break really quick because I want you to know that there are still good people in the world and there are still people out there fighting for you. So here's a story. There's a guy riding a, riding a water slide, right? He's at this amazing water park. He's about to go down the slide. All of a sudden as he's going down, flies into the air, lands on his back and has permanent life changing injuries. He's still dealing with him four or five years later and he's having a hard time getting paid, you know what I mean? He gets injured at this massive, massive water park owned by Disney of all people and can't even get a scent out of their attorneys. So that's why he called Morgan and Morgan. He called Morgan and Morgan and quickly they represented him in his lawsuit against Disney for damages, citing what they called lax safety measures. The lawsuit alleges that Disney either failed to warn him properly or failed to make the ride safe. And they argue that the design itself created a dangerous condition. And thankfully for this guy, because he called Morgan and Morgan, he will get justice in his case just like the 500,000 other clients that got the compensation that they deserved over Morgan and Morgan's 35 year career. Morgan Morgan is America's largest injury law firm with over $25 billion recovered. I'm telling you, hiring the wrong law firm can be disastrous. And hiring the right one could substantially increase your settlement with Morgan and Morgan. It's so easy to get started and their fee is free unless they win your case. So just visit forthepeople.com gagnon g a g n o n or dial pound law. That's pound 529. That is for the people.com/gagnon or dial pound law. That's Pound 529. This is a paid advertisement. Now let's get back to the show.

[Gabe]

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[Mark Yagnon]

You by Pluto TV. Summer of cinema is here and Pluto TV is exploding with thousands of free movies. Feel the explosive action all summer long with movies like Gladiator, Beverly Hills Cop, Mission Impossible, Ghost Protocol, Good Burger, Stealth, Four Brothers and Star Trek. Bring the action with you and stream for free on all your favorite devices. Pluto TV. Stream now, pay never. Stream now at Pluto TV. 1983, at a party, Uday wanted to dance with a soldier's wife. The soldier said, maybe not deploy him.

[Joey Avery]

Normal way.

[Mark Yagnon]

And basically told Uday like, yeah, dude, you're not gonna dance with my wife. Like, I'm, I'm. I'm a soldier. Yeah, I ain't no. And Uday got pissed and he beat the soldier so severely that the man died from his injuries later.

[Joey Avery]

Oh, God.

[Mark Yagnon]

Psycho. In another incident, a soldier forgot to salute Uday. So Uday pulled out a gun and shot him in the head. At parties, people knew Uday was, you know, a wild boy and would get a little knee braided. Yeah. And would randomly shoot his AK47 around the room, like into the ceiling and shit. And it was just like, you get that gun in his hand and things would just kind of like, buck off. There's actually a video of Uday shooting his gun. Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

Let's take a peek at that.

[Mark Yagnon]

All right, so this is a video of Uday at a party. Let's see. This is five minutes we Might have to skip a little bit.

[Joey Avery]

There's sound as well.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, we're gonna need that. Dude, hear that? That beautiful gat.

[Joey Avery]

Okay. Fun little Iraqi part. Oh, Jesus. And then he just goes back to. Look how much fun he's having.

[Mark Yagnon]

And look at everyone else pretending to have fun.

[Joey Avery]

Like, okay, cool. He's doing it like a kid with sparklers on the 4th of July.

[Mark Yagnon]

Right? You know, I mean, it's like psycho. Like. I mean, that. I would be so terrified. Like, he's just, like, rolling face right now. Probably just like, dude, vibing. Give me my.

[Joey Avery]

He's on. On some sort of cool Iraqi drug we haven't even heard of yet.

[Mark Yagnon]

Oh, yeah, dude. Well, they got. They got some over there. That's Fire Loki.

[Joey Avery]

Like, what.

[Mark Yagnon]

When I. When I was in uae, they got this thing. It's basically just tobacco, but it's a chat. No, it's not chat. It is. That's like. You chew that. Yeah, yeah. No, this is. It's called a metoir. And it's basically just like a pipe with, like, a tobacco type thing. I don't even know exactly what it is, but you rip it, and it's just, like, tens. Ends the face.

[Joey Avery]

I think I hit that at one of your guys's parties after you got back.

[Mark Yagnon]

It's awesome. Yeah, it is, unfortunately, the greatest thing ever. And you just sort of, like, feel your fingers go tingly, and you just sit in the couch and you're just like, wow. And it's just that for, like, 30 seconds, and then just then you're back. It's awesome. Yeah, it's basically like a little Middle Eastern whip it. But he did many terrible things. As you can imagine. This is the kind of guy you're partying with. And as you're probably wondering, you're like, well, how do we know all this stuff? Many of these awful acts happened in private and were kept secret by Saddam's government so that people, you know, outside of Iraq wouldn't understand what's going on. And the reason we know a lot of these details is because of an excellent source, probably one of the best sources we could get about Uday Hussein. One thing that happened, you know, very so often in Saddam's Iraq was people were trying to kill Uday because he was brutal, he was kind of tyrannical, and no one really liked kicking it with him, but they had to. So there were all these attempts to kill Saddam himself. And so the two of them are now basically getting, you know, cited. So the powerful leaders used body doubles to protect themselves and lower the chances of being murdered, Saddam had several body doubles. And the body doubles were called fedai in Arabic and more commonly known as bullet catchers was the name.

[Joey Avery]

What a gig.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

Hey, you look like Saddam. Do you want to take a bullet for him? Not really. Too bad.

[Mark Yagnon]

You look like him. Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

So you now have this job?

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, dude.

[Joey Avery]

I don't imagine they asked.

[Mark Yagnon]

No, I think they probably just put up posters, and they were like, hey, lookalike contest in Baghdad.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah, they weren't on. Indeed.

[Mark Yagnon]

And so Uday, seeing the threats here, he was like, I need my own body double.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

So his body double is the source for much of this information.

[Joey Avery]

That's a problem. You let someone into the inner circle.

[Mark Yagnon]

And he doesn't catch a bullet.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

It's like, yeah, he's gonna. He's gonna leak some. So, I mean, is this. Is this Saddam's body double here? Wow.

[Joey Avery]

A couple of them on a boat just vibing. I mean, taking the Saddams out for a day on the lake. Four of them on a boat just vibing. Awesome.

[Mark Yagnon]

You get back with your boys, you're like, dude, I saw Saddam today. And, like, well, I saw.

[Joey Avery]

I got seven of them on a boat, dude. They were listening to Shakira. The Saddams were having a nice time.

[Mark Yagnon]

That's how it be sometimes, dude. Really is just me, myself, and all my millions. And that's what Uday did. So literally, he gets his body double. And the body double, you know, goes on to tell a lot of the story about what it was like. So when Uday was trying to decide who would make a good body double, he remembered someone from his school class who looked similar to him. This person was a man named Latif Yahya, who is now an. An adult serving in the Iraqi army and was actually fighting on the front lines during the Iraq Iran war. So Uday sent orders to the battlefield that Lateef Yahia would be taken off military duty. He gets a call. He's like, hey, dude, you're off the front lines. And he was like, oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Then he gets brought to the royal palace, and he's like, dude, we're cooking. This is amazing. When he arrives at the palace, Uday greets him. And then Uday led Latif to his office and simply asked him, do you want to be my body double? And he said, now, again, Lateef is an. Is an intelligent guy. He's a soldier. He's fought in many battles. He understands the nature of the Middle East. And he understands how conflict works. And he knows that it's dangerous to be a body double, especially for Iraq's most hated person ever.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah. But also means he's going to have to hang with him. And he's a tough hang. Yeah, yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

But he also understands that this is Uday, and you can't really say no.

[Joey Avery]

Right.

[Mark Yagnon]

So he says, do I have a choice? Uday answers, my friend, of course you have a choice. Knowing that working as Uday's body double would probably get him killed, he politely thanked him and said, no, there's no.

[Joey Avery]

Way he makes it out of this palace.

[Mark Yagnon]

Uday has him arrested immediately.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

And he's locked in an extremely small cell that measured only one meter by one meter.

[Joey Avery]

Oh, my God.

[Mark Yagnon]

Making it impossible to stretch out and sleep properly. The walls are painted bright red, and a powerful light is in the ceiling, staying on consistently, making sleep basically impossible. At night, Lateef could hear other prisoners screaming as they were being tortured. Jesus. So after a week, Uday opens the door. One whole week of not sleeping. Opens the door himself, and he basically talks to Latif and he says, hey, do you want to be my body double, or do you want me to sexually assault your sisters?

[Joey Avery]

Is that what he said?

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

I thought you were, like, ad libbing. No, that's a crazy.

[Mark Yagnon]

That's the deal.

[Joey Avery]

He's like, okay, you've been in jail for a week now. I'm gonna ask you again. Do you want to be my body double or I'm gonna. I was gonna say a word, but I shouldn't say it on YouTube. Your sisters?

[Mark Yagnon]

Yes.

[Joey Avery]

How many sisters? Not that it matters, but just out of curiosity, I mean, you know, I.

[Mark Yagnon]

Think he's got, like, two or three.

[Joey Avery]

Two or three? God damn.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, dude.

[Joey Avery]

Oh, day.

[Mark Yagnon]

So Latif is now like, oh, damn it.

[Joey Avery]

Well, this doesn't really encourage him to keep your secrets, does it? Well, it's like, yeah, he's made another enemy.

[Mark Yagnon]

Well, that's his whole. This is how he thinks power works. Like, you know, you don't. You don't get things from being nice. You get things from being feared.

[Joey Avery]

Do you think Latif was like, all the sisters? Because, you know the one I'm talking about. You don't want to do all that.

[Mark Yagnon]

Not the hot one. He's like. What'd you say? He's like, nothing. Just forget it, dude. So Lateef says, yes. So he's let out of prison, and he was given to a man named Munir Muhammad. And Munir's job was to teach and train Latif so that he could become just like Uday. Which this just sounds like a very hilarious.

[Joey Avery]

The craziest training camp of all time. Wake up. Four shots. Take four shots right now. You got to fuck. Go.

[Mark Yagnon]

They're at a party. Like, here's the ak.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

I don't want it.

