The Human Shield

8/18/2019 The Human Shield

1/34

Key Skills – Communications – Level 3, Part B3.3. Extended Document

Cliff Human Shieldi

Allies or All Lies


2/34


Cliff Human Shieldii


3/34


Dedications

I am aware that this document is for the purpose of examination; however, the writing of this

document meant that I had to relive a difficult episode of my life that enhanced traumatic

memories which time had eroded. In those dark days, there were people who unselfishly helped me

and other hostages; none of them had to do what they did. They were not seeking glory, what they

did was from the heart; each of them knew that they were jeopardising their own lives and two of

them paid the ultimate price.

Yet had it not been for the invisible driving force of my two sons, perhaps none of these people

would have played any significant part in my life for surely, as so many others had done, I would

have given up at the start.

My sons were at home in UK not knowing if their father was dead or alive but yet excelled in

their education. Perhaps they were drawing strength from me.

To my sons, Darren and Richard who sufered more anguish

rom my downall than I did.

To Theresa, a Filipina who unselshly risked her lie to assist

British women.

To ouse !l "oss, a #alestinian who cared enough to help

British people.

To my dear $uwaiti riend, %undah &%onday' !l Ra(iyah, a

(ra)e resistance ghter. RI# %onday.

To the Ira*i +$urdish lieutenant who captured me and lost his

lie sparing mine.

To Da)e, a dear riend. I could not ha)e had a (etter (uddy in

those desperate times.

During the time that we were running and hiding from the Iraqi soldiers, Dave and I spent days

hiding in complexes that they were searching. We talked only when we had to and then only in

whispers. On a subject of which has long since been forgotten, Dave and I had an argument and

whispering was essential; soldiers were often on the other side of the wall. So frustrating was it

arguing in that manner, that we ended up laughing aloud potentially revealing our location. We said

sorry and then toasted each other with G & T.

I have not seen or spoken to Dave since December 1990. My third colleague in hiding, Don, I never

saw again after the release flight. Such is the power of PTSD.

Cliff Human Shieldiii


4/34


Index

Title page ........................Page i

Dedications......................Page ii

Index...............................Page iii

Chronicle ........................Page iv

Mahboula .......................Page vi

Preface ............................Page vii

Prologue .........................Page 1

The Beginning.................Page 5

The Build-up ..................Page 6

The Invasion ...................Page 8

The Occupation ..............Page 10

Liberation ......................Page 16

Epilogue .........................Page 17

Diagrams

Ottoman Empire Maps.....Page 18

Kuwait Shifting Borders...Page 19

Kurdistan........................Page 20

Cliff Human Shieldiv


5/34


Chronicle of Iraq

10,000 - Mesopotamia – Earliest Records

340 - Byzantine Empire (Christian) – Encompass Mesopotamia

2 - Iraq formed in part of Mesopotamia

The Year of Christ

7 - Iraq conquered by Arabians forming three provincial areas of Mosul, Baghdad, Basra

1300 - Ottomans take over Byzantine Empire

1534 - Ottomans take Iraq and extend into Arab peninsula on coast of Persian Gulf

1672 - Bedoun families settle in peninsula of bay south of Basra. The area eventually becomes

known as Al Qurain (Al Grain), (Later to become Kuwait).

1752 - Al Sabah family, non-merchants, appointed to oversee and protect Al Qurain whilst

merchant families fished and traded with India

1756 - Al Sabah contact British for help after Persians attack Basra which was governing Al

Qurain. Britain establishes base in the area.

1773 - Plague in Al Qurain kills most inhabitants.

1881 - Ottomans demand Al Qurain and Qatar pay additional revenue as Ottoman Empire

declines

1846 - Sheikh Muhammad Al Sabah assassinated by his half brother, Mubarak Al Sabah.

1897 - Mubarak Al Sabah recognised by Ottoman Sultan as the provincial sub-governor of Al

Qurain.

1897 - Al Qurain crisis. Ottoman demand British stop interfering with their empire. Ottomans back down to avoid war they could not afford.

1899 - Mubarak Al Sabah signs agreement with British which gave Britain control of Al

Qurain’s foreign policy and their national security. In return, Britain gives annual

subsidy of £1500.

c1900 - Under British supervision, wall built around Al Qurain town. Al Qurain becomes known

as Kut, later Kuwait, meaning little fort in Arabic.

1913 - Anglo-Ottoman Convention. British concur in defining Kuwait as an ‘autonomous caza’

of the Ottoman Empire. Sheikhs of Kuwait not independent but qainmaqams (provincial

sub-governors) of the Ottomans.

1914 - World War 1

1915 - Mubarak Al Sabah dies. His son, Jaber II Al Sabah takes over

Cliff Human Shield v


6/34


1917 - Jaber II dies. Succeeded by his brother, Sheikh Salem Al Mubarak Al Sabah

1918 - World War 1 ends with British victory over Ottomans. Anglo-Ottoman Convention

invalidated by British.

1920 - Shi’ite uprising. Manchester regiment all but wiped out; over 10,000 people killed.

1920 - Wahabi Bedou of Nejd (Saudi Arabia) attack southern Kuwait and then Jahra in north,declaring Kuwait as not extending beyond walls of the city.

Chronicle continued/...

1922 - Ottoman Empire split up by British into Turkish Republic, Iraq, Kuwait, Gulf States,

Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon. British negotiate Nejd border with substantial loss to

Kuwait.

1922 - Modern Iraq – British protectorate. Faisel crowned king.

1923 - Britain set out the border of Iraq based on an unratified 1913 convention.

1932 - Britain grants independence to Iraq

1938 - Decline of pearl diving in Kuwait due to introduction of cultured pearls elsewhere.

Kuwaitis poverty stricken. Britain gives annual financial subsistence to Kuwait.

1938 - Discovery of oil in Kuwait.

1939 - World War II

1941 - Britain takes over Iraq, Kuwait and other Gulf States. Britain and Russia take overIran.

1945 - World War II ends

1958 - Iraq’s monarchy bloodily deposed by General Abd Al Karim Al Qasam.

1961 - Britain grants Kuwait independence. Official name; Dawlat al-Kuwayt – State of

Kuwait.

1963 - Qasem overthrown by a Ba’at Party take-over.

1968 - Ahmad Al Bakr takes over leadership of Iraq with Sadam Hussain his deputy.

1979 - Sadam officially takes over control of Iraq.

1980 - Iran-Iraq war

1985 - Opposition group formed in Kuwait .

Cliff Human Shield vi


7/34


1986 - Amir’s motorcade attacked on city coast road. Wrong car blown up. Amir’s car shot

by automatic gunfire. Amir injured but survived.

1988 - Iran-Iraq war ends with Iraq victorious.

1990 - February; Arab Council meet in Amman. Sadam demands money from Kuwait and

the UAE to compensate for horizontal drilling and oil price drop.1990 - 15 July; Sadam sends Republican Guards to Kuwait border.

1990 - 16 July; Iraq’s Foreign Minister, Tarek Aziz, sets out Iraq’s demands of Kuwait to

Chadley Klibi, Secretary General of Arab League.

1990 - 19 July; Kuwait forces stood down from alert.

1990 - 24 July; Sadam assures Hosin Mubarak that he will not invade Kuwait.

1990 - 25 July; Sadam meets with April Gillespie in Baghdad and reasserts lack of intention

to invade Kuwait.

1990 - 30, 31 July, 1st August; Iraqi, Kuwaiti and Saudi delegates meet in Jeddah but fail to

reach agreement. Prince Saud, Kuwait Crown Prince, hurls abuse against Sadam.Iraq delegates walk out and return to Iraq.

1990 - 2 August; Shortly after midnight, Iraqi troops advance into Kuwait

Cliff Human Shield vii


8/34


Cliff Human Shield

v i

Scene where Kuwaitiwoman drove car bombinto Iraqi trenches

Open Space

Open Space Open Space

Open Space

Union Center [sic]

Gaa Comple!"ahboula Comple!#$nts %loc&'

()* Comple!

$iwan +orth

$iwan South

Sultan %en ,ssa Comple!

Collection -oint for.emmin/ 0un

.atifa 1owers

$l "adawi Comple!

$lia 2 GhaliaComple!

