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Former Hussein confidant to speak at St. Olaf

By John Andert '10
October 24, 2007

Former Iraqi general Georges Sada will speak in Boe Chapel at St. Olaf College on Tuesday, Oct. 30, at 7 p.m. Sada, author of the book Saddam's Secrets: How an Iraqi General Defied and Survived Saddam Hussein (2006), will speak as part of St. Olaf's current semester-long academic theme "Liberal Arts in Times of War." Sada's visit is sponsored by the student-run Political Awareness Committee.

The event will be streamed live and archived online.

Sada was born into an Assyrian family in northern Iraq. He studied at the Iraqi Air Force Academy and served in the Iraqi Air Force after graduating in 1959, and trained at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas 1964-65. Eventually he rose to become the second-highest ranking officer in the Iraqi Air Force and a close adviser to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. He retired in 1986, but was recalled to duty in 1990 when Iraq invaded Kuwait.

Currently he chairs the Assembly of Evangelical Presbyterian Churches-Iraq.

Weapons of mass destruction
In Saddam's Secrets Sada claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction prior to the U.S. invasion in 2003. He also states that Hussein ordered the WMD out of the country on several refitted commercial jets that flew to Syria.

"Saddam realized, this time, the Americans are coming," Sada said about the former dictator in an interview with The New York Sun. "They handed over the weapons of mass destruction to the Syrians." In another interview, with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, Sada stated that he actually saw the WMD with "yellow barrels, with skulls and cross bones." Sada also claims to have dissuaded the Iraqi dictator from attacking Israel by air during the last war.

Liberal Arts in Times of War
Sada's talk is one of several events taking place at St. Olaf throughout the fall as part of the "Liberal Arts in Times of War" theme during the college's two-year academic focus on "Global Citizenship." The purpose of the theme is to encourage college-wide reflection on the contributions of liberal arts to understanding war, terrorism and the war against it, morality in war, plus the ideas of "realism," "just war," "holy war" and "non-violence" as competing traditions in the analysis of war.

The Political Awareness Committee is a student organization committed to creating nonpartisan political education and activism. It seeks to serve all members of the St. Olaf student body as a political resource in an attempt to help students become responsible and knowledgeable citizens.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.