[Joey Avery]

They're like, take the AK to do it. Pick. Line the women up immediately. What are you doing? Why are these women not in a line?

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah. He doesn't get saluted. They're like, did you notice he didn't sleep? He's like, nah, it's all good. No, you know what you have to do. So now it's his job to. To get trained up. This is basically Princess Princess Diaries.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

Have you seen that movie? No. And Hathaway, Believe it or not, I haven't.

[Joey Avery]

And I know it's a must see, but I just haven't.

[Mark Yagnon]

Of all the films that I've seen that you have. I'm shocked that this is the one that has diverged our paths. I know, but this is basically the premise. It's like, I was just thinking of.

[Joey Avery]

Daniel Day Lewis doing this, becoming Ooda, like, trying to do that in the modern era. He's like, I had to go method. It's like, you have 19 felonies. You can't do that in the United States.

[Mark Yagnon]

I want to see this just as like a slapstick comedy.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah. Ood a musical. So I said, get them in a line.

[Mark Yagnon]

Line up.

[Joey Avery]

The horse.

[Mark Yagnon]

Goes to black. So basically this was his job. So Lateef, basically, he's living in the royal palace and he gets his own bedroom. And the room has things like silk sheets and his French suits and royal watches and the whole deal.

[Joey Avery]

Not the worst.

[Mark Yagnon]

All the same stuff that Uday has and uses. And these were, you know, to kind of teach him to learn to be like Uday. And it might sound nice. I'm sure you're looking at this being like, oh, that's not. Not too bad. The room was also kind of like a jail cell because he couldn't leave unless Uday gave him permission. So he called it the golden cage.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah. Better than his initial cage, but a golden cage nonetheless. So he wasn't allowed. He's not allowed to, like, go to the kitchen and make an espresso?

[Mark Yagnon]

No. If Uday doesn't drink espresso, you're not drinking espresso. So Latif wanted to call his family and tell him, like, hey guys, good news. I'm out of war. Bad news. I'm trapped in a golden cage. Good news again. I'm still alive because they thought that he just vanished. Like, they just thought he was just gone one night.

[Joey Avery]

Can't imagine he was allowed to do that.

[Mark Yagnon]

So he tries to contact them. He talks to his dude, Munir Muhammad, and he tells them that they already called his family and said that he was killed. So they say, hey, don't worry about it.

[Joey Avery]

What a relief.

[Mark Yagnon]

It's handled.

[Joey Avery]

Thank you.

[Mark Yagnon]

But good news. You are a war hero. So that's what he said. They said, or they said, you know, Lateef, you're a war hero, and your family knows you as an honorable man. And now you can live your life in this little cage.

[Joey Avery]

So now that's crazy.

[Mark Yagnon]

He's.

[Joey Avery]

He's a dead man. And he's like, there's no chance I'm making it back. I'm basically dead. My life is over. And now I'm a jailed up pretend boy.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yes.

[Joey Avery]

And not as fun as it might sound.

[Mark Yagnon]

Munir tells him, you can never talk to anyone from your past life, and you have to basically forget about it completely. And Munir allegedly says to him, you are no longer Lateef. Today you are Uday.

[Joey Avery]

Damn.

[Mark Yagnon]

So they already look similar, but he didn't look exactly the same. So how do you fix this plastic surge? You're exactly right. And so they bring in a plastic surgeon to completely change his appearance, that he would look identical to Uday, basically, like his twin. And so the doctors, like, change his chin, they change his teeth and many other parts of his face to make him look more like Uday Hussein. All of the surgery was done even though Lateef didn't want it, which is hilarious.

[Joey Avery]

Horrible existence.

[Mark Yagnon]

He'd be like, is there any way we can both just get, like, veneers? Can we.

[Joey Avery]

Starts pitching new mods. It's like, what if we did an earring this month?

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah. Right.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

Can we. Can we get a picture of. Of Latif and. And UD together? Because I would love to see like, and Uday.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

So this is them side by side.

[Joey Avery]

Which is.

[Mark Yagnon]

Which is the fake Uday is on the. On the left.

[Joey Avery]

That's Uday.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah, that makes sense.

[Mark Yagnon]

Checks out, right?

[Joey Avery]

Yeah, it does. And so they're doing their best, but, you know, it's not perfect, but, like.

[Mark Yagnon]

Imagine Uday's got, like, a snaggle tooth, and they're like, we're gonna snaggle you up. And he's like, damn, why can't he just get braces?

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

Right. Like. Like, we could both elevate here if we wanted to do this. Right.

[Joey Avery]

Oh, my God.

[Mark Yagnon]

So for weeks and weeks and weeks, Lateef went through this training to learn to, you know, become Uday. And he had to copy, like, his body movements, the way he spoke, the way he walked, and the words that he used, everything down to even how he smoked cigars, double fisted. That's. He's like, do I have to do the Prince? How do we do it?

[Joey Avery]

Yeah. You got to get half of it in your mouth. Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

Because it's you again. You're not just doing this for shits and gigs. You're doing this because you need to be exactly like this guy.

[Joey Avery]

So to trick an assassin, to trick.

[Mark Yagnon]

A foreign government, literally, like, you need to trick the CIA. If they're trying to take out Uday, they need to think that you're literally Uday.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

So I like that you went away from the mic. I burped a little bit. Yeah. You want to tase on. Yeah, yeah.

[Joey Avery]

It's very like, being a secret agent on a secret mission always looks so fun in the movie, but it's more frequently a lot like this.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

Where it's like your family has to think you're dead. You don't look like you anymore. You're not. And you're like, wow, this sucks. So doesn't really get to unwind. He doesn't get, like, a long weekend.

[Mark Yagnon]

No, no, no, no.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

No. You're basically, like, on a death mission. Like, it's like, the slowest suicide mission ever.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

You know what I mean? Like, you're just walking into the front lines.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah. You're just being as much of a douche as possible, and they're hoping that you get shot.

[Mark Yagnon]

But now here's where he's in a tricky spot because he's gone through every level of passing this test to become the body double. Right. He looks good to Manir. Like, everyone thinks, like, okay, you're doing pretty good, but he has to get past Saddam.

[Joey Avery]

So is Saddam not allowed to know?

[Mark Yagnon]

Saddam knows, but he's the one that's like, okay, train him up and then let him come to me and see if he's good. Right. Now imagine if he's not good, what happens to him dead. So final exam of his life. He needs to meet Saddam, and Saddam is going to decide if he's good enough to be the body double. Lateef was worried because, you know, if Saddam didn't approve, that's basically it. So when he meets Saddam, the Dictator looked at him and basically just, like, examined him head to toe. And after, like, a long period of silence, he just goes, very good. Allah gave me three sons. You are the third. But never, ever make me angry. Whoa.

[Joey Avery]

God damn.

[Mark Yagnon]

So his first job would be at a soccer award ceremony where he would give out medals to soccer players while pretending to be Uday. Yeah, like, now he's, like, legit doing the job. It's like, yeah, go out there and do it's.

[Joey Avery]

Probably starting to enjoy it a little bit, you know, getting outside.

[Mark Yagnon]

Right?

[Joey Avery]

A little pomp and circumstance. Oh, hey, check it out.

[Mark Yagnon]

Nothing wrong with a little, you know.

[Joey Avery]

Handing out a metal to a kid, shooting an ak.

[Mark Yagnon]

That's what I'm saying. There's perks, you know, There are perks. So I think this is a. Yeah, this is a picture of him handing out these medals. So he does.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah, he looks. God damn.

[Mark Yagnon]

I think it's racist if we say they look the same, but, yes, this.

[Joey Avery]

Is the easiest mission of all time.

[Mark Yagnon]

Dude, he looked exactly like him before. You even mean the guy behind him looks like him.

[Joey Avery]

Hero and rice.

[Mark Yagnon]

Half white sauce. That'd be excellent.

[Joey Avery]

Thank you.

[Mark Yagnon]

And since this is his first assignment, they want to make sure that he's ready. So they planned a practice run where he could rehearse. And during the practice session, Uday watched to see how he was doing during the rehearsal. Uday is in a good mood, so he's joking around, having fun. He's making people laugh. Until he told a joke that would make Lateef laugh out loud. Unfortunately, the way Lateef laughed was different than how Uday would have laughed. So immediately, Uday goes from joking and goofing around to being incensed. He's furious, and he starts beating Latif all over his body with a metal bar.

[Joey Avery]

It's gonna sideline the guy.

[Mark Yagnon]

Well, you're gonna learn not to laugh like a goofball. You're gonna laugh like me. That's. That's how Uday laughs. Historically, I think that is true. I don't. I haven't verified that, but I think.

[Joey Avery]

He just has an insane. The guy laughs. He's like, that's not how I laugh. How do you laugh?

[Mark Yagnon]

So let's see if. Heels from his injuries and just in time for the real event, fortunately. And he does the job great. He doesn't laugh once. And Uday personally congratulates him and says, hey, great job. You passed the test. What's up, guys? We're going to take a break really quick because you need to rebrand your crotch. That's right. You need a full rebrand on your dong. And you're going to do it with bluechew. Because bluechew, their tablets aren't just for better sex. No, they are. Like if Tony Robbins give a motivational speech, rates your. Rate your wiener, you. I mean, you're going to feel amazing. Look, I just took one of bluechew's tablets today and suddenly, I mean, look at me, I'm glowing this table, absolutely getting crushed underneath it, right? My penis is giving a press conference. Okay, Feeling great. Never been better. So whether you're trying to make, you know, a memorable moment with your. Your sweet love, or you're just trying to give, you know, a friend of yours or a girl, you know, like a, you know, some crazy group chat fodder, something for the girls to gossip about. Bluechew is absolutely the chewable tablet delivery service. Need to bring the thunder. And the best part is that we got a special deal for the listeners of this lovely program. Get your first month for [e-mail] just use the promo code Gagnon at checkout. All you gotta do is pay five bucks for shipping. That's like a cup of coffee. All right, five bucks for shipping. You're gonna get free bluechew straight to your door. So upgrade your legacy. Let your name ring out for eons. And let's get back to the show. What's up, people? Quick announcement. If you are a fan of Camp Gagnon or religion camp, I have great news because we are dropping History Camp. That's right. This is the channel. We're going to be exploring the most interesting, fascinating, controversial topics from all time throughout all history. Right? You probably know about Benjamin Franklin, I don't know, Thomas Jefferson, Nikola Tesla. Interesting figures from history. And you probably learned about them school. And they were pretty boring, but not here. Now, as you know, I was raised by a conspiracy theorist. So I'm going to be diving deep into all of the interesting, strange, occult, and secretive societal relationships that all of these famous, influential men from our shared past have. So if you're interested, please go ahead and subscribe to the YouTube channel. It will be pinned in the description as well as the comments. And if you're on Spotify, this doesn't really apply to you, but these episodes will be dropping as well. Just go ahead and give us a high rating because it really helps the show.