Street 345

6ahaheel ,!presswa7

1o Kuwait Cit71o $hmadi 2 Saudi %order

Street 384

.ow9income flats

Small 6arm

Open Space

Unfinished "osque

Legend

,scape route from soldiers

0esistance6i/hters :irectionof fire

-ersian Gulf

Iraqi 1renches

"ahboula

1an&s Concreted in6ield and machine/uns concreted in

"achine /unnerfacin/ Union Center

My First Flat

Flat 4B

-rivate Kuwaiti %each ;illas

N

:umped0ubbish

1o "utla 0id/e

0 100

Metres

viii


9/34


Preface

On 2nd August 1990, the Iraqi army invaded Kuwait subsequently forming a shield of

humans around key military and civil sites to protect them from the onslaught of Westernmilitary attack. British, American and Japanese civilians, who were trapped in Kuwait and

Iraq at the time of the invasion, formed the Human Shield. I was one of those people.

During my childhood, I developed a love of aircraft and subsequently took a design

apprenticeship with an engineering company in Wolverhampton that manufactured aircraft

flying control systems. In 1964, I became their technical representative operating from

Heathrow serving, amongst others, BOAC and BEA. Later, I was also appointed as Technical

Liaison Engineer for the Middle East and served Pakistan International, Kuwait Airways,

Iraqi Airways and Cyprus Airways. I first travelled to the Middle East in 1968 and over the

next two years developed an affection for the people and the area, so much so, that in mid1971, I took up a post with Kuwait Airways Engineering based in Kuwait and there I lived

until 2001

On 26th July 1990, I returned to Kuwait from a summer vacation. My two young sons,

both pupils of the Kuwait English School, planned to return on 10th August.

This writing is an account of my personal observations of the invasion of Kuwait by the

Iraqis and to some extent, of my despair. It is an account of what I believe lay behind the

invasion and how the Human Shield was promulgated. It is based on my time in Kuwait

during the Iraqi occupation of 1990 which I spent, for the first part, in hiding in the Kuwaitisuburb of Mahboula and later, after capture, being processed as part of the Human Shield

located in a specially built prison camp at a munitions factory in the ancient Babylonian

area of Iraq. It is supplemented by my personal knowledge of the area and of the people,

which I acquired during my visits 1969 to 1971 and my residence in Kuwait from 1971 to

2001. My job with Kuwait Airways also put me in a position to know all aircraft movement,

their flights and their destinations and who was flying, particularly with regard to the VIP

aircraft. I have written without bias and without guidance or influence of any other

documents other than established bona fide historical facts.

The document is not intended as an account on the grief and strife of what I or any of theother hostages suffered or of the stories within stories that we have to tell. Neither have I

included the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians and the Arabs, even though

argument may have it that this is the primary cause of unrest in the Middle East.

Although I state that I do not take into consideration historical conflicts, I have included

recent historical events, circa 1900 – 1922, which shaped Mesopotamia into the new Iraq

and the new Kuwait at the fall and demise of the Ottoman Empire. I have included it

because, in my opinion, it had a great bearing on the events that led up to the three

invasions by the Iraqis during my time there and in particular, the invasion that lay behind

the first Gulf War.Whilst in Western world writings, the spelling of Sadam Hussain’s name is commonly

Saddam Hussein: Arabic is purely phonetic and bears no direct relativity to the English

Cliff Human Shieldix


10/34


language; therefore, I choose to use the Gulf Arabic translations, that is on the

pronunciation, viz, Sah-dam Hussane, hence Sadam Hussain, the h is relatively silent and

softens the pronunciation of Sa. It will be observed that there are other variations in my

writing. The word emir as used by writers in English is always spelt and pronounced, Amir

in Kuwait and the prefix of a name indicating family is never As (or as), it is always Al,hence, ‘Al Sabah’, not ‘as Sabah’ or ‘As Sabah’. I also use the Arab names for the nomadic

Arabs, those of Bedou and Bedoun, rather than the French derivation, Bedouin.

Those who constituted the human shield were never given counselling for PTSD and such

was the impact on them that several have since committed suicide. My counselling was done

on my own initiation by returning to Kuwait soon after liberation.

In reality, seeing such devastation of a country that I loved, I sometimes wonder if that

was the right way to go about it. To see the immense destruction that had been carried out

by Iraqis and Allies alike. Where buildings had been blown apart or burnt out. Of seeing the

burning oil fires that were spewing out dense, black acrid smoke blotting out the sun, whereday was night and night was utterly silent

and black; where blackened sands

replaced the golden desert and I would no

more see, in those magic moments of

springtime, the beauty of the carpets of

blue-purple desert orchids and the

myriads of yellow dahlias. Where eye-

catching domino beetles clamber between

the stems of sporadic self-seeded plants and green and yellow dab

scurry across the plains. Where now destroyed military vehicles,

incinerated by missiles and rockets, their metal bent and distorted by heat that cannot be

imagined, clutter roads and sands alike. But worse, seeing the fate of those poor wretches at

Mutlah as they attempted to return to Iraq, the unnecessary destruction of the life of

thousands* of people who would have gladly given themselves up without so much as firing

a bullet and in all probability with deep gratitude. Most were civilians and those that

weren’t, were conscripted Kurds.

I at least was able to reflect that as a prisoner of Sadam Hussain, I had not suffered the

horrors that these people had, for should Sadam have chosen, this same fate could so easily

have been mine.

Of one thing there is no doubt, my life and attitude changed significantly because of the

invasion and occupation of Kuwait, but why, I do not know; perhaps because I had to suffer

from the lies and deceit of the West, particularly my own country, or perhaps because that is

what war does to a foreign civilian caught up in someone else’s war.

Cliff Human Shield

Page ix

Desert Orchid

An oil lake burns in the Kuwait

Desert

x


11/34


Cliff Human Shield

* The figure is contentious between amounts of people 1,000 and 20,000.

xi


12/34


THE HUMAN SHIELD

Prologue

As the steel clad doors clattered closed and clanking chains manacled doors to posts, my hope of

freedom had gone. I could see that there would be no escape except by death, which now seemed

inevitable and imminent.

With the light of hope now extinguished, my thoughts turned to my family who were safe at home

in England. Uncharacteristically I said a silent prayer for them that they would not suffer by my

demise. For myself I asked only that death would be painless and quick.

I looked out of the small barred window of my cell where I could see but a high wall of unpainted

corrugated steel sheets topped with barbed wire onto which the December Tauz* had blown

numerous plastic bags. Entangled on the barbs, the jaded bags fluttered wildly as if in a forlorn and

hopeless bid of a saddened truce on my behalf. Weary, I turned away and lay on the hard wooden

bed; I closed my eyes and remembered...

I had not been aware that the invasion of Kuwait by the Iraqis

had taken place that morning, Thursday 2nd August 1990. The

two low flying military aircraft that had awoken me from my sleep

at 5.20 a.m. as they skimmed the roof of my villa, I had thought

were Kuwaiti. ‘More Talks Needed, Says The Amir’, read the

headlines of the local English language newspaper that morning.

I was unaware that the troops and war machines around me were

Iraqi. In five short hours as the citizens slept, the Iraqis had

captured Kuwait.

If only the borders had not been closed so quickly by the Iraqis as we had been informed by the

British and American Foreign Offices. If only the Kuwait army and air force had not fled to Saudi

Arabia but had stood and fought; if only the wardens had not hidden away but instead had stood to

their posts and kept us informed; then I could have fled to Saudi just forty minutes south – so near,

yet so far.

I suppose I must have been lucky. How easily I could have been picked up at the checkpoints as I

drove around looking for untrashed shops; after all the embassies said that the Iraqis were lifting all

Brits, they had urged that we stay in doors. When the soldiers came to the flat asking for water they

could have taken me prisoner, particularly the two red bereted Republican Guards who came into the

flat with rifles at the ready; perhaps they would have done had they not been looking for Resistance

Fighters that day.

How I laughed when the two Kuwaiti Resistance fighters, (the ones who the two Republican

Guards were looking for), had fired shots from the eighteenth floor of Alhia and Ghalia Towers into

the soldiers dug in close to the beach as they prepared for an assault by the Allies from the sea:

when those soldiers had then turned and, not knowing where the shots had come from, fired wildly

inland. Then, believing that the Allied invasion had begun, the dug-in inland troops fired bullets and

mortar back at them. Yousef said eight Iraqis had been killed in that exchange and the two Kuwait

Resistance fighters had escaped. Perhaps I should not have laughed; war is not funny.

Perhaps I should have taken my chances with the planned escape convoy that day on the 16th

August. Perhaps I would have been lucky enough to get across the border at Selmi… but without a

Cliff Human Shield

MIG 29’s prepare for takeoff.

1


13/34


four-wheel drive vehicle, I would not have got far through the soft sands. Even those with four-wheel

drives did not make it; either the Iraqis had turned them back, or had taken their vehicles and in

some cases, taken them prisoner. No, I stick to my name for that convoy, the Lemming Run; it was

doomed to failure from the start. I’m glad I didn’t go.

