Saddam's Gin Palace
S.S. Qadissiyat SaddamBig news in Paris today is that President Sarkozy is shagging one of Mick Jagger's cast-offs...ah hang on...breaking news just to hand -
Saddam's Yacht Up For Grabs
Saddam Hussein's super-yacht is up for sale for around $33 Million.
The yacht was built in Denmark in '81 and was originally called "Qadissiyat Saddam" which roughly translated means "Howzat Saddam!" It was never delivered to Iraq but spent its days in Saudi Arabia - not surprising really as the Americans bombed the shit out of his other vessel - the S.S. "Mother of All Ships" (see photos at the end). These days the Qadissiyat goes by the monicker of "Ocean Breeze" - sounds like a block of flats doesn't it?
Actually its built like a block of flats. Its got everything except a drive-in camel-wash.
The other vessel - the "Mother of all Shits"..I mean "Ships" - "Al Mansur" (The Victor) was bombed sixteen times by Anglo-American forces during the first Iraqi Farce when it was caught in the Al Arab waterway. I'm tempted to describe it as "carpet-bombing".
This block of flats, I mean yacht, is now moored off Nice, which is nice. But its nothing out of the ordinary for the yachts I've seen down there.
decorated throughout with fine mahogany, gold, silver and marble, and described by its builders as "lavish in every detail and very Arabic in style". The décor included Arabesque arches, dark wood carvings, deep-pile carpets, and loose rugs woven in Islam's holiest cities...including prayer rooms and ornate fountains...bathrooms with gold taps, Jacuzzis, steam rooms, hi-tech entertainment suites and games parlours, including table tennis and pool tables and flat-screen TVs in almost every cabin...silverware for 200 people...helicopter pad, health clinic, complete with a mini-operating theatre...Security measures include a secret passage which would have allowed Saddam to get to a fast boat in case of trouble. A mini-submarine pod is also connected to the passage.
Apparently Saddam had the crew on standby 24 hours a day, all year round. Can't imagine why. It had storage for heavy machine-guns and surface-to-air missiles and all its glass is bullet-proof.
It was the Saudis who gave Saddam the first Mother of all Ships - the one the allies bombed in 2003, so I guess they said to him "Mate, leave this one with us for a bit". Do you reckon whoever buys it will change that cheesy "Ocean Breeze" back to "Howzat Saddam!"?
Howzat Saddam!
Bombed 16 times
Was a teak-decked heli-port
Gift from Saudi Royal Family
Not much left
No longer opulent
Once described as a "Big White Bird" - now just Fried Chicken.
Malcolm Lambe
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Reader Comments (1)
can you blam the Iraqi???
what is now, every one is against the Iraqi not Saddam, Saddam gone now, the Iraqi suffur from him and now from these Arab
you can see the target is the Iraq and the Iraqi not Saddam