[Gabe]

On WhatsApp, no one can see or hear your personal messages. Whether it's a voice call message or sending a password to WhatsApp, it's all just this. So whether you're sharing the streaming password in the family chat or trading those late night voice messages that could basically become a podcast, your personal messages stay between you, your friends and your family. No one else, not even us. WhatsApp message privately with everyone.

[Mark Yagnon]

Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. With the price of just about everything going up, we thought we'd bring our prices down. So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently a thing Mint Mobile unlimited premium wireless. 30, 30. Better get 30. Better get 20. 20, 20. Better get 20. 20. Everybody get 15. 15, 15, 15. Just 15 bucks a month. Sold. Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment.

[Gabe]

Of $45 for three month plan equivalent to 15 per month. Required new customer offer for first three months only. Speed slow after 35 gigabytes of network's busy. Taxes and fees extra.

[Mark Yagnon]

See mint mobile.com there's another event that Latif had to go to while pretending to be Uday. There's a party that army officers were throwing to celebrate the end of the Iran Iraq War. But as Lateef and his bodyguards were walking into the building, attackers who thought Lateef was really Uday started shooting at them with AK47s. Lateef gets shot in the shoulder and the bodyguards shoot back and kill the attackers. Lateef was then rushed to the hospital to get medical help.

[Joey Avery]

So that's kind of worked, though.

[Mark Yagnon]

That's what I'm saying.

[Joey Avery]

A good job.

[Mark Yagnon]

I wonder if they tell the bodyguards. I bet you they don't.

[Joey Avery]

No, I don't think so. I think you keep that very close to the vest because you want everybody operating the same way, right? Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

So he gets shot and he gets a reward. So Uday tells Latif that he gets 30 minutes to now go visit his family and tell them what's going on. Whoa. So immediately, Lateef runs out of the hospital and spends the short time that he has with his family. And they're shocked to see him because they're like, we thought you were dead. He goes, I'm not dead. Well, kind of I am. Yeah, but I'm going to be eventually. And I'm now living as this body double for this crazy guy. And they were just like, like, oh, all right.

[Joey Avery]

Right.

[Mark Yagnon]

And he gets 30 minutes.

[Joey Avery]

I'm surprised he let him do that. I feel like letting the family know would be, I guess they know that it's a reign of terror, enough that the family's not going to do anything. But What a mind.

[Mark Yagnon]

But it's one of those things that's like, okay, this guy takes a bullet for me, he might just mentally collapse. Right. The next time he has to go to another event for me, he might just be like, I just kill me. You know what I mean? Like, you need to protect.

[Joey Avery]

So Uday was a lot of things, but he was also an effective manager.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. As far as upper management goes, he understands sort of how to keep your guys. Yeah. So one day, Uday decided that he wanted to take a vacation. So he asked Latif if he wanted to come along, and Latif says, sure. So Uday, Latif, and several bodyguards go on this expensive, fancy holiday. They're staying at this hotel, and they're by the swimming pool smoking cigars until he notices a couple on the other side of the pool. Uday found out that the couple were newlyweds on their honeymoon, and they'd only gotten married the day before.

[Joey Avery]

Oh, he's that bride, isn't he?

[Mark Yagnon]

Uday tells the bodyguards to bring the woman to him.

[Joey Avery]

God damn it.

[Mark Yagnon]

And Latif goes to Uday and says, dude, she just got married. They're on their honeymoon. Please just leave her alone. Like, I know that I shouldn't step to you. Uday gets angry that Latif tries to question his authority, so Uday orders Lateef to come with him and the woman to his hotel room, and Uday forces him to sit in the next room so that Lateef had to listen to Uday basically assaulting this woman.

[Joey Avery]

Ah, Jesus.

[Mark Yagnon]

When Uday finished and goes away, she immediately runs to the window, opens it and jumps out.

[Joey Avery]

Oh, my God.

[Mark Yagnon]

Her husband, who's outside at the time, goes over to see what happens and sees his wife had passed away.

[Joey Avery]

Oh, Jesus.

[Mark Yagnon]

Psycho. But soon after that, the Gulf War begins, and Lateef is being driven near the Kuwait border to make a TV appearance while pretending to be Uday. While they're driving there, attackers start shooting at their group of cars from both sides. And during the fight, someone throws a grenade at the car that Lateef was riding in. And the explosion seriously injures his hand and almost completely destroys his pinky finger. Lateef is also shot multiple times, and many of the security guards are also killed. But the survivors manage to fight back and kill the attackers. And this is the closest that Lateef comes to actually dying. So he wakes up in the hospital with Uday Hussein standing over there clapping, vibing. Literally, just like, very good. Just straight up. Just. Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

Scorsese, one of the best. Yeah, Just give him a hand because he needs one.

[Mark Yagnon]

And he's literally just like, pat him on the back. Like, hey, great job, buddy. You did it. I didn't die. Nice. Then Uday turned to the doctor and asked if Latif was going to recover. And the doctor told Uday that because of the damage to his hand, he would probably lose his pinky finger. This makes Uday pissed off. He's. He's upset. You know, the doctor.

[Joey Avery]

I know this guy's mo, Right? And I don't like it. Not at all.

[Mark Yagnon]

So now that you know, Uday is pissed by the news, because if Lateef loses his pinky finger, he can't continue working as the body double because they'll just be like, check the pinky.

[Joey Avery]

Right.

[Mark Yagnon]

So Uday becomes furious, puts his gun against the doctor's head, and demands that the doctor fix the finger.

[Joey Avery]

You know, like, I tend to defer to medical professionals, but there's a certain amount of outside pressure from the family that can help. Intense scenarios.

[Mark Yagnon]

Pressure makes diamonds.

[Joey Avery]

That's right.

[Mark Yagnon]

And just keep this in mind if you have a loved one that's suffering.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah, my body double, actually.

[Mark Yagnon]

Just tell the doctor, like, hey, there's.

[Joey Avery]

I've been making him sit in the other room while I jack off.

[Mark Yagnon]

That way he knows my stroke pattern, my habits, you know, that's important. Yeah. I mean, if he's really gonna be me, he's gotta beat me.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

So after the Gulf War ends, Ude returns to his normal activities. He's partying, he's drinking and, you know, assaulting women. And one night at a club, one of Uday's chosen woman tried to hook up with Latif. Oh, classic mix up.

[Joey Avery]

I don't know if I do that.

[Mark Yagnon]

You don't see where, you know, I.

[Joey Avery]

Don'T know if I do that, but.

[Mark Yagnon]

She'S got the perfect alibi.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah. I thought it was you, babe.

[Mark Yagnon]

What?

[Joey Avery]

I thought it was you.

[Mark Yagnon]

Whoops. My bad. Yeah, you know what I mean? I've tried to play that one.

[Joey Avery]

I'm trying to get pinky fingers.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah. They tell them, they're like, yeah, go for the uda. That has, like, the pinky going sideways. Yeah, like, that's the one.

[Joey Avery]

Put a vibrator in that thing.

[Mark Yagnon]

It's like a 90s back basketball shoes.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah, the pump up.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, dude. And so Latif told the woman no because he's not interested and because they aren't allowed to sleep with Uday's women.

[Joey Avery]

Right.

[Mark Yagnon]

Uday finds out about this and in the middle of the night, he sent bodyguards to pull Latif out of his bread bed and bring him to Uday's office. Uday asks Latif what happens between him and the woman. Latif tells him, nothing happened. Dude, I was trying to be you and. Or I guess the opposite. She got interested and Uday didn't believe him and tells him, I will send you to be a little bit happy. Which is a phrase that Uday like to use a lot. I will send you to be a little bit happy. That means, I mean, I assume yes, but no. Uh oh, he's sending him to the torture rooms.

[Joey Avery]

Oh, I thought he was gonna treat him like a nice time with a lady. You blow off some steam.

[Mark Yagnon]

You're me.

[Joey Avery]

You gotta get in character.

[Mark Yagnon]

Doesn't believe him.

[Joey Avery]

Strapped. I don't think he was probably a passionate lover though. I. Well, maybe passion, but the passion was probably anger. I don't think he was much of a giver.

[Mark Yagnon]

I wonder if he just like getting.

[Joey Avery]

Picked like all these day.

[Mark Yagnon]

You gotta wonder, right?

[Joey Avery]

Doesn't. Well, I guess because some people who exert crazy amounts of power want it taken away in the bedroom. Is that the thought process?

[Mark Yagnon]

That's what I'm wondering. I mean, yeah, not that I would know, but this is what I've heard, this is what I.

[Joey Avery]

Neither of us are powerful enough to get pegged.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, exactly. I'm a people pleaser on and off the court.

[Joey Avery]

I'm not trying to peg.

[Mark Yagnon]

I'm on stage like, do you guys like me?

[Joey Avery]

And I like.

[Mark Yagnon]

And then I'm in the bedroom like, do you like me?

[Joey Avery]

It's crazy how much my entire life boils down to that.

[Mark Yagnon]

A little bit. Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

But then when people don't, I'm like, what the is wrong with you?

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, no, if people don't like me, I'm like, I'm like, yeah.

[Joey Avery]

No thing is an effort to be.

[Mark Yagnon]

Like, I go the other way. I'm just like, dude, I completely agree.

[Joey Avery]

Well, they're right, you know, everyone's right.