‘British women and children will be allowed to leave Kuwait’, I must admit, I did not believe that

when I first heard it; so many promises made, so many broken. When was that, 26th August… no,

that was when it was announced… 28th is when they were allowed to leave… but Yousef, my

Palestinian friend was right, the Iraqis in the field would not have been notified: another British

Foreign Office cock-up. I wonder what happened to the young Filipina. What was her name? Ah, yes,

Theresa -- Saint Theresa of the Roses I called her, the British women being the Roses -- such a

courageous woman. The Iraqi officer commanding the Iraqi troops in the southern part of Kuwait had

claimed her as his only the previous day, before she had managed to escape and flee. It was the

habaya that Yousef’s wife had given her which hid her identity. She did not have to do it, she didn’t

know any of us, there was no need for her to volunteer to drive our women and children to Salmiya,

she knew how risky it was helping British citizens for which the penalty was death. What a brave woman, she could so easily have been recognised when the four vehicles transporting our women and

children were picked up at the checkpoint just round the corner. What was it that she had said when

I suggested that this was not her responsibility when we were so desperate for a fourth driver? Ah

yes, it was when she had looked at the two mothers with their children and then, in her Tagalog –

English accent said, “They are four, I am only one. I will be the one to drive them,” and then she

made a Hail Mary across her chest; such faith, she knew the risk she was taking.

Thank God that Yousef had managed to convince the Iraqis to contact Baghdad to verify the

authorised release of British women and children. I wonder what happened to Theresa after she

dropped the women and children off at the Iraqi bus. Yousef said he had last seen her driving away

into the backstreets of Salmiya.

When they had picked up our women that same day, the Iraqis acquired our location from the

Civil ID’s that they had taken from them and then four platoons of Republican Guards stormed our

complex with guns blazing and boots flaying; that was terrifying. My friend Dave and I escaped by

hiding in a cupboard. They captured the other British men, eighteen in all. Four motionless hours

cramped up in a cupboard barely big enough for the two of us. In the cupboard oxygen became rare

and breathing difficult and our fears were high with the expectation of bullets splintering through the

wooden doors when soldiers came near. How relieved I was when stepping out of the cupboard after

two hours of silence had indicated that the soldiers had gone; the satisfaction I felt after beating the

soldiers was exulting; the loss of my colleagues, depressing.Nevertheless, they were still searching for us and several times, we came close to capture as we

fled from flat to flat and complex to complex. How relieved I felt when finally we shook them off and

settled in a flat on the fourth floor of a walled complex of four blocks that surrounded a large

courtyard, just two hundred metres from the coast. All we had to do then was sit back and wait for

the allies to liberate Kuwait as they constantly said they would. Of course there was still looting to be

done, we needed food and cotton clothing for protection from bomb blast; helmets were required to

protect from falling debris and knives for defence against desperate soldiers, who too may have been

hiding in the concrete fire escape where we planned to take cover.

We were anxious but we became complacent; reading and writing, when there was enough light,

and waiting and that was to be our final undoing. The Iraqis commandeered the building and

commissioned it as their Southern Operations HQ with us still on the fourth floor completely cut off.

Why had we not heeded the warnings of Yousef who had told us that the Iraqis planned to clear the

Cliff Human Shield

* Seasonal wind.

2


14/34


entire area of civilians and prepare for an assault by the allies from the sea? But it was too late now,

with two hundred soldiers below us we were going nowhere.

What awful days those were, three months of living with the Iraqis, living in total silence and often

in total darkness. And when our food reserves ran out, raiding the apartments on the lower floors

and stealing theirs by sliding on our bellies in the early hours of the morning, dragging black plastic

bags of spoils with us slowly and silently within yards of their night-watch platoons. I was fearful of

making the slightest noise, expecting hot metal to tear into my flesh at any moment; such relief I felt

when I was finally back inside flat 4B battening the door.

I suppose it was inevitable that we were lifted; we had held on for three months and had survived

several attempt of looting soldiers trying to kick and prise the door open. Then with sixty-one of the

sixty-two apartments trashed, it was only a matter of time before our battens yielded and that time

came at 3 a.m. on 27th November, just ten days ago.

That night when the Iraqi soldiers battered the door down I expected choleric reaction from them

as they found two Englishmen sat at a table drinking gin and tonic in total defiance. Thankfully, I

suppose, we had been captured by a Kurdish lieutenant, had it have been an Iraqi officer I know we would have been shot. Hiding British citizens was punishable by death and we had ‘lived’ with them

for three months; how did that look?

What were those soldiers thinking as we were led down the steps and across the courtyard? This

was the very courtyard where daily I had inspected ‘my troops’ through a gap in the curtains. Now we

were the curiosity as more than a hundred soldiers were bustling around to get a better view of us,

wondering just whom we were and how we had lived amongst them for three months undetected.

As men dressed in black suits, blue shirts and

black ties, thrust me into the back seat of a large

black American limousine, I chanced to look back

and see the sergeant that had given the command

for a firing squad to execute a young Kuwaiti

resistance fighter. I wondered if this time he felt

cheated.

It was too late now, but why hadn’t I tried to

escape when I was held at the Mansour Meliah Hotel

in Baghdad, I had my chance? After persistent

pestering, I had persuaded them to let me take

exercise by walking around the gardens. I had no

immediate guard that day and those on duty at thegates would not have seen me get through the chain-

link fence that separated the gardens from the

banks of the Tigris. There were small boats on the

banks, I could have reached the British Embassy,

perhaps, or even have drifted downstream with the

current, a mere five days to the Persian Gulf and

into Kuwait waters. Perhaps that was not a good idea, but why had my defiance suddenly waned?

Had I succumbed to circumstance and inevitability?

I wait, as on my bed I lie, not now afraid. I accept the inevitable for death is part of life and I thank

God that mine was meaningful. My sons I know will grieve, but they are strong and they will prosper.

Cliff Human Shield

A Kuwaiti Resistance fighter is executed just

below the window of the writer’s flat. Sketch by

writer.

3


15/34


Come allies I am ready, drop your bombs and guide your missiles. Now I sleep. I am tired, very tired.

It has been a long five months. I dream...

“Good morning, Mr Cliff, wake up, you go now.”

My guard is nice to me, he is pleasant and he has no guns. I am in heaven.

“Good morning, Mr Cliff, you go now, you go to Baghdad.”

Baghdad, where are we? Heaven has no Baghdad, no London, no anywhere, only heaven?

“You go to Baghdad, you go home, Sadam release you. Get ready, the bus is waiting.”

As I walk across the small yard towards the steel clad gates now wide open, chains hanging

limply, a guard calls, “Mr Cliff, you forget this.” I turn and he tosses a football to me, I catch it.

The ball is grazed and scuffed from contact with the fine-gravel of the exercise yard and it

reminds me of the kindness of this guard when I had asked for a football and in response he had

driven to the town and, using his own money, bought it for me to kick around the yard.

“Shukeran, Habibi,” I say, thanking him as I toss the ball back to him, “Give it to your son, soon

he will play for Iraq in the Gulf Cup.”

“Mashkour, Inshallah, Mr Cliff,” he replies, if God wills it, thank you.I turn to leave as the guard calls out, “Mr Cliff…” he hesitates and then he says, “Mahbrouk.”

I look back at him and he is smiling. “Yallah, Habibi. Allah Akhbar!” I reply (Let us go now my

friend. God is great].

As the small blue bus pulls slowly away, this time with curtains drawn open, I look through the

dirty window and through the open gates into the yard. A lonely figure stands immaculate in his

military issue black suit, blue shirt and black tie, legs apart, one arm dropped at his side and the

other clutching the ball; I cannot really tell, but I think he is confused; he is happy, but he is sad.

Like most Iraqis, he had not wanted this military issue promulgated by two desperate and misguided

men, Sadam Hussain and George H W Bush.

The three main players in the Middle East conflict

Cliff Human Shield

Margaret Thatcher.

British Prime MinisterGeorge H W Bush.

American President.Sadam Hussain.

Iraq President.

The victims

4


16/34


The Beginning

There are many reasons that led to the Iraqis invading Kuwait in 1990, but was Sadam a tyrant, an

evil man hell-bent on destruction of those around him, as his critics would have us believe, or as

some might have it, as shown in history? On the other hand, was Sadam essentially a good leader

doing the best that could be done in a difficult country, in a difficult part of the world – the centre of

two major religions and the centre of the world’s greatest oil reserves? Had Sadam once again become

the victim of duplicity by the Americans and British? Sadam’s regime is accredited with mass

genocide of his own people, the Kurds, but even on this, there is evidence to suggest that the

Iranians, under Americans influence, were involved. So how accurate are the accounts of the history

of Mesopotamia or new Iraq? Are they historical, historic or merely histrionic?

