I would have stayed in Baghdad and taken a bullet from Uday, at least then I would have been buried in my country near my family | How Latif made and lost a fortune |
---|---|
How Uday sought revenge on Latif and vice-versa | But it was only after the final test, a meeting with Saddam himself, that Latif made his first public appearance |
But it was only after the final test, a meeting with Saddam himself, that Latif made his first public appearance.
And so began his life as Uday's double - a life on the perimeter of the inner circle of Saddam's eldest son, a witness to the horror of his insane life of debauchery, excess and brutality, and an experience for which he almost paid with his life on more than one occasion | How he strived in vain for a peaceful life and survived 4 more assassination attempts |
---|---|
In 1987, Latif Yahia was taken to Saddam's headquarters to meet Uday, Saddam's eldest son, and told that a great honour had been bestowed upon him: that because of the great likeness between them, he had been chosen to be Uday's double |
His despair as a beggar on the streets and the happiness he found after he met the love of his life.
17The book has recently been made into a highly-acclaimed movie | For many Iraqis it would have been the highlight of their lives, but for Latif, a peace-loving man who did not agree with Saddam's brutal regime, it was not |
---|---|
THE BLACK HOLE: gives a fascinating account of what happened to Latif in Europe after he escaped from Iraq | After a gruesome training programme during which he was made to watch over thirty films of torture, hours of tapes of Uday, and undertake a final remodelling of his appearance, Latif was deemed ready |
For many Iraqis it would have been the highlight of t This book is now a major motion picture released with the same title in August 2011.
16