[Mark Yagnon]

I'm self loathing enough to be like.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah, there's enough parts of you and everyone knows enough about themselves that when someone's like, I love you. You're like, you know what, that could be good. And sounds like I hate you. And you're like, well, there's also that.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, I've been on both sides, of course.

[Joey Avery]

Certainly. Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

And Uday, I don't know if he has. He's just expecting unconditional love and sort.

[Joey Avery]

Of adoration he's not had a lot of pushback.

[Mark Yagnon]

No. So what does he do? Sends Latif to get tortured for 21 days.

[Joey Avery]

Maybe he's into that.

[Mark Yagnon]

There's always that. He gets to the end. Uday is like, dude, I thought you liked this. Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

He spits out the ball gag.

[Mark Yagnon]

He's like, already like, dude, this is my favorite holiday retreat.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

The only reason that he's released is because Uday didn't want to lose his body double and he was close to dying. So the prison guards call Uday and they say, if you don't call us off right now, this guy's gonna die. So Latif is basically completely, like, damaged from the torture and he needs a long time to heal and, like, recover so he could go back to work as the body double. So Uday actually lets him go home and recover with his family.

[Joey Avery]

Wow.

[Mark Yagnon]

So he's like, go back with your.

[Joey Avery]

Folks for good cop, bad cop energy.

[Mark Yagnon]

It will last the problem. Right. So during the time at home, Lateef tells his family that he's going to escape.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

And he says, I'm going to run away from Iraq because he knows that staying in Iraq in general will get him killed. Staying as Uday's body double would eventually get him killed. But on the night that he planned to escape, Uday called him, invited him to a party at a nightclub. Knowing what would happen if he refused, he basically gives up his escape plans and goes to the party. Alrighty. Don't skip forward, guys, because I am on the road. World's fastest ad read coming at you. I'm going to be in Austin, Texas, Stanford, Philly, Levittown, Chandler, Arizona, San Diego. I'm also going to be adding Toronto, Montreal, as well as Washington D.C. and a bunch of other dates. Dates are in the description, also in probably the comments of this episode. Go see me on the road. Come hang out. I'll be hanging out with everyone after the show. Come shake my hand, call me an idiot, whatever you want to do, I will be there. Additionally, I will be doing my one hour of stand up comedy. I'm very proud of this hour. I'm really excited to share with you guys and it would mean the world if everyone could come on out. I'll see you guys there. You can go to Camp Goods co. That's right. We got merch, we got Camp Merch. We got hats, hoodies, T shirts. A lot of stuff is out of stock. Things have been selling like hotcakes. But we're going to be restocking everything in all the sizes. So you can go there right now, get all the merch, get all the coolest clothing in the podcast game. We're going to be updating that site regularly. And if you come out to a show, I'd love to see you sporting some of the threads that we got up online. I'll see you guys there. Let's get back to the show.

[Gabe]

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[Mark Yagnon]

So he's at the nightclub, Right? Uday showed up carrying this big metal bar. Uday walked around the club hitting people with it randomly.

[Joey Avery]

What a crazy party to be at. Just walks in with a giant metal pipe and just starts striking random people who just try to keep dancing because there's nothing they can do.

[Mark Yagnon]

Literally just pinata the whole squad.

[Joey Avery]

And there's two of him, by the way. If you're at this party, you can see two of him.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yes.

[Joey Avery]

At once. So odd that they're doing that in the open. Yeah, the 2uday strategy. Yeah, they're like a DJ. They're like the chain smokers. 2udays in the club.

[Mark Yagnon]

Fucking Blue Man Group, dude.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

So he. He's walking through hidden people. Then he walks over to Lateef and starts kicking him. And he says, the time has come. Lateef doesn't understand what this means. What is Uday trying to imply here? Eiffel Tower going to Paris?

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

But he gets scared. And thinking that Uday had found out about his escape plan, so Lateef just ran away.

[Joey Avery]

Just took off out the nightclub in underground halal cart.

[Mark Yagnon]

So Uday starts chasing Latif and yelling for him to come back. Lateef managed to get into an elevator and desperately pressing the button to close. Unfortunately, Uday catches up and starts shooting into the elevator with an AK47, hitting Lateef in the shoulder. Lateef pulled out his own gun.

[Joey Avery]

Nice.

[Mark Yagnon]

And starts firing back at Uday, forcing him to hide behind cover. And while he's hiding, the elevator doors finally close. He goes down to the first floor. Lateef runs out of the nightclub, jumps into his car, and drives away. While the bodyguards are chasing him and shooting at him. Lateef drives towards the border where their only thing to get between like him and freedom is a military checkpoint. The problem was the Lateef had no id and he's bleeding through his shoulder from a gunshot wound, right? So he thought, there's no way he's going to get through. He's going to get caught. He's going to get arrested and sent back to the torture rooms and eventually killed. Then he realized that Uday had actually given him the perfect way out. So he lights a cigar, drives up to the military checkpoint and says, hello, gentlemen. Uday Hussein here. Yeah, let me through.

[Joey Avery]

Well, you know who I am.

[Mark Yagnon]

Face the guards, hit him with a salute, and let him pass through without question.

[Joey Avery]

They must have made this into a movie.

[Mark Yagnon]

It had to have been. I mean, it's just two.

[Joey Avery]

This is. This is a movie. I'm almost skeptical of the reality of it. So much of a movie, I'm not gonna lie. But I have no grounds to be skeptical.

[Mark Yagnon]

I mean, the fact that, like, elevator.

[Joey Avery]

Doors closing at the Devil's Double. There you go.

[Mark Yagnon]

There you go.

[Joey Avery]

It's also about their Eiffel Tower. So running a two man from there.

[Mark Yagnon]

He sneaks into Turkey and then eventually gets to freedom. Uday then went to Lateef's family and demanded that Lateef be returned to Iraq. But Lateef's family says no, because they refuse. Uday murders Lateef's father.

[Joey Avery]

Jesus Christ.

[Mark Yagnon]

He paid a heavy price. But again, I mean, at the end of the day, I mean, the father is solid as fuck. Being like, yo, you can torture my son, but you're gonna have to kill me to get him back.

[Joey Avery]

That's badass. That's dad of the year.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

Baghdad.

[Mark Yagnon]

There's actually video of, like, Latif, like, getting interviewed, talking about, like, this escape and, like, them basically, like.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah, let's see.

[Mark Yagnon]

The.

[Joey Avery]

Even his dad has a sadami vibe.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

Oh, we merked Uday.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

Nice, dude. So that's that guy, right? Dude, Yeah. I mean, guy also.

[Mark Yagnon]

Shout out to Latif's daddy.

[Joey Avery]

Shout out to Latif's dad.

[Mark Yagnon]

I mean, that guy's just.

[Joey Avery]

He could have been one of the Saddams. I'm not gonna lie. I could have seen him on the boat. I don't know if he would have liked it, dude. But they had. They really were. And I. I don't know if they are anymore, but they were a staunch mustache culture during that time.

[Mark Yagnon]

Well, this happens a lot in dictatorial regimes where people just Emulate the leader you got.

[Joey Avery]

You might as well.

[Mark Yagnon]

It happens all the time.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah. Like, I mean, also 90s, like, Saddam has like the face of the 90s.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

Him and Tom Selleck and Bam Margera.

[Mark Yagnon]

Like just that whole era. Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

You know, the boys.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, dude.

[Joey Avery]

Y2K by Selick Margera.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah. But yeah, it's like, it's psycho. And I mean, I think this goes all the way back to like Julius Caesar. Like, like he would get a haircut and then the rest of Rome just.

[Joey Avery]

Walk around with bowl cuts.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, yeah. Yo, give me the Caesar, bro. Yeah. Hey, but yeah, fortunately, could you imagine.

[Joey Avery]

If in America everyone was doing Trump's hair right now? Like, if you just went out to a bar and it was just a bunch of. And maybe there are parts of the country, but you walk out to a bar and there's just a bunch of hair. Helmets just mopping around.

[Mark Yagnon]

That's why I preferred Obama's presidency, because I was wavy as. Dude.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah, Just wavy. See the problem? Gotta comb it.

[Mark Yagnon]

People are like, you are cultural appropriation. Like, nah, I'm just respecting the leader.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah, I'm just respecting the leader, dude.

[Mark Yagnon]

This is what God wanted.

[Joey Avery]

Just wavy. Like a little white boy. Barack in a building.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah. Come on now.

[Joey Avery]

Come on.

[Mark Yagnon]

Fortunately, the rest of his family is not harmed. And Latif now works as like a correspondent and speaks about, you know, geopolitical topics happening in the Middle East.

[Joey Avery]

Nice.

[Mark Yagnon]

And I think it's important to include his story because not only is he extremely brave and heroic in many different, in many different facets, but it also shows how crazy and evil Uday was from a direct first hand account. And yeah, obviously his story, you know, gets turned into a film and. But that is only just kind of.

[Joey Avery]

The surface of how sort of demonic Uday was. Yeah, but it's a. It tells like a great story because you have good guy, bad guy, but they're both the same guy. Spy versus Perfect. It's the, the perfect film.

[Mark Yagnon]

We should watch that.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah, the Uday film.

[Mark Yagnon]

Let's roll it from the top.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah, let's watch the entire film and do a watch along seven hour pod. Yeah, well, you know, I'll get the. Gotta get the money up, right?

[Mark Yagnon]

Another man who managed to get away from the government was Abbas Al Janabi. He was the. He was one of Uday Hussein's closest friends and his personal press secretary. He escapes and got to safety and he told people about all the terrible things that Uday had done, especially all the sexual assaults on many women. Some as young as even 12 years old.

[Joey Avery]

Oh, that's not good.

[Mark Yagnon]

As if not gonna do. If you were on the fence about Uday now, I mean.

[Joey Avery]

And now I'm out. Yeah, and now I'm out. That, you know, everything else I liked, the stealing and objectifying and the line and killing and violence. That was fine.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yes.

[Joey Avery]

But now I'm done with him, so.

[Mark Yagnon]

Al Janabi also said that during the first Gulf War, UDA Hussein personally took part in torturing American POW is. But all of these stories barely.