Many accounts of the invasion and occupation of Kuwait have been produced with most of these

being included in comprehensive writings of modern Iraq, or of Sadam Hussain. Whilst the core

history of Iraq is well chronicled, interim periods are left to authors’ interpretations – and to some

extent, imagination – and readers’ naivety.

The entire Middle East region has been subject to wars and conflict for millenniums by empire

builders. Since the end of the nineteenth century, Western countries, primarily Great Britain, France

and the USA, have interfered endlessly with the domestic politics of the region albeit most of that at

the end of the two World Wars. It is not my intention to go into any depth of the historical and

degenerate conflicts that have occurred in the area over the centuries. However, the invasion of

Kuwait was rooted by British political activity in the southern parts of the Ottoman Empire at the

beginning of the Empire’s decline, circa 1890, when the British afforded a small group of trading

families’ protection from marauding Bedou in the interests of trade routes and later, the search for

oil. This area, known as Al Qurain, (pronounced Al G’rain), which lay on a peninsula of a sheltered

bay south of Basra, was given autonomy by the British and protection given by the building of a wall

around the dwelling area circa 1899, parts of which remain to present day. The area became known

Cliff Human Shield5


17/34


by the Arabs as little fort, (in Arabic, Kut or Kuwayt). A few years later, the British proclaimed the

surrounding areas as the territory of Kuwait but this was not ratified until the British defined the

new area boundaries after World War 1 which has caused contempt, disagreement, resentment and

uprisings ever since. In reality, ratification is questionable; the British merely cancelled the 1913

agreement with the Ottomans, which was never agreed to by the Iraqis. Now, under the (involuntary)

control of the British, they had no say in the matter.

During the First World War, the British conquered the Ottoman regions of Iraq, Palestine and

Syria and then, after the war, created and transformed the area into Transjordan (later Jordan), Iraq

and the Gulf States. The whole issue was complicated by underhand deals that Britain struck with

France including the Sykes-Picot agreement, which gave Lebanon and Syria

to the French while Britain took control of Iraq, Palestine, Kuwait and other

Gulf States.

To placate Sharif Hussein of Mecca, the leader of Hejaz (later Saudi

Arabia), the British wanted to make his sons heads of Transjordan, Syria

and Iraq. The old king refused to sign Churchill’s agreement that set outstructure of the new Middle East, but the king’s sons had no such qualms

in assuming their new positions. In Baghdad this meant that Faisel

Hussein’s third son became the first king of Iraq.

This was not a popular move with the newly liberated citizens of Iraq most of whom were opposed

to the creation of a new state. When it had first been proposed in 1919 that the provinces of Mosul,

Baghdad and Basra be joined together to form one nation, most British politicians had argued that it

was a ludicrous idea. Arnold Wilson, the Civil Administrator in Baghdad, said it was a recipe for

disaster because it meant trying to force three distinct groups – the Shi’ite, Sunnite and Kurds to

work together, even though it was well known that they detested each other.

Tension amongst the tribes at the time was so great that in July 1920 the country suffered the

greatest revolt in history. The revolt was caused by a combination of factors, but Britain’s failure to

fulfil a wartime promise of allowing the Arab leaders’ self-determination was significant.

The uprising, which lasted until 1921, was suppressed, but not before almost an entire battalion

of the Manchester Regiment was wiped out by the Shi’ite guerrillas. At least 10,000 people died in the

revolt and, if nothing else, it persuaded the British that it would be far better to establish a puppet

regime to run the country for them, rather than burden themselves with the huge cost in men and

resources that would be required to subdue warring tribes.

The rival warlords in Baghdad and Basra made efforts to patch up their differences and presented

the British with a viable local leadership in Sayid Talib, the pre-eminent local leader of Basra, butBritain had already resolved that Faisel would be king.

The emergence of a genuine secular contender caused alarm in the British government. The

resourceful Sir Percy Cox, the British Resident in Baghdad, who invited Talib to afternoon tea at the

British Residence to discuss his plans, resolved the crisis. When Talib arrived at the Residence Sir

Percy was nowhere to be seen and so Lady Cox entertained him. As Talib left the Residence party,

other guests, acting on the advice of Sir Percy, arrested him. Talib was then exiled to the island of

Ceylon (Sri Lanka), leaving Faisel free to ascend the throne. His coronation took place in Baghdad on

23rd August 1922. Add to this, the creation of Israel in 1947 at the expense of Arab land and the

subsequent desecration and occupation of Palestine that had American support, the cauldron of

wrath was bubbling to the rim.

Cliff Human Shield

King Faisel 1. First

king of Iraq

6


18/34


The Build-up

Factually, despite popular Western belief, there is not an Emirate or Kingdom in Arabia that practices

democracy. All, at some time or other even up to present-day, have committed genocide by executing

opposition members and insurgents. Each country is ruled by a dictator, either as a sheikh or emir

(Amir in Kuwait), or a king and that is the way that the people want it; they are tribal and each tribeis headed by its own sheikh. Tribal disputes cause most of their conflicts and beyond that, religion. A

few countries have a government in place, but in all instances these are puppet governments and

they are there only to appease the West. If they attempt to exercise any authority, they are quietly

disbanded.

Kuwait, up to the time of the Iraqi invasion, was involved in the genocide of an opposition group,

most of who came from the area in which I resided, Mishrif. In 1988, this group was banned from

meetings or gatherings of more than twelve people and consequently they set up their operating base

in Cyprus and used a facsimile system for means of communication. In 1989 the ruling family, the Al

Sabah’, formed a special security police group to counter the opposition who rounded up members of

the opposition group imprisoning many. At the time of the 1990 invasion, more than 600 members of

the opposition had disappeared. The Iraqis immediately released those still in gaol. The opposition

group had approached Iraq for help; a coup or civil war was imminent. In view of the fact that the

Kuwait Military was made up almost entirely of foreign nationals, mostly from Pakistan and

Bangladesh, it is highly unlikely that they would have played any significant part in civil strife, one

way or another.

The build up to the 1990 invasion of Kuwait had many contributory factors. Certainly, the result

of the extended Iraq-Iran war bore significance in as much that Iraq was left in a state of virtual

economic disaster and was now entirely dependant on oil revenue to supplement the economy and to

pay off their war debts. As the oil prices stood then even that would cause them to struggle to balance their payments. In response to a request from the American and British governments who

were planning between them to undermine the Iraqi economy as an assurance against acquisition of

military weapons, the Kuwaitis added fuel to the fire by deliberately over-producing oil causing a

considerable drop in international oil-price, from $30 per barrel to less than $20. The Anglo-

American plan had backfired as Kuwaiti greed ran amok and they produced even more oil than they

had been asked to do which resulted in them being expelled from OPEC. As a direct consequence of

that action, the Iraqis were unable to produce enough oil to meet their obligations. Added to that, the

Kuwaitis were performing horizontal drilling taking oil from the Iraqi oil reserves. Nevertheless, as

dire as those issues were, they alone were not the direct cause of the invasion.

I had experienced two previous Iraqi invasions of Kuwait during my residence there in the early

seventies. Both of those invasions were to fulfil claims that the Iraqis had been making since the

dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and the reformation of Iraq and Kuwait in 1921-22. From when I

first visited Kuwait and Iraq in 1968, the Kuwait-Iraq border had been moved north from Mutlah

Ridge, slightly north of the city, a few years previously. Using this as a natural border divide, Mutlah

ridge was still operative as the Kuwaiti border post even though the new border had been established

some forty miles north. The information that I had from good and reliable Kuwaiti sources was that

when Kuwait was granted independence from Britain in 1961, Britain re-established the border to its

new and present position. Taking it from Iraq, this gave Kuwait part control of the largest oilfield in

the world, but at the same time, the relocation of the border had a much greater effect on Iraq bypassing ownership of thestrategic and disputed islands of Bubiyan and Al Warbah to the Kuwaitis.

Whilst the low-lying barren desert of the islands is virtually worthless and effectively uninhabitable

Cliff Human Shield7


19/34


except for mudskippers, flamingos, and an occasional shepherd and his flock, it has a value to Iraq

much higher than theRumaylah oil field. Geographically, Iraq has little coastline and what they have

is shallow water, worthless for development of deep-sea ports. This necessitates transfer of oil to sea

tankers through pipes routed across Syria and Saudi Arabia, which is both expensive and politically

volatile. Bubyian could provide the deep-sea port that Iraq so desperately needed. When Sadam

Hussain in 1990 responded to President George W Bush’s demand to withdraw from Kuwait to the

borders, he responded cynically by asking, ‘Which border do you mean, the walls of Kuwait City,

Mutlah Ridge or the present location?’

