Latif Yahia

Having read this book and The black hole, I have had a lot to think about.
I have been in Iraq recently and in the times before the coalition of the billing went in to save Iraq from Saddam and what I have found is a country so divided that it is not just in fragments but shards.
Latif Yahia's book has been proven over and over again by others who fled the regime and most recently documents and places that were discovered after the fall of Baghdad. Mostly Mr.Yahia's work has been used as a reference point for other writers and also propagandists but what we must remember is that although the Devil's double acuratley describes life inside the former dictator's regime it is aimed pointedly at his son's atrocities and brutal crimes. If one is loved as a son, no matter what the father is, is it not a loss when they are killed? If Mr.Yahia was indeed shown the gentler and fatherly side of Saddam Hussein as I believe he was, why would he not grieve at the death that this great man received, we may not agree with how Saddam Hussein ran his country but he was hanged in shame as a criminal, instead of being given at least his due, a firing squad.
As popular as the Devil's double is as a reason for the occupation of Iraq and the need for the invasion, The Black Hole is the reverse, Mr. Yahia has held a mirror up to our own administrations and shown the paralels between the two, this is something that we feel extremely uneasy about and rightly so, we all want to believe that we live in a free democratic society, but as our liberties are slowly taken away from us in the name of peace are we not slowly slipping into that which we are supposedly fighting?
Having fought against the will of the CIA for nearly 16 years Mr.Yahia to my knowledge still finds himself without a homeland, surely someone who has played such a part in modern history deserves a country to support him? Or has his use as a propaganda tool come to an end and rendered him useless to the powers that be?
To my mind it is a travesty.… (altro)

The Black Hole has been banned in Ireland and USA Book Shops..
I don't write reviews, I read books that interest me but I've never been moved enough to actually do "this" before. A friend of mine recently told me about some foreign guy who had been writing blogs about Ireland and how his book had been banned in Ireland and the USA. What I didn't realise and my friend failed to mention was that this "GUY" was Latif Yahia former body double for Uday Hussein and who during the war on Iraq was fairly much a permanent fixture on our TV screens.
It surprised me that Mr. Yahia knew anything about Ireland, let alone felt moved enough to write about it until I went to his blog, it seems that Mr. Yahia has lived in Ireland for nearly 10 years a big surprise to me, it also surprised me to read that his attempts at attaining Irish citizenship were consistently rejected by our Dept of Justice, I would have assumed that Mr.Yahia would have had a choice of citizenship moments after his flight from Iraq, obviously not. I can see how he would be frustrated at the Irish government, I personally would have thought that they would only have been too happy to have a man of his calibur call himself an Irishman, as one myself I know only too well that we take the utmost pride in celebrity/notables who proclaim their Irish roots/associations/affinity.
It was only after I had read "The Black Hole" that I had a sense of the reason, Mr Yahia was not treated well after his flight from Iraq, much like a child that is taken from an abusive home and put into "care" to save them from their daily horrors only to find that what lies ahead is even worse.
Having been brought to Austria from Iraq, he found himself in a camp devoid of any security, sanitation or sanity. After he finally was released to begin a new life the CIA stepped in to cement their claim on his "inside knowledge" if we are to believe MR. Yahia's account of his dealings with the CIA then the movie version where they say "co-operate or we will make your life hell" is pretty darn accurate! He was then wrongly imprisoned in a covert facility in Austria for ten and a half months (do remember that this was 1995, long before we knew what rendition was) only to be released by a twist of fate. In short Mr. Yahia's book tells of a life wrought with tragedy and anguish, a man caught in the middle of two super-powers bent on using him for their own purposes. I can understand, why this book has been banned in Ireland as we are so closely linked with the USA and I can understand that although nothing in this book is so out there that it is unbelievable, but maybe it comes from such a genuine source and it cannot be used for their agenda that they cannot deal with it in any other way than to ban it. If you ar interested in visiting Mr. Yahia's blog @
http://latifyahia2006.blogspot.com… (altro)