[Joey Avery]

See, now I'm really at. Because you with the boys, it's the first time I've cared n. Dude, you got.

[Mark Yagnon]

If. If you're trying to touch our boys.

[Joey Avery]

Over there, you trying to touch our boys?

[Mark Yagnon]

Can't touch our boys.

[Joey Avery]

We touch our.

[Mark Yagnon]

Those are all.

[Joey Avery]

It's not good either.

[Mark Yagnon]

The. The stories, again, they show how evil and twisted he is. And he did many, many more terrible things. And it's difficult to really know how many of these events actually happened with the legitimacy of all of them. Again, as with many sort of terrible dictators, specifically in ancient history, it's like, you know, the stories get sort of changed and shifted, and different people use them for different political messages.

[Joey Avery]

Get a little TV job out of it.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah. Right. So here are a couple of them in. In no specific order, after the first Gulf War, there's an attempt by the people to rebel against Saddam, and Uday was directly involved in dealing with the prisoners. During a visit to a prison that was holding many of the rebels, Uday decided to order half of them to be killed.

[Joey Avery]

It's a lot.

[Mark Yagnon]

Thanos Snap.

[Joey Avery]

Which half?

[Mark Yagnon]

I guess.

[Joey Avery]

How did he figure it out?

[Mark Yagnon]

Well, he takes Uday, then takes one of the prisoners from the group that was still alive and right in front of all the others, basically. I mean, this is graphic. I don't even know how much of this I can necessarily share. Takes an electric drill and murders him. Him. And then he orders all the dead bodies to be left in prison cells while the. The living prisoners still look at them. Just. Again, it's more additional psychological torture.

[Joey Avery]

I can't, like. Like, I hear these stories. I, like, can't, like, actually, like, grasp that. Like, you know what I mean? Like, thinking about what it would take to do that.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

Or watch that. Or see it. Like, it's not a. I think it's a part of Earth that I like.

[Mark Yagnon]

No, I think it's a pathology. I think it's truly a pathology. Yeah, it's like you just get to a Level of. Of, like, narcissism and psychopathy or he'd.

[Joey Avery]

Been watching a lot of Home Improvement and Tim the Tool Man Taylor, he starts drilling the guy. And Al was a sitcom for all our younger listeners, a sitcom called Home Improvement.

[Mark Yagnon]

That's one with the neighbor. The neighbor looking over the face.

[Joey Avery]

Wilson. Yeah. And you can only see the bottom part of his face.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah. And you see his dumb forehead. You're like, I wish. Take a.

[Joey Avery]

It's a metaphor for the CIA, and that's big brother. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 100%.

[Mark Yagnon]

I had no idea.

[Joey Avery]

I don't know.

[Mark Yagnon]

What's interesting is that Uday actually loved his mom.

[Joey Avery]

That, you know, that doesn't surprise me at all. There's something about, like, rich mama's boys that are freaks. There's some. Some Freudian issue that I'm sure one of your listeners is an expert in. But, like, they always. They're like, no, mom. The real one. Stop. And killing brides. They were going to become mom. Yeah, Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

I think it's like. And also, I think boy mom's just, you know, to be a little neute.

[Joey Avery]

Nuts.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah. Boy. Boy mom's kind of, you know.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

I don't want to say they cause psychopathic serial killers, but they're not stopping it.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah. The whole Gabby Petito thing, the guy who killed her, his mom was like, half of the demon. She was a freak. She was like, if you go to jail, I'll put a file in the cake. I'm like, no, you need to say, hey, don't kill your girlfriend.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah. What?

[Joey Avery]

That would be good. Parenting is a little bit of pushback.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah. But boy moms, dude, they just.

[Joey Avery]

They just. They're like, my boy's perfect.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah. Nothing can ever happen.

[Joey Avery]

My boy's perfect.

[Mark Yagnon]

I saw a very funny tick tock. It was a girl being like, I completely understand the Virgin Mary, because if someone told me, like, yo, your son is literally the savior of the universe. Your son is God. I'd be like, I completely get it.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

Like, obviously, obviously. My son is God. Hero. I was literally just thinking. I remember I went out, went drinking with a friend of mine when we were in high school. Not supposed to drink at that age. And we got caught, and the mom, like, drove me home the next day, and she basically was like, here's the problem. You can do whatever you want because you're a loser, but my boy is going places, and you need to stay away from him because he's more special than you. And I was like, lady, your Son's a idiot. You have no idea how dumb this boy is. And he hasn't gone on to do. How about that, you delusional twat.

[Mark Yagnon]

I never had that energy. My mom had seven kids. By the time she got to me.

[Joey Avery]

She was like, oh, yeah. My mom didn't.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

She was not like a hover mom like that. No. It was the other ones. Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

Mama was the opposite.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

I would do good in school. She'd be like, we could.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah, we could tweet.

[Mark Yagnon]

That didn't apply.

[Joey Avery]

My mom was literally just like, do the dishes. It was. It was a very chore base.

[Mark Yagnon]

Very socialist. Yeah. Like a gulag dog.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah. 100.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah. There's work to be done.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

And it will set you free.

[Joey Avery]

Yes.

[Mark Yagnon]

So he loves his mama, and he, you know, is extremely loyal to her and he respects her greatly. So when Saddam marries a second wife, Uday sees this as disrespect.

[Joey Avery]

He's like, what the. Dad, you gonna leave mom like that? She's a saint, dude. Mom's the best woman I ever met. Bring me that woman. I'm gonna. Her, Dude. You gotta respect women, dad.

[Mark Yagnon]

Dead ass.

[Joey Avery]

What the. Dude. On, God, Saddam, don't do mom like that.

[Mark Yagnon]

You can't. It's one thing to do that to your wife, another thing to do that to your cousin. Dad.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah. What the. Dude, Thanksgiving is gonna be weird.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

Dude, how are we supposed to celebrate with our cousins if you're not one of them?

[Mark Yagnon]

Blood in, blood out, dad.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

So Uday personally blames a man named Kamel Gejio.

[Joey Avery]

I thought Nanjiani the Everyone.

[Mark Yagnon]

He was Saddam Hussein's personal food taster and servant. Uday blames Kamel because he's the person who introduced Saddam to his second wife. So at a party in 88. I mean, but 88. I mean, that's a good time. They're probably listening to Thriller.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah, sure.

[Mark Yagnon]

Like, they're. They're bumping, like, legit bangers or.

[Joey Avery]

Or just like, I was going to do an impression, but I actually don't know what they listen to in Iraq. I was just gonna do Indian music.

[Mark Yagnon]

I imagine it sounds bongo.

[Joey Avery]

Something like that. Maybe they're gonna be rattling.

[Mark Yagnon]

Maybe they like Indian music as well. I mean, who are we to assume they like American?

[Joey Avery]

Iraqi music? I would say royalty free, but I'm betting it all is.

[Mark Yagnon]

Well now. It is.

[Joey Avery]

I wish.

[Mark Yagnon]

Ever since we deposed.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah. A lot of percussion. Almost a Mexican flavor.

[Mark Yagnon]

Oh.

[Joey Avery]

And then you do get that kind of desert.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah. Just wandering.

[Joey Avery]

Does make you want to. Not stereotyping. Makes you want to ride a camel a little bit. Clip, clop, clip, clop.

[Mark Yagnon]

This is about to make my snake pop.

[Joey Avery]

You know what I mean?

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

Well, allow me to charm your snake.

[Mark Yagnon]

So at a party in 88, the boys are bumping that track.

[Joey Avery]

Absolutely.

[Mark Yagnon]

And they're possibly following orders from the mother. Uday violently kills Kamel in front of all the party guests using a carving knife as punishment. Electric. Like Thanksgiving. Because of the murder.

[Joey Avery]

Saddam actually mid party is so ins. Like, it's insane anyway, but like, mid party and then I bet. I would bet that everyone was expected to continue partying.

[Mark Yagnon]

Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure they served it.

[Joey Avery]

Like, don't go home early.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, dude, we just cut the ham. Yeah, what are you talking about? It's Christmas. So what do you do if you're Saddam in this case?

[Joey Avery]

Right, Good question.

[Mark Yagnon]

This is your food taster.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

He introduced you to your newest, hottest wife. That's right.

[Joey Avery]

You need to be. You need to discipline your boy. But he also is probably, like low key proud of him because he's like, you can't let the ops get you like that. So you'd, like, take away one of his 12 cars?

[Mark Yagnon]

Basically, yeah. What he does is he puts him in prison and sentences him to death. Death. Oh, okay. And.

[Joey Avery]

And honestly, why live without my bands?

[Mark Yagnon]

Exactly. Dude, if you don't have your G series. Yeah. What are you doing? Is that a series of Mercedes? I don't know. I'm not that type.

[Joey Avery]

You gotta kill your kid at that point. If he's killing party. If he's killing your boy. Dude, kids killing your friend.

[Mark Yagnon]

But also if he's making the ratio better.

[Joey Avery]

That's also true, though. Yeah, that is true. So he's helping you smash.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, there's, you know.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

Two sides to everybody story. So because of the murder, he gets put and sentenced to death. But Saddam lets him out after only three months and sends him to Switzerland, hoping that he would stay out of trouble in Switzerland.

[Joey Avery]

There's no way he stays out of trouble in Switzerland.

[Mark Yagnon]

And why do you say that? You think people are just irredeemable? You think everyone's just fraught with problems, they can never recover and be better people.

[Joey Avery]

I think he didn't realize he had an addiction to snow bunnies, but he about to find out.

[Mark Yagnon]

Well, you're completely right. So he goes to Switzerland and immediately starts getting into fights and gets arrested by Swiss police multiple times. And they basically get so tired of dealing with him. They throw him out of Switzerland. And where does he go?

[Joey Avery]

Back to Iraq.

[Mark Yagnon]

Iraq.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah. It's hard to keep them in prison in Switzerland because there's holes in all the bars.

[Mark Yagnon]

I like that.

[Joey Avery]

I like that one. I like that.