During the Iraq – Iran war, the Kuwaitis were assisting the Iranians financially and by providing

resources via Dhow across the waters of the Persian Gulf. When Sadam found out, he was angry. He

pointed out how the Iraqis had historically assisted Kuwait and he threatened them with aggression.

The British were fearful of the Iranians winning the war and they advised the Kuwaitis to put their

loyalties with the Iraqis, which they did in 1988 towards the end of the conflict. There was another

way in which the Iraqis believed Kuwait owed them some form of compensation, in fact, Sadam stated

that one of his reasons for declaring war on Iran had been to defend the interest of Kuwait, and there was a element of truth in that when prior to that war, Iran had been threatening Kuwait with

invasion. The Iranians had even fired missiles into Kuwait. I remember once sitting on a southern

beach one Friday afternoon when a missile exploded in the sea some quarter mile away. My wife, in

response to a conversation we were having about the danger from Iran, with nothing more than a bat

of her eyelids, said, ‘’See! They can’t even hit Kuwait’. Other than keeping his troops occupied there

was no other explanation: unless Sadam considered that should the Iranians occupy Kuwait then his

claim for the northern oilfields and the disputed islands would be lost.

During May 1990, top Iraqi officials visited Cairo and met with the American CIA where the

subject of the invasion was discussed. Around the same time, the CIA had met with the Kuwaitis and

the plans for evacuation of the Royal family were orchestrated along with the plans for the removal of

all monetary reserves, civil registers and banking databases that were transferred to other countries,

primarily Great Britain. On the day of the invasion at around 9 a.m., hours after the Iraqis had

captured Kuwait, I withdrew two hundred and fifty Dinars (five hundred pounds sterling) from an

ATM in Salmiya. In August 1991 after I had returned to Kuwait, my account had been debited with

the withdrawal, yet all banks in Kuwait were supposedly possessed or trashed by the Iraqis.

On the 29thand 30th July, the Kuwait Amir,Sheikh Jabir Al Ahmad Al Jabir Al Sabah, had

travelled to Saudi, subsequently staying there, taking part in discussions between delegates from

Kuwait, Iraq and Saudi, he knew an invasion was imminent,

both the British and the Americans wanted it that way. The Amir was under strong guidance, particularly from the British

government, not to give in to the Iraqis by compensating them

for their war losses. Arabic newspaper reports indicated that

the Kuwaitis wanted to settle the issue peacefully and were on

the threshold of agreeing to a settlement with the Iraqis which

they suggested was both monetary and territorial, perhaps

the leasing of Bubyan. However, that is not what the

Americans or the British wanted. They insisted that the

Kuwaitis hold out and promised full military backing. Usually placid but now bold with his

knowledge that the British were behind him, the Kuwaiti Crown Prince not only refused outright to

compensate the Iraqis, but on the 1st August at the meeting table, he insulted Sadam Hussain by

telling him to send his women on the streets to earn money. This was a direct inference on Sadam

Cliff Human Shield

Sadam with his son, Uday

8


20/34


and his mother. Sadam, it is believed, was an illegitimate offspring and his mother a kahbuta

[prostitute]. This was an insult worse than that of calling an Arab, Yakmahri [donkey]. Ali Hussain Al

Majid [Chemical Ali] and Uday, Sadam’s son, stormed out of the meeting returning to Baghdad to

report to Sadam. When Sadam was told of the Crown Prince’s slur he was furious and immediately

ordered the invasion to commence. He planned to take the north of Kuwait and push the borders

back to Mutlah Ridge, thus giving him the oilfields and the Islands of Warbah and Bubyan.

However, the Americans considered that should Sadam invade and occupy only the north of

Kuwait there would be nothing they could do about it. Under such circumstances, it is highly

unlikely that they would have deployed any military at all. The Arabs did not want them in their

territories and besides, arguably, the disputed land belonged to Iraq. International support would not

be forthcoming for a full-scale war. The best that could have been hoped for would have been UN

sanctions and as I saw, they certainly did not work. The only way that the Americans could get

involved and bring the oil wealth of the Arab nations under their control would be if the Iraqis

occupied all of Kuwait and they could convince other Arabians that Sadam would not limit his

military action to Kuwait. The CIA had planned for the Kuwait military to flee the country leaving theIraqis unopposed. This served a dual purpose, the Americans could get a military foothold in the

area and, as one American senior military officer told me after liberation, “These God dam cock-

suckin’ mother-f*****s will never hold the world to ransom with oil prices agin.” He was talking about

the Kuwaitis.

April Glaspie, the American Ambassador in Baghdad, gave Sadam her blessings for him to invade

Kuwait although later she qualified this as saying that she never thought for one moment that he

would occupy all of Kuwait instead of just the north. At around the time of the invasion, she was

summoned to Washington and it was more than two years before April Glaspie was heard from again;

she had mysteriously disappeared from the American political scene.

The Invasion

That morning, 2nd August, when I was awoken by the Iraqi warplanes on their low-level strike

missions, I had no idea that the Iraqis had invaded Kuwait; the media, published that same morning,

assured citizens that a peaceful settlement was close at hand. The air-raid siren located within a few

yards of my villa had not been sounded, neither had any of the others. There was an element of

deceit going on. Numerous eminent Kuwait families, including the Royal Family, had already left

Kuwait in the preceding days; most by driving into neighbouring countries and many by air to

countries further a field. Expatriates, British included, were left to face the invading forces even

though it is known that their respective governments knew days before, if not weeks, that the

invasion would take place. Several expatriate oilfield workers were on location less than a kilometre

from the Kuwait - Iraq border and were overwhelmed within minutes by Iraqi tanks and troops with

no warnings and no chance to flee. Immediately they had been interned and sent for processing to

the Mansour Meliah Hotel in Baghdad. Their families stayed at home waiting in futility for them to

return unaware that their husbands had become sacrificial lambs.

The Iraqi military was unopposed. The entire Kuwait army had fled, except that is, for a half

dozen Kuwaiti tanks whose crews had refused to retreat but instead, faced the 300 tanks of the Iraqi

army and fought. They were gallant men but they perished quickly. All Kuwaiti military vehicles and

aircraft were moved into Saudi on the advice of the Americans, they had been ordered not to fight butto allow the Iraqis to enter Kuwait without any resistance. The Kuwait navy had stood down from full

alert to standby, unarmed and without fuel. Weeks before the invasion all military personnel had

Cliff Human Shield9


21/34

* I was wrong on that issue; the Iraqi troops left the Kuwaitis alone.


been issued with civilian (Civil) ID’s and ordered to destroy their Military ID’s should an invasion take

place. Those that remained on duty had been ordered to take civilian clothes with them and destroy

their military clothing should the Iraqis invade. One of my Kuwait Air Force friends, a sergeant at the

northern airbase of Jaber Al Ali, was on duty that morning when he was given the alert that the

invasion had begun. He changed his clothes, burnt his uniform, destroyed his Military ID and then

drove out of the camp to return to his home in Salwa. As he turned out of the airbase gates an Iraqi

tank and then a group of soldiers confronted him. He was taken back into the camp for interrogation,

but he withstood the questioning and convinced the Iraqis that he was a civilian. They let him go but

without his vehicle. He had to walk the forty miles back to Salwa. With no civilian vehicles around a

lift was not available and there was little shade from a hot, searing sun beating down at some eighty

degrees. It took him two days to get back. He visited us soon after checking that we were okay before

he left for Syria after first obtaining a large bag of Arabic unleavened bread for us.

On that first day, after my entanglements with the military believing them to be Kuwaiti, I decided

to stay with my good friend Dave and his family in their flat in Mahboula, a small coastal district to

the south of the city and south of my area Mishrif. Mahboula was a popular residential area forexpatriates with most buildings being large apartment complexes popular with both British and

Americans, a situation I thought would be a better option than staying amongst Kuwaitis who may be

subject to aggression* by the Iraqis.