[Mark Yagnon]

But the problem is, now he's back in Iraq, and Saddam now has to deal with his psycho son. That he realizes, like, yo, I really turned my man into a monster.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

So what does he do?

[Joey Avery]

I created our monster. So that sort of thing.

[Mark Yagnon]

You're gonna love this.

[Joey Avery]

Okay.

[Mark Yagnon]

He takes away all of Uday's expensive luxury cars and orders them to be destroyed with bombs.

[Joey Avery]

Nice. Oh, the P. Diddy. That's what he did to Kid Cudi.

[Mark Yagnon]

Exactly.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

It's like a YouTube video.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

It's like, we take.

[Gabe]

It's a Mr.

[Joey Avery]

Beast video.

[Mark Yagnon]

10 lambos.

[Joey Avery]

We're gonna blow up 15 lambos and try and change the world's worst dictator side.

[Mark Yagnon]

It actually would be a great video.

[Joey Avery]

Would be a great video.

[Mark Yagnon]

Uday is later given the job, just a regular job, of just getting. Just getting him out of all the nonsense. Okay, let's just give him something to keep him busy. Yeah, let's put him in charge of the Iraqi Olympic Committee. This is a pretty innocuous little job. No real power. And this gives him control of all of Iraq's sports teams, especially the Iraqi soccer team. And he treats the players terribly.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah, I had a feeling.

[Mark Yagnon]

As you can imagine, it's like Ted Lasso, but the worst version.

[Joey Avery]

The opposite of Ted Lasso.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

Gentlemen, you just gotta believe when your back's against the wall that I've got a chainsaw poking through that wall, and you're gonna die.

[Mark Yagnon]

He would beat them, embarrass them, and even send them to be tortured when they lost games.

[Joey Avery]

So the game, so not fun.

[Mark Yagnon]

So there is a gentleman named Shirar Muhammad Al Bayati who played on the Iraqi soccer team, and after they lost a game against Jordan, Uday had him thrown in jail. His. He says, they took me straight away to prison, and every single day, I was beaten on my feet. 20 a day. And I'm not allowed to eat or drink just a glass of water and one piece of bread.

[Joey Avery]

I don't really, like. Obviously, it's, like, morally wrong, but, like, even from a strategic standpoint. And I've done enough sports gambling to know what you want to do to athletes who fail you. But, like, strategically, it doesn't make your team play better if they're tight. Right.

[Mark Yagnon]

This is what you don't understand about Dictatorial regimes.

[Joey Avery]

Right. It's. Maybe they're not about, like, human motivation.

[Mark Yagnon]

We need to see the stat line after that guy's taken away. That is true. Because what's going to motivate you to play a little better?

[Joey Avery]

The boys are definitely not leaving practice early.

[Mark Yagnon]

No. You know, and, I mean, I would have. Absolutely. I would have floundered in this environment. I get the yips a little bit and high pressure moments, like a big game. If I'm not performing, I kind of. I got to step away and be like, all right, let me catch up. Let me catch my breath.

[Joey Avery]

I was watching a film the other day, D2, the Mighty Ducks of the Mighty Ducks franchise. And there's. There's a moment there where Gordon Bombay becomes pretty big time. He's got his hair slicked back. He's being really mean to the guys, and he's making them work, and they're skating liners, and hockey's not fun anymore. But then they get back to playing roller hockey, and then eventually he brings out a beach ball, and they play a lot better, and they beat Iceland. And I think if Uday had paid a little bit more attention to that film, he might have known that there's.

[Mark Yagnon]

Another way we could see an Iraqi champion. To this day, it's possible. So he just basically beats the guys like crazy, and that's his whole deal. Another story comes from an Iraqi weightlifter who he sent to be tortured because the athletes didn't win a gold medal. He says they use special sticks, electric sticks, pipes filled with stones. You have no idea how brutal these guys are.

[Joey Avery]

Oh, God.

[Mark Yagnon]

So he uses all sorts of punishment on these athletes. One time, he made the soccer team kick a ball made of solid concrete because they didn't make it into the 1994 World Cup.

[Joey Avery]

He also said that was just kind of comical.

[Mark Yagnon]

I guess it depends how hard you got to kick it. But if you're just kind of like, juggling, I would imagine.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

But I feel like I could. I could fake that out. I could, like, pretend to kick it hard. Like, ow. They. It's also claimed that Uday had some athletes pulled across gravel and then thrown into sewage water so that they would get infections.

[Joey Avery]

Nice guy.

[Mark Yagnon]

One day, the ways of torturing people became more violent and disgusting. Like, he would remove people's ears and buy them coffins and even use torches on people. And the reason that his torture methods were getting more violent and disgusting is because Uday had started using the World Wide Web.

[Joey Avery]

This is radicalizes all of Us, I'm saying, dude, it's really unfortunate he fell down a right wing rabbit hole. The torture pipeline starts with Ben Shapiro.

[Mark Yagnon]

And you're like, where's my blow torch, dude?

[Joey Avery]

That's crazy. So he started going online and he was like, show me the bad videos.

[Mark Yagnon]

Literally, dude. He was just on Faces of Death.

[Joey Avery]

He was like, bring me Two girls.

[Mark Yagnon]

He's just on Omegle.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

And he would spend time looking up different ways to torture people and so that he could carry it out within his little sphere of influence.

[Joey Avery]

It's crazy that for him, that's like, you know, at like the end of the night, you're like, I got so much more work to do, though. That's like, what he's grinding on. That's what he's grinding on.

[Mark Yagnon]

I'm just.

[Joey Avery]

I gotta. I've just. It's all the old torture, babe. Give me a second. I know new ways to torture.

[Mark Yagnon]

You're blowing me up. And you have no idea the pressure I'm under.

[Joey Avery]

I'm under a lot of stress.

[Mark Yagnon]

I tortured these guys with the chainsaw last time. They're gonna expect it.

[Joey Avery]

I haven't come in minutes.

[Mark Yagnon]

It's actually quoted from the workers and staff that. That worked with Uday that the day he got the Internet was a dark day for Iraq. Yeah, I mean, another incident, again, in no particular order, happens when a group of Russian ballet dancers come to Iraq to perform. He invited one of the dancers and her teacher to come to his room for what he said was a party. Obviously, there's no party. And his bodyguards forced the dancer and the teacher to fornicate while pointing guns at them as Udev recorded everything. And. And then, you know, he was just trying to watch. I. I guess, like, I don't know if it's like, this is a man.

[Joey Avery]

Who'S gotten into the Internet.

[Mark Yagnon]

That's what I'm saying. Let's. Let's.

[Joey Avery]

We must film it, dude.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, I know. So Lateef Yahia, our hero from before, confirmed that his violent and horrible behavior goes even beyond assault, because he would try to elevate these acts to where they were beyond even, like, fornication, if you can imagine.

[Joey Avery]

I don't want to.

[Mark Yagnon]

He says, you know, he can't sleep with a woman if he didn't hit her. He can't sleep with her unless there was some type of violence involved in the act.

[Joey Avery]

It's not very nice.

[Mark Yagnon]

I mean, yeah, he did all sorts of crazy things. I mean, one of the most horrible things was the wedding raids and this made people hate him all around Iraq to a degree that, like, everyone was like, this guy forever.

[Joey Avery]

Tough pr.

[Mark Yagnon]

He would.

[Joey Avery]

I don't know what they are, but I have a feeling, based on the.

[Mark Yagnon]

Tale we were told earlier, you know exactly what it is. He would find weddings actively.

[Joey Avery]

He was going bride smashing.

[Mark Yagnon]

He was legit. Finding weddings actively happening and then try to find brides. And that is horrendous. He did this regularly throughout Iraq.

[Joey Avery]

And also the craziest sequel to Wedding Crashers.

[Mark Yagnon]

I never considered.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

They didn't make a film about that.

[Joey Avery]

It's like an A24. Wedding crashers. It's more of a.

[Mark Yagnon]

I don't even know much how much I can play with this premise.

[Joey Avery]

It's horrible. We're doing levity here, but, yeah, in terms of thinking about. It's like somehow it is one of the worst things that I can imagine.

[Mark Yagnon]

I don't know, because it's just. It's. It's borderline worse than death. I don't know why in my brain, like, it's.

[Joey Avery]

Because it's. It's like. It's beyond cruel.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

And it's. It's psychological warfare.

[Mark Yagnon]

And it's his own people, too. It's not like he's like some foreign invader. You know what I mean?

[Joey Avery]

Right.

[Mark Yagnon]

Say what you will about the Vikings.

[Joey Avery]

Right.

[Mark Yagnon]

They did.

[Joey Avery]

They were.

[Mark Yagnon]

You know, they did some other people.

[Joey Avery]

They didn't see them as people.

[Mark Yagnon]

These are like his own countrymen that he's doing this, too. And tough pr.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

And they hate him.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

The whole country hates him. They hate him more than Saddam. Like, they. He now becomes, like, the main target for people trying to kill him by, like, the mid-90s. So by 96 attackers, almost.

[Joey Avery]

I don't necessarily want to pause on this, but what. He just. He would gather up, like, vans, and they would just be like, there's a wedding. And he would just pull up to him and just bride steal and do whatever he wanted, basically, literally. Okay, horrible. Keep going.

[Mark Yagnon]

So by 96 attackers almost kill him. While he's riding in his group of cars, Uday and his bodyguards are attacked by a rebel group called Al Nahda, which I don't know much about their politics. I'm siding with them.

[Joey Avery]

Well, this is a very American thing to do. I think what we would do is we hear this story. We probably side with them. We probably buy a bunch of weapons for them. Then at some point, they are like, well, we don't really like you. And we're like, what the did you say dude? And then we fight them, like, with our own weaponry. And I could be wrong about that. That's just how I understand foreign policy to work.

[Mark Yagnon]

I mean, they have a. They have a whole website.

[Joey Avery]

They look great. They have a corporate office on Oman.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah. Look at this.

[Joey Avery]

They got cranes.

[Mark Yagnon]

Building. We're building.

[Joey Avery]

Okay.

[Mark Yagnon]

This might just be a construction company.