From that first day, the British embassies were relaying news over shortwave and satellite TV,

(BBC World and CNN), that the Iraqis had closed all borders between Kuwait and Saudi and that all

British and American citizens should, “...take a low profile and stay indoors to avoid being lifted and

processed... do not attempt to escape via the borders.” The British embassy wardens whose job it was

under such circumstances to relay information given by the British Embassy should have contacted

us. No one in our complex or those adjacent had heard anything at all from the wardens for the

Mahboula / Mangaf / Fintas areas and the news we had of them was that they had gone into hiding

and had either disconnected their telephones or were not answering them. It was apparent that these

people, who were volunteers from the British expatriate community, had only become wardens to

enjoy good time drinks and socialising at the British Embassy, brown-noses as we were now referring

to them. When it came to being commissioned in their real purpose, they failed miserably

jeopardising British Citizens lives. The only news of the situation that we had was via the very

unreliable media reports on the airwaves who for most part, were guessing.

There were still several British people in the complex, most of who were families, but several

apartments were unoccupied; either the residents had fled to other parts of Kuwait or had not yet

returned from summer vacation and in the worst cases, had not returned from the oilfields. Dave andI looted those apartments which we knew had been abandoned; our looting was confined strictly to

food and tools and hardware that may be useful at a later time should the occupation become

extended. We took care to lock the apartments up after us, which meant changing the lock where we

did not have a key. Other foreign nationals were free to move about and that became a problem for

us. Foreign nationals, mostly from Central and South Asia, North Africa and Palestine, were roaming

around looting on a large scale in what was now an anarchy State. The threat to our building from

looters for the time being was greater than that from the Iraqi troops. Dave and I set about repairing

the complex perimeter gates and the electronic locks to the access doors of each building. For the

next few days, the embassy was still advising that we take a low profile and stay indoors. However, as

food ran low, there was a need to visit the Cooperative Society supermarkets which remained open. I

also had to relocate my cars. A large complex not too far from ours was the Union Center [sic], a four-

Cliff Human Shield10


22/34


block complex with a large courtyard between them, where some of our British and American friends

were staying. The complex had a large basement car park with security gates, which were manned by

the few Western residents, an ideal location for my cars.

I had driven to Dave’s local supermarket in Mangaf but had to abort due to Iraqi soldiers being on

duty at the entrance. I was not to know they were there only to enforce law and order. I drove to the

coop in my district some twenty minutes away as a reconnaissance trip. There were soldiers along

the route but they gave me little heed as I drove almost full throttle in my Daimler Sovereign XJ6. At

the coop complex there was a long queue waiting to enter the supermarket but no soldiers. I could

not afford to risk queuing where I would stand out like a sore thumb. I parked as close as I could to

the entrance door and got out of the car. Immediately, a Kuwaiti rushed up to me, took my arm and

ordered the shop door to be opened to let me in. All items were rationed but the Palestinian women

running the shop allowed me, as an Inglaise (Englishman), to take what I wanted. My extra large

trolley was half-filled with Cola and Baked Beans. I was allowed out without paying, such was the

respect and concern for British citizens, I felt humble. I took the opportunity to visit my villa with the

intention of taking all the food I had there. As I loaded the last case of bottled home-brewed beer into

the boot of my car, I was approached by the two qadama [maids] of the villa next to mine. They wereIndian women and in distress. Their Kuwaiti kafil [employers] had left Kuwait days before the

invasion leaving the maids behind with no food or money. Trembling and with tear soaked faces they

pleaded that I take them with me, but that was impossible. The best I could do was to give them a

hundred pounds and suggest they travelled to Salmiya where there was a large community of Asians.

I returned to Mahboula but was stopped at a checkpoint on the way. Winding my way around the

barbed wire trestles, I drew up to two soldiers wielding AK47’s and I opened the window. One of them

opened the passenger doors and looked inside, the other stared at me and asked for identification. I

gave him my Civil ID. ‘Ah, Inglaise,’ he exclaimed. ‘Welcome.’ He lowered his rifle whilst the other

soldier closed the door and then said ‘Yallah,’ I drove off soaked in perspiration, but not because of

humidity. This was not the last time I encountered a military checkpoint but each time the outcome

was the same.

A strong community atmosphere developed in the complex as Dave and I organised evening

community gatherings at the bar that quickly transformed into daily happy hours -- a much-needed

tonic for our morale. Without onsite news, it was difficult to know what the best action for us to take

was. Should we sit tight and wait for the Iraqis to leave Kuwait or make a dash to the border? The

media, particularly CNN, was suggesting an imminent withdrawal by the Iraqis would take place and

they showed footage of what they claimed was Iraqis with their military equipment withdrawing from

Kuwait. We knew better. Unless road signs, as shown in their footage, had been turned around then

the Iraqi military build-up was more intense with extra troops, tanks and artillery pouring in

through Mutlah.

The Occupation

News was coming in that a British civilian had been shot and killed in an attempt to escape across

the border and an American civilian had been shot and wounded trying to escape from the Iraqis in

the city. Since the embassies were still claiming that the borders were closed and sealed, an attempt

for us to cross the border was no longer a viable option and besides this, none of our group had four-

wheel drive vehicles. We had to wait and hope that UN resolutions and embargos would be sufficient

to cause the Iraqis to withdraw.

One thing was certain, the Iraqis were not picking us up on the highways. I had driven through

military checkpoints on several occasions, not only without problems but also with extreme courtesy

from the Iraqi soldiers. On several occasions, soldiers had come to the door of the apartment. With

their rifles on their shoulders and hats in their hands, they asked only for water. On one occasion,

two soldiers of the Republican Guard did come to the door with rifles at the ready; they searched the



23/34


apartment looking for Kuwaiti Resistance fighters and finding none, shouldered their rifles and left

politely.

I began to wonder why the American and British Foreign Offices were constantly reminding their

citizens to take a low profile advising that the Iraqis were lifting and processing them. From my

experience, this was certainly not the case. I had driven openly on the highways frequently, I had

driven through checkpoints and I had spoken to Iraqis on the street; soldiers had frequently called atthe apartments and taken water: there were no instructions with the Iraqi military to pick up either

British or American nationals.

The Western media was reporting that the Iraqi troops were looting, raping and pillaging. There

was no truth in this accusation at all, in fact, the Iraqi troops were well disciplined and once

organised, they were behaving in nothing other than a professional manner and I remember thinking

that the American military could learn a lot from them. The Iraqis did have a problem from the few

Kuwaiti Resistance Fighters and they had to respond accordingly. Occasionally this meant shelling

private residences where the snipers were operating from, but given the circumstances of war, this

was not an unreasonable response.

Western propaganda was rife, such as the lies told by the fifteen-year-old Kuwaiti girl in America,

Nayariah, who had been coached by Hall and Knowlton an American PR firm before she had made

her tearful accusations before American television and other media. She told of the Iraqis removing

over three hundred babies from their incubators, leaving them to die on the floors of the Al Adan

hospital and then taking the incubators to Baghdad. The girl was the daughter of Saud Naser Al

Sabah, the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the USA. Human Rights investigations attempted to confirm

Nayariah’s story but found no witnesses or any evidence to support it. When John Martin of ABC

World News visited the Adan after liberation and Interviewed Doctor Mohammad Matar, Director of

Kuwait Ministry of Health and his wife, Doctor Faiz Yousef, who ran the obstetrics unit at the Adan,

both stated that Nayariah’s charges were false. The fact was that Nayariah had left Kuwait before the

invasion and had been residing with her father in USA. After liberation, both she and her father

admitted the lie and retracted it, but the lie remains in history. The truth is that the Kuwaitis never

owned that amount of incubators, they owned less than thirty and these were fully accounted for

after liberation, remaining functional in the hospitals. Transportation of air ambulatory passengers

was part of my domain with Kuwait Airways prior to, and indeed after liberation. I was the engineer

responsible for the design and development of stretcher and incubator installations on the KAC fleet.

Initially, such was the shortage that I had problems getting incubators from the ministry to install

into the aircraft to carry critically ill neonates to foreign hospitals. To solve the problem KAC

procured four incubators and these were still within Kuwait Airways workshops when I returned to

Kuwait in 1991, albeit they had repairable damage from falling debris caused by liberation missiles.

The Western media was reporting that the Iraqis had taken the Kuwaitis gold bullion and dollar

reserves from the vaults of the Kuwait National Bank and showed considerable footage of this allegedevent. In truth, the bullion and dollar reserves had been moved to London weeks before the invasion.

In fact few of the Kuwaiti banks had been damaged or looted and most were operative within weeks, if

not days of the liberation. I was informed that some of the banks had remained operative throughout

the occupation, managed by the Kuwaitis, serving the Kuwaitis.

Reports that the Iraqis were torturing Kuwaitis is also open to question. I saw some of the so-

called torture rooms after I returned after liberation, one such place was a room in a sports stadium,

Qadsia, another, a basement of a Kuwaiti Villa. Neither of these areas was occupied by the Iraqi

troops who tended to stay clear of inland areas and concentrate their manpower and headquarters

close to the coast and inland borders. My own impression was that these rooms were being used

before the invasion and almost certainly against the opposition group by the Kuwait Special Police;the torture equipment was too well setup to have been established in the first few weeks or even

months of the occupation as was alleged.



24/34


In another show of propaganda, the Western media had reported in the first few days that Sheikh

Fahad Al Ahmad Al Sabah, the Minister of sport and manager of the Kuwait national football team,

had been shot gallantly defending Dasmah Palace, the old residence of the Amir. The reports were

that he had refused to leave Kuwait and had stood on the palace steps with a few of his guards and

fought the Iraqi troops.

The truth is nothing like this. Sheikh Fahad had remained at the palace, the reason for which noone other than the Al Sabah family knows, leaving it late to flee. As he fled in his car, approaching

the palace gates, he defied Iraqi commands to stop and was shot, the bullets penetrating thorough

the rear window of the car.

As a testimony to Sheikh Fahad, who was a brash and rather arrogant man, his car was

untouched other than painted gold and then mounted on a plinth and located on the side of the

coast road between Dasmah and Raz Salmiya as a monument. It was a couple of years before anyone

realised the implications of the bullet holes through the rear of the car.

After liberation, the Kuwaitis announced that over 600 Kuwaiti citizens were missing and that

they had been incarcerated in Iraq, which the Iraqis strongly denied and no evidence has been found

since to support this. Indeed, I have no doubts whatsoever that this number is too coincidental with

the number of Kuwaitis missing from members of the opposition group prior to the invasion and that

the two groups are the same.

When the Iraqis annexed Kuwait, they announced the installation of a provincial government and

most of the members were from the Kuwaiti opposition. This suggestion was given no credence by the

Western press but it was a fact. When Kuwait returned to some normality after liberation, eight of the

Kuwaitis who sat on the provincial government were put on trial. Their defence was that they had

been coerced. Most were found guilty and sentences of imprisonment and hanging were imposed,

however, months later, with pressure from the USA, the sentences were commuted and the men

released without explanation.

Fourteen days after the invasion, we heard that an escape attempt was being made across the

border at Selmi, which lay on the Kuwait-Saudi border close to the southern border of Iraq. The

report was that a British embassy official would be at the border to meet the convoy and lead them

through Saudi to Riyadh. At our end, our so-called Wardens were organising the run. Immediately

this had alert bells sounding. From what we had already seen of the behaviour of these wardens, the

mission was doomed to failure before it began. I was dubious. The Selmi Road ran from Mutlah all

the way south along the Iraqi border until it reached Selmi on the Saudi border. The entire road was

intense with military and police posts, and part of the Selmi Road formed an emergency runway for

the northern airbase of Jaber Al Ali. To believe that the invading force did not occupy these posts was

nothing less than folly. Vehicles that were not captured would have to drive off-road and the whole

area was comprised of sandstone crags and sand dunes. I was anything but convinced and

immediately named it as the Lemming Run, but I remained open-minded. A frequent visitor to Dave’s flat was an American friend who was working with the Kuwait Navy.

He told us that the Navy had been stood down from

alert to standby the day before the invasion began. Tim

had suffered horrific physical and mental torture when,

as senior officer of the American Navy spy ship, SS

Pueblo, in the late sixties. His captors, the North

Koreans, placed him before a firing squad on several

occasions, he was not to know that each time the rifles

were unloaded and the firing pins would strike against

empty chambers. The Americans were denying that theship was a spy ship and the crew was refusing to

confess. Now, Tim’s nerves were fragile to say the least.

Cliff Human Shield

Sailors from the United States intelligence-

gathering vesselPueblo greet their families in

December 1968 after spending a year as

prisoners in North Korea. Tim is in foreground

left. Henry Kissinger who negotiated the

13


25/34


26/34


27/34


some soldiers to our flat and attempted to open the door from a bunch of keys he had chained to his

clothing. Unbeknown to him I had changed the lock; he took the soldiers to all the flats in that block

with more frustration. I had changed the locks in all doors. Once again, I felt the strains of despair

and depression as more of our comrades had been lifted.

Suddenly, the situation had turned from sombre toinexorably serious. Now the full effects of

Western politics was becoming transparent; we had become sacrificial lambs in the politics of thegovernments of our own countries who, by any means, were desperate to turn the world against

Sadam Hussain in the battle for control of the world’s major oil resources. The Americans were

desperate to get UN resolutions to authorise war where they could test their new military technology,

which until now remained untested on a battlefront.

There was a massive influx of Iraqi troops and equipment. They were swarming the coastal areas

to a distance of half a kilometre inland. By early September, thousands of troops had dug in on the

coastline and in the open inland desert patches surrounding us. They occupied all buildings close to

the coast and, as if that was not bad enough for us, they adopted the building that we were in as

their Southern Headquarters; we were penned in on the fourth floor with two

hundred soldiers immediately below us. Nevertheless, British obstinacy

prevailed; we would never surrender. From that time on, with curtains drawn

closed, we lived without artificial lights or sound, we limited our

conversations to whispers of essential, brief discussion and for most of the

time, sat and read or wrote. Since the kitchen was adjacent to the landing,

cooking was taboo other than microwaving in a bedroom and this at a time,

twice a day that coincided with the soldiers’ meals of which they ate five

times a day (so much for sanctions).

After two weeks, all soldiers had been issued with new AK47 rifles. New

uniforms replaced the old tattered mismatched uniforms — remnants of the

Iran-Iraq war; new boots replaced trainers, sandals and flip-flops. Several days later, Ali Hussain Al

Majid (Chemical Ali), the new governor of the 19th Province, toured the area after shanghaied

Pakistani and Indian civilians had swept beaches and streets. Peering between a gap between the

curtains, I watched as Chemical Ali visited our building through a guard of honour. I do not know

how I felt by seeing him in the flesh, certainly contempt, but I must admit to an element of

excitement bubbling inside me. Here, just a few feet away, was perhaps, next to Hitler and Sadam,

the most notorious man in recent history. I could so easily have shaken his hand, or killed him! As it

was, I merely uttered a profanity. I must admit, he looked bravura in his dark, immaculately tailored

dark-green uniform bedecked with gold-braided lanyards and brown leather belts and straps around

his mid and upper torso with colourful battle medals sewn in several rows on his chest.

Military activity became intense as more sanctions and UN resolutions were made. Old broken-

down tanks were pushed by bulldozers into dugouts on the groins just in front of us and then

concreted in, old artillery was treated the same. We were in the middle of a very large and potentially

ballistic battlefield and it worried us. Two

heavy machine guns had been bunkered in

sandbags on the roof of a beach villa facing

the balcony of our apartment a mere hundred

metres away and that worried us more.

As our food ran low and since we had

taken the food from the flats above us, looting

from flats on the landings below where the

Iraqi soldiers were accommodated and had

Cliff Human ShieldEarly morning looting of food whilst the Iraqi soldiers relax

just below. Sketch by writer.

Ali Hussain Al Majid,

alias Chemical Ali.

16


28/34


food and where we had stashed food prior to their arrival, became necessary. By crawling snakelike

on our bellies past the brown tinted plate-glass partitions of the access balcony, even with the

soldiers only few feet away, we were successful. All we could do then was to sit and wait. Outside

there was almost complete silence as the Iraqi troops consisting of Kurds, and a few disabled Iraqis

who were veterans of the Iraq-Iran war, waited for the Allies to invade. Inevitably, the deprived Kurds

began to loot the buildings in which they were stationed. I watched, as nightly in our complex, more

flats had lights switched on. Each night soldiers attempted to break our door down but the battens

held. Inevitably, with sixty-one of the sixty-two flats trashed, our time was limited. With heavy tools

and brute force, our door finally yielded on 27th November, two days before UN resolution set the date

of Allied invasion to be 15th January. An Iraqi Lieutenant, a Kurd, who, until conscripted by the

Iraqis, had been teaching English in Kurdistan, captured us. He sat with us showing remorse for our

capture, trying to think of ways that he could let us go. He drew a chair up to the table at which we

were sat and, rejecting our offer of a gin and tonic, told us how the Kurds had been forced to join the

Iraqi army against their will with threats of death to them and their families. It was virtually all

Kurds now in Kuwait and few, if any, wanted to be involved in the dispute. He had no choice but tocall the Iraqi intelligence and after a night in the Regency Palace Hotel, I was flown to Baghdad to the

Mansour Meliah Hotel and thence to the prison camp in Babylon.