[Joey Avery]

That might just be a construction company. Shout out to the Alnada Group for all your corporate office needs. And Scott Oman.

[Mark Yagnon]

This episode is brought to you by Al Nada.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah, you're looking for a building for all the whatever work you guys do. Call. Not a group.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yes.

[Joey Avery]

And we will also protect your wedding.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yes. So they were going to kill Uday. They shot at the cars with AK47s, three grenades, the whole shebang, yada, yada, yada.

[Joey Avery]

No support, by the way.

[Mark Yagnon]

And many of the bodyguards are killed. And Uday himself is shot eight times. One of the bullets gets stuck in his spine. And because of where it was, doctors couldn't remove it through surgery, which meant that Uday had a permanent limb limp for the rest of his life. I mean, this guy just won't die.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

So what sets him apart?

[Joey Avery]

He's like beyond the villain in any superhero movie.

[Mark Yagnon]

You couldn't put it in a movie. Yeah. You'd be like, this is. This movie is. I can't watch this enough film.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah. This is horrible.

[Mark Yagnon]

And so what sets him apart is from all the terrible things that most evil people do. Awful things. Because they want to accomplish something that they think achieves some type of good. You know what I mean? Like every type of evil dictators. Like, if we can get rid of these people, then our clothes country will succeed. If we can stop this coup, then my government can flourish. They have a warp sense of justifying their actions.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

Whereas Uday just seemed like he was being cruel for.

[Joey Avery]

She's trying to be a bad guy.

[Mark Yagnon]

Literally, dude. You know, they. He just would go around and try to exercise his brutality as much as possible and had no goal that he was working towards. So Uday kind of worked backwards from this idea.

[Joey Avery]

Rich kids, they just never have a goal, you know, that's the problem.

[Mark Yagnon]

You need a little purpose.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

Which. Shout out to the Buddha.

[Joey Avery]

The Buddha.

[Mark Yagnon]

You know, his story.

[Joey Avery]

That's right. He was also a prince, but he went the other way.

[Mark Yagnon]

The ultimate rich kid that was like, let me do a little sabbatical. Let me leave the kingdom. Let me see how the. You know, the other talks, the other 90 detox.

[Joey Avery]

He hit an Ice bath.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, exactly.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

And just kind of chilled out, lived with the people and was like, you know what? I'm going to live an ascetic lifestyle where I teach people the way of enlightenment.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

And.

[Joey Avery]

And Uday did the other thing. Yeah, yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

And so he's trying to, like, kind of work backwards and justify what he's doing, and he's trying to, you know, find, like, an angle. Okay, I'm familiar. So if he wanted to sleep with woman, he could have gone to any nightclub and plaintive woman would be happy to be like the dictator's. You know, it's too easy.

[Joey Avery]

He likes a challenge.

[Mark Yagnon]

Right. And many women probably would have been down, but he says, no, no, no. Women want power, you know? So he chooses to drive around looking for the weddings and try to exercise his power that way. And. Yeah, I don't think he even cared about what he wanted. He just wanted to be.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah. He just wanted. He just wanted, like. It's basically that sentence. It's like he wants everything to belong to him.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yes. And what's fascinating is that Saddam is aware of all this. Yeah. He knows what's going on. He knew about what his son had been doing and just kind of let it keep happening and kind of enabled him.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

So Saddam announced that.

[Joey Avery]

Sounds like he wasn't a very involved father.

[Mark Yagnon]

No, I think he was a little busy.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

But he does announce that Uday would not take over as dictator when he dies. Wow. Saddam said that his second son would take over.

[Joey Avery]

Let me get up in that cousin.

[Mark Yagnon]

Is just.

[Joey Avery]

Latif, make that slap.

[Mark Yagnon]

Latif just takes over. Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

Give it to your third son, dude.

[Mark Yagnon]

He's a vibe. That guy was sick as hell, Kuse.

[Joey Avery]

I would imagine we're gonna find out. He's not great either, but he doesn't seem as bad.

[Mark Yagnon]

You're hoping he just, you know, gets far, far from the tree.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

But we will. We will discover Saddam basically makes this decision because he believes that Uday is too cruel for that much power and didn't want him to take over the country. So just think about that, right? Like, Saddam, like, one of the most evil dictators, by, you know, some measures, by, depending who you ask, believes that his own son is too evil to be the next dictator.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

So when Saddam is like, yo, you went too far.

[Joey Avery]

That's you've overachieved. But it is a goat giving his respect. You know what I mean?

[Mark Yagnon]

In his own way. Yeah. In his own way, they become too powerful.

[Joey Avery]

Powerful. Yeah, exactly.

[Mark Yagnon]

And there were Other reasons why Uday didn't get to be come the new dictator. For instance, that he had a permanent limp made him seem weak and kind of like it. Yeah, yeah.

[Joey Avery]

He kind of swagged out, get him a cane.

[Mark Yagnon]

Right. And yeah, Saddam didn't like the. The. The over the top behavior. Yeah. Like, he was too, too Austin.

[Joey Avery]

Hard to keep a lid on your society when you're going around to weddings doing what he was doing.

[Mark Yagnon]

How do you think Uday feels?

[Joey Avery]

I would imagine he took the news gracefully and completely understood where everyone was coming from.

[Mark Yagnon]

Unfortunately, you're wrong. He's pissed off and he's angry. He's not going to inherit the power. And over time, he finds himself being left out from more and more government, business and decisions. And people who used to surround Uday had now kind of abandoned him and were sort of working with Kus instead. Because he's going to become the next leader. Yeah. Uday understood that even though he could do basically, you know, anything he wanted, he knew that there would now be serious consequences if he tries to murder Kuse.

[Joey Avery]

Right.

[Mark Yagnon]

Killing Kouse was one of the few things that he wouldn't be able to.

[Joey Avery]

Get away with killing that Kouse.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah. And if he tried to take out the brother, he would also be sentenced to death. So he basically had like, no choice. He kind of just accepted that, you know, Kuse would become. Become the next dictator. So the government continued working normally, but with everyone paying attention to Kuse now. Meanwhile, Uday kept doing kind of what he'd always been doing, doing, you know, drinking, partying, killing assaults, and. Yeah, all sorts of terrible things. Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

I don't really love this guy with more time on his hands.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

We should have given him enough work.

[Mark Yagnon]

And this went on for years. Yeah. Until the boys.

[Joey Avery]

The boys. See, there were good things about the invasion.

[Mark Yagnon]

It didn't.

[Joey Avery]

I don't think it went well in the long run.

[Mark Yagnon]

That's what I'm saying. Like, if they just let off with these stories, they're like, do they have weapons of mass destruction?

[Joey Avery]

It's like, no, but they've got this weapon of ass destruction.

[Mark Yagnon]

We got to get rid of this guy.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

I think America would be like, all right. Yeah, let it rip.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah. Like, tell us the truth is the thing with, you know, CIA keeps fibbing.

[Mark Yagnon]

So all that to say, I mean, you know, there's. I'm not going to get too much into the Iraq war, but many of the important Iraqi leaders kind of went into hiding because they knew America was looking for them. Yeah. And American soldiers had been given these playing cards called the Iraq's Most Wanted because they wanted them to be familiar with the faces, the names of everyone in Iraq that they were trying to find.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

So even though they weren't necessarily boys, Uday and Koussay actually hid together in a house that they took over from the owner in the city of Mosul. And they were using fake names like Nawaf and were trying to find a way to escape from Iraq. And they understood that the American soldiers were gaining in on them. American forces found out that Uday and Koussay were hiding, and many people believe that the house owner told the Americans where to find them because they hated Uday that much. People think this because the house owner and his family left Iraq and then suddenly showed up in America with $30 million.

[Joey Avery]

Well, that's fair trail right there. I think that does make 30 mil for a little snip. I guess that was the wanted one on them.

[Mark Yagnon]

Maybe they're doing sports betting. Who knows? Maybe.

[Joey Avery]

Maybe they're like, Yeah, I don't know if FanDuel. I haven't checked if FanDuel has that region.

[Mark Yagnon]

Let's check the money line on the Iraqi soccer team. I think they're going to lose their best players. Got a leg missing. Yeah. I have a feeling they're not doing too hot. Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

That ball's not made out of concrete. So they have a distinct disadvantage.

[Mark Yagnon]

They've been training with the wrong ball.

[Joey Avery]

Training with the wrong ball.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, dude. So by July 22, 2003, special American military unit called the JSOC Task Force 20, working with the 101st Airborne Division, started a mission to attack the house, which. Let me just say, I watched the Osama Netflix doc that got me fired up, dude. I'm so. I. I know it's propaganda. I understand this is likely being fed.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah. When you go, oh, every guest is from the CIA. I wonder who controlled the Navy narrative. That being said. Oh, was it. Was it all lies, or were they just telling their side of the story? And is it not an interesting side of the story?

[Mark Yagnon]

Want war. But if you have war with the.

[Joey Avery]

United States, it's not gonna go well.

[Mark Yagnon]

Someone else will raise your children.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

Have you heard that speech?

[Joey Avery]

No, dude.

[Mark Yagnon]

Can we pull that up, Gabe? No, but that get you fired up. We are.

[Joey Avery]

I. I think it's important to say.

[Mark Yagnon]

Oh, dude, we don't want war speech.

[Joey Avery]

I think it's important to note because I often find myself being critical of the American war machine. I think that's appropriate. We are good at destroying things. The real question is, what happens after?

[Mark Yagnon]

Don't look into the after. Don't look into the after. You just need to listen to this and go, you know what? Let's go.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah. Talk about it. Nope. Well, a little. Talk to him.

[Joey Avery]

Jesus Christ.

[Mark Yagnon]

It ain't me.

[Joey Avery]

Oh, my God. I know. The helicopters. It is an anti war song, which is funny, but helicopters nom, dude, it.

[Mark Yagnon]

Just gets you fired up. Look, I understand.

[Joey Avery]

I love a good locker room speech.

[Mark Yagnon]

I'm not a pro war guy, okay? I. Look, we want peace all over the world. With that said, if you want war with the United States.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

So help me. Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

Don't. If you poke the bear. Oh.