In so many ways, my capture was a great relief, finally I was able to talk in other than a whisper,

and I could watch television, have the lights on, eat well and walk around and even play football.

Reflecting on my time in hiding in Kuwait, I realise that I was just as much a part of the Human

shield there as I was in Iraq, only my subjugators were different and in many ways that was a much

harder time than being held in the camp in Babylon. Yet, at the time that I was taken to the prison

camp, I had resigned myself to death, I never believed from then on that there was to be a different

ending, but thankfully to Yousef Arafat and the good will of Sadam, the ending for me was what it

was. My love and respect for the Iraqi people has not waned; I have always found them the most

generous and friendly of the Arab peoples. Even during my visits to Baghdad in 1968 I never felt

threatened despite there being strong anti-British feelings subsequent to the seven-day Israeli war in

which the British and Americans were accused (rightfully) of assisting the Israelis.

I was freed on the 10th December 1990 when I returned quietly home to my wife and children. At

Gatwick airport, I was swarmed over by the media, but I wasn’t interested in them, all they wanted

was lies and sensationalism. All I wanted was a big hug and somewhere private to cry.

Liberation.

On 29th November, the UN Security Council authorized the use of force against Iraq unless it

withdrew from Kuwait by 15th January 1991. With UN resolutions in place, Desert Storm, the

liberation of Kuwait, began on 17th January

1991. With the capture of 150,000 Kurds, who

quickly and voluntarily gave themselves up,

liberation was complete, but not without Iraqis

and Kurds paying an awful price as those not

captured by the Allies, attempted to flee Kuwait

through the ridge at Multlah.

Cliff Human Shield

Bush’s decision [suspending offensive combat

operations] was taken after allied aircraft conducted a

particularly devastating attack on a defenceless Iraqi

convoy retreating from Kuwait at Mitla Ridge, a key

intersection on the road to Basra. Believing that the

convoy was an Iraqi unit attempting to link up with the

Republican Guard, Allied commanders ordered

American warplanes to attack it. The attack became

what one American commander later described as a

‘turkey shoot’ with American aircraft lining up in the

skies above Kuwait to attack the defenceless convoy.Hundreds of vehicles were destroyed and many

17


29/34


The scene at Mutlah was sickening. Thousands of road vehicles had been strafed with bullets and

Rockwell Hellfire anti-tank missiles fired from AH-64A Apache helicopters. Even as I saw it five

months later, it was utterly distressing and when added to this, the photographs that Kuwaiti citizens

had taken immediately after, displayed the last torturous, painful moments of life of those inside the

vehicles. They had been incinerated; many bodies were fused to the metal of their vehicles their faces

distorted in hideous smiles as roasted flesh and tightened skin had twisted their jaws and stretched

open their mouths showing bony jaws of teeth.

Skulls were wrapped in heat-tightened skin

with wide-open-eyeless eye sockets. Decapitated

and mutilated bodies lay around the site; the

stench of burned flesh still hung in the air.

These 10,000 bodies {contention} were not only

Kurdish soldiers, most were civilian men,

women and children. Innocent Iraqi citizens

caught up in the lies and deceit of Hussain,Bush and the British government, people who

had believed that Kuwait had indeed been

returned to Iraq. The American Army pilots who

flew the Apache strike helicopters that had

inflicted the horrendous damage at Mutlah, had

enjoyed it. The actual words of the American

pilots are recorded; said one, “Hell man, this is

a God-damn turkey shoot.” He was laughing

jubilantly as he spoke to his command over his

radio, still firing his 1,200 round, 30 mm (1.2

inch) diameter bullet, M230 chain gun and no doubt pressing the fire button releasing the 16 Hellfire

missiles.

Sadam Hussain has since been executed for the war crimes against twenty members of an

opposition group, and yet no one has stood trial for the horrors of Mutlah, let alone the

indiscriminate bombing of civilians in Iraq. One has to wonder why the Americans were pushing the

Iraqi puppet government into the speedy trial of Sadam Hussain for so-called war crimes of a handful

of men before they had a chance to put him and Chemical Ali on trial for the genocide of the 5,000

Kurds. Did this have anything to do with the belief that the Iranians with American backing were

involved in the gassing?

Cliff Human Shield

Aircraft from the USAF and the RAF had caught the

last column of trucks to leave Kuwait City on the part

of the road leading up to the Ridge and blasted away

until every one of them was destroyed.

The drivers were for the most part the last of the

looters... As they left, a number of these and the other

remaining Iraqis grabbed people from the streets... So

of the 400 or so bodies burned to a crisp in the trucks

or lying on the sand beside the road at Mutla Ridge,

some will have been those of entirely innocent people.

The coalition forces insisted that until there was a

formal stop to the fighting, the trucks which wereheading for the Iraq border were part of a retreating

army, the men in them would be safe only if they

stopped, abandoned their weapons and left the

vehicles. The retreating Iraqis knew nothing of this of

course. Caught in a long traffic jam on the road, they

were easy targets for the pilots who attacked them. By

doing so, the coalition force was not contravening the

Hague Convention of 1907, which merely forbids

attacks on soldiers who have already surrendered.

These men had no chance to surrender. But it was an

ugly cruel business and the pilots who came back

exulting in the ‘turkey shoot’ often found that their own

comrades disapproved of what they had done... the

18


30/34


Epilogue

My woes and problems did not end at the time of my release from the Babylonian Prison Camp. I was

driven back to the Mansour Melia Hotel and allocated a room. Over 150 hostages were collected

there, mostly British. Noticeably there were several Japanese and it was remarkable to see the strong

bond that had formed between these and the British hostages. I spoke to the British Embassy officerand reminded him that I did not have my passport. This was in the possession of my employer,

Kuwait Airways at the time of the invasion, all I had

was a worthless paper receipt. The officer told me

that he would issue a 24-hour passport, which

would take little time to make out.

It was Thursday 9th December and we were

scheduled to fly out of Baghdad at 1200 hours the

following day. The British had wanted to send British

aircraft to fly us back, but in a show of ‘goodwill’,

Sadam rejected this and insisted Iraqi Airways would

transport us, which presented a major problem since

there was an embargo by U.N. Resolution on Iraq

international flights. The following morning, Friday

10th December, the Islamic Sabbath, all British

hostages were mustered for transport to Baghdad International Airport. I asked the Embassy Officer

for my passport. He told me that it had been made out and taken to the residence of the Iraqi

Emigration Minister for issue of an exit visa. The passport, he assured me, would be handed to me at

the airport.

At the airport, all hostages, with the exception of me, proceeded to the departure lounge whilst I waited outside of departures awaiting my 24-hour passport. From where I stood, I could see the

others as they waited at the departure gate. Midday, the departure time approached and still my

passport had not arrived. The embassy officer stayed with me, assuring me that ‘any minute’ the

passport would be here. At 1300 hours, my passport had still not arrived, but neither had the others

boarded. At 1400 hours, relief, another embassy officer ran towards us across the car park but my

relief was short lived, he did not have my passport. He had found the Emigration Manager but he had

refused to issue the visa since the passport did not have an entry visa. The Embassy Officer who had

stood with me exploded into profanities and raced off to the car with the other officer. I was utterly

fraught with despair but still the others had not yet boarded.

An hour later, the Embassy Officer returned, still fuming, he had been to see the British

Ambassador who was in contact with the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Tareq Aziz. The delay with the flight

was because neither the French nor the Germans were agreeing to allow Iraqi Airways to fly through

their airspace and were arguing with the British government.

At 1600 hours, I was devastated, my passport had not arrived and the other hostages were filing

through the departure gate to board the flight: at that moment I felt sick. The Embassy Officer tried

to comfort me by saying that he would take me back to the embassy and get diplomatic immunity for

me. It was no consolation. Then, shortly after the last passenger disappeared from sight, the other

embassy officer ran across the car park towards us waving a piece of paper in the air, it was my 24-

hour passport. But had I missed my flight to freedom?

Cliff Human Shield

On 4th December 1990, Sadam held a conference

in Baghdad with King Hussein of Jordan, Yousef

Arafat of the PLO and Ali Saker Al Bibh, Vice

President of Yemen. Arafat, with the others,

pleaded for the release of all remaining hostages.

Two days later, Sadam announced that those held

against their will would be released. Once the war

had begun, he regarded this as an error and

blamed Arafat for persuading him to do it.

He was wrong to think that if he had not let the

hostages go, the coalition would not have bombed

key sites in Iraq because the hostages were held

there; as early as September,

Documents

The Human Shield