[Mark Yagnon]

So they're basically watching the house. The boys are gaining in on them.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

And American soldiers find out there are four people inside. You have Uday Kousse, a bodyguard, and Koussi's son. The plan is to capture all of them alive.

[Joey Avery]

Bet they wish they had their body doubles, right? Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

Uday and Kuse were Saddam's only two sons, if you don't count the third, which made them extremely important targets. So the American forces used everything they had to make sure that the mission wouldn't fail. They brought over 200 soldiers, Kiowa helicopters, an A10 Warthog fighter jet. They were making absolutely sure these couldn't get away. American soldiers surround the house and tell the people inside to come out with their hands up. But instead of surrendering, the people in the house start shooting back at the American soldiers, and the Americans start firing with them. This started a gunfight that lasted for four hours. Uday and Koussa used heavy machine guns and AK47 rifles to fight the American soldiers. Four American soldiers tried to sneak into the area and get to a back entrance of the house. Unfortunately, someone inside, we still don't know who, threw a grenade out the window, and the soldiers were badly wounded. Finally, the American forces started hitting the house with missiles and shooting it, shooting at it with helicopters. After 10 direct hits with the missiles and after half the house had basically fallen down and destroyed, the shooting from inside stopped. The American soldiers go in and they find the dead bodies of Kuce and Uday in the wreckage. Four people were killed in that operation.

[Joey Avery]

Jesus. And there they are, dead as.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, dude, Good news travels fast sometimes.

[Joey Avery]

Daff.

[Mark Yagnon]

Actually, let me, let me.

[Joey Avery]

I'll give them what they did to people.

[Mark Yagnon]

Whoa. Jesus. Who say I can't? That's are those cakes that I think is Freddie Mercury. I don't know exactly.

[Joey Avery]

Posts. Is that post autops or. God damn. Well, I've had enough of that for today, so.

[Mark Yagnon]

I don't know. I don't like cakes in that one. That would be a sick reel. Dude, he's.

[Joey Avery]

Is it cake? I guess. Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

To Uday, it might have been cake. Who knows?

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

When he is confirmed to have been killed, his death is announced to the public in the same night. And for many nights afterwards, you would hear celebratory gunshots fired all across Baghdad in his honor.

[Joey Avery]

Dude, it is what he would have wanted.

[Mark Yagnon]

I don't know how you know that they're celebratory. Yeah. Like, I just wonder.

[Joey Avery]

Just been gunshots. Yeah. Us is like, dude, the people are stoked. It's like you're driving a tank through a village.

[Mark Yagnon]

That's what I say. Anytime I'm in a bad neighborhood, I'm like, dude, you hear those people? People? Yeah. Celebrating.

[Joey Avery]

They probably were pumped, though. I mean, that's like, you know, again, short sighted. But initially the thing was like, hey, we got to get rid of these people. The people don't like them now. That's true.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yes.

[Joey Avery]

What comes next?

[Mark Yagnon]

You're always looking into what comes. Right?

[Joey Avery]

Yes.

[Mark Yagnon]

You're always looking at the. The. Oh, what happens.

[Joey Avery]

Right.

[Mark Yagnon]

You got to just relish in the moment, you know? True. And just enjoy the fact that Uday is gone.

[Joey Avery]

Ah, that is nice.

[Mark Yagnon]

I mean, nice to think about 20 years. I mean, I didn't know this when I was, you know, seven.

[Joey Avery]

Right. But we went through the story today, and we've reached a happy point in the story so far where, oh, he comes back.

[Mark Yagnon]

I'm not cake, motherfuckers. But the people of Iraq are very happy and that, you know, that Uday is gone and he's buried in a, you know, a grave near the town of Tikrit. Soon after, American soldiers search Uday's house, and they find all the typical things you would find in a dictator son's home.

[Joey Avery]

They find dildos, bunch of bottles of baby oil.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah. Ye. Some recording equipment. They find pet cheetahs and lions, a bunch of cars. They find guns made out of gold. And they also find $650 million of cash hidden inside the walls of the house. And that is the terrible and twisted tale of Uday Hussein.

[Joey Avery]

Wow. What a piece of.

[Mark Yagnon]

Right.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

I'm not one Again, I'm generally a pastor pacifist. I think that there's good in all of us and that through the power of Christ, we can all enter into the kingdom of heaven. With that being said. Yeah, this guy's a real. I'm glad he's dead. Yeah. Yeah.

[Joey Avery]

100. And, you know, it is nice because I focus on the negative aspects of that war, which ended up not being great, but it's nice to say, hey, we killed that guy.

[Mark Yagnon]

Right?

[Joey Avery]

And that guy needed to get killed.

[Mark Yagnon]

Was it worth the millions of casualties?

[Joey Avery]

Well, see, that's where. Again, let's probably. No, but where this story today ends. Shout out to us.

[Mark Yagnon]

Shout out to the boys for this moment. That's what I'm saying, dude. I don't know. You just. You. You hear about all the terrible things. You're like, all right, again, I don't like to celebrate the death of people.

[Joey Avery]

Right.

[Mark Yagnon]

This is. This is a human life that God. That God put on our planet.

[Joey Avery]

No.

[Mark Yagnon]

And it was. It was taken. But he was crashing these weddings, and this guy sucked.

[Joey Avery]

This guy sucked, dude.

[Mark Yagnon]

Oh, my God.

[Joey Avery]

Like, beyond the fact that he was committing horrible atrocities to his own people, all. All that just vibes wise had to have been the worst hang.

[Mark Yagnon]

Oh.

[Joey Avery]

Of all time. Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

And he had every opportunity to live, like, a sick ass life.

[Joey Avery]

That's an absolute, like, award. The worst hang of all time.

[Mark Yagnon]

Oh, yeah.

[Joey Avery]

The mush, Hussein.

[Mark Yagnon]

The mush of all mushes. Like, I couldn't imagine a worse vibe. Yeah. Like, hitting up your boy, being like, yo, come out. And they're like, who's it with?

[Joey Avery]

Yeah, Uday has bottle service.

[Mark Yagnon]

And you're like, I don't want to.

[Joey Avery]

Get hit with a lead pipe full of rocks.

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah. By fake Udai. I might not be the real one.

[Joey Avery]

Might not even be the real one.

[Mark Yagnon]

I'm getting abused by.

[Joey Avery]

The thing that fake Uday left out of his story is, like, if he's in public as Uday, he needs to be doing Uday shit.

[Mark Yagnon]

Right?

[Joey Avery]

So he was probably piping a couple people. Not non, metaphorically, like, literally piping mother.

[Mark Yagnon]

Because, like, if you're an assassin and you got sights on him and you're like, this Uday is extremely jovial and kind.

[Joey Avery]

Why is this guy asking this woman about her day?

[Mark Yagnon]

Yeah, that's.

[Joey Avery]

That doesn't seem like him at all.

[Mark Yagnon]

Atypical day. We all know and hate.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah.

[Mark Yagnon]

But, you know, as. As with all things, there's good and bad of every conflict. But I think just today we can say, you know what? There's a little bit of good. A little bit of good two days.

[Joey Avery]

Out of that good one in terms of this story.

[Mark Yagnon]

And I think a forewarning if there's any, you know, dictators out there, extremely wealthy people.

[Joey Avery]

Watch your kids.

[Mark Yagnon]

For real, dude, we gonna come up.

[Joey Avery]

We don't want. We don't want war, but kill kids.

[Mark Yagnon]

I mean, for real, though, like, just make your kids suffer a little. Make them struggle, make them go through some.

[Joey Avery]

It's important.

[Mark Yagnon]

Like, Saddam just as easily could have been like, hey, Uday, go out there and you got to live in a Bedouin hut for a while.

[Joey Avery]

He could have been the next prophet.

[Mark Yagnon]

Imagine that. Yeah, he could have been a good guy. And this is. This is the thing, like, say what you will about, like, religious dictators. You hope that maybe there's a little bit of religiosity that gets in there to be like, okay, you can't murder like it's a wedding. Allah made this wedding happen.

[Joey Avery]

Yeah, they just. They always kind of find a way to be like. Like, hey, but he told me, yeah, we got to do this one. Yeah, that's a good point.

[Mark Yagnon]

I don't know. I'm glad he's gone.

[Joey Avery]

So am I.

[Mark Yagnon]

And I didn't even know he was really here, to be honest. I didn't know a ton about Uday.

[Joey Avery]

I had known, like I said at the beginning, like, I'd heard a little bit. I had heard there that Uday and Kouse, kind of funny name, you know, kind of a two man at Little Bert and Ernie vibes. I knew they were causing around, wreaking all sorts of havoc, but I suppose it was a little more playful in my mind. Yeah, that was pretty, very dark.

[Mark Yagnon]

That boy did not play.

[Joey Avery]

No.

[Mark Yagnon]

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the Butcher of Baghdad. The ace of hearts has finally folded. Get it? I don't know if that's really a poker term. I don't think.

[Joey Avery]

I think it works.

[Mark Yagnon]

I don't really play poker that much.

[Joey Avery]

I'll take it.

[Mark Yagnon]

Gabe, what do you think? All right, all right, all right. Come on, now. You don't have time to just be just gabbing all the time.

[Joey Avery]

Well, thanks for having me, Mark. This was a lovely time.

[Mark Yagnon]

Joseph, thank you so much. I appreciate you spending the afternoon to the learn about the horrible treachery of Uday.

[Joey Avery]

Of course. And, you know, just one more time for people, if they're ever in New York, show at Mary Lou, last Tuesday of every month. It's a great show. Come on. Check it out. Check me out. Joey Avery all over the place. Got a special coming out Joey show podcast. Invite me to your wedding. I won't do that.

[Mark Yagnon]

Thank you guys so much. I appreciate it. Please drop a comment. I read all of them. Let me know. Did I miss anything in the Was there anything that was inaccurate? Was there anything that you think that was not included that should have been brought into the story? Please drop a comment. Spotify, YouTube. I will read all of them. As always, I've been Mark Yagon. You're welcome in my tent anytime and I'll see you in the future. Peace and blessings. So long.