Content note: Wartime letter from Saddam Husayn calling President Bush 'enemy of God and colleague of the devil', 'atheist, unbeliever, sinful aggressor', and the Gulf rulers 'treacherous'. This object is shown as it was published. Why
FBIS Daily Report: Baghdad Domestic Service reads Saddam Husayn's letter to Bush (17 Jan 1991)
FBIS page for the first day of the air war on Iraq. A Baghdad Domestic Service announcer reads Saddam Husayn's letter to President George H. W. Bush, written the day before. It opens by calling Bush 'enemy of God and colleague of the devil' and frames the war as believers against 'an atheist, unbeliever, sinful aggressor', citing Koranic verses and the imam al-Husayn.
- Date
- January 17, 1991
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- Baghdad Domestic Service (Iraqi state radio), as translated by the U.S. Foreign Broadcast Information Service
- Country
- Iraq
- Medium
- Broadcast
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Ba'athist Iraq
- Leader
- Saddam Hussein
- Audience
- Mixed
- Themes
- War and the military, Religion
- Event
- Gulf War
- Techniques
- Name-callingTransfer
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Internet Archive (US Government Documents, FBIS microfiche collection), retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
FBIS (U.S. federal agency) Daily Report, 17 January 1991; Internet Archive item micro_IA1176910_0704, US Government Documents collection; item page states no copyright or restriction. Text is FBIS's translation.
Text on the object
FBIS-NES-90-012 [sic] 17 January 1990 [sic] IRAQ 17 Developments Reported After Outbreak of War Saddam Message to President Bush NC1701080091 Baghdad Domestic Service in Arabic 0726 GMT 17 Jan 91 [Letter from President Saddam Husayn to "Bush," "written on the morning of 16 January 1991 and revised by the Revolution Command Council during an evening meeting on 16 January 1991;" read by announcer] [Text] In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate: From Saddam Husayn to Bush, enemy of God and colleague of the devil. The glorious Iraqi people and I have listened thoroughly to your hysterical statements threatening terrible consequences for Iraq and threatening aggression and destruction if Iraq fails to comply with your terms of capitulation. Accursed be you and hopeless are your objectives. You liked this method of address, and you admired this arrogant style in addressing our people and nation after you put God behind you and took the devil as your colleague. Perhaps the devil and the money spent by Fahd and the other treacherous Gulf rulers have become your masters. [...] In the Iraqis' insistence on the values in which they believe, [...] If this is what the Iraqis did in 1920 and afterward, how can you imagine that threats can intimidate and frighten them when such threats come from the atheist position which you represent. [...] What is more important, [words indistinct] is that they are believers and you are an atheist, unbeliever, sinful aggressor.
Already an English translation by FBIS from the Persian broadcast. No further translation made.
Read from the committed page image. The page runs to two columns (about 1,500 words) and only the heading, the opening paragraph and two lines from the right column are given here, with [...] marking what is left out; nothing was reworded. The '[sic]' marks the page's own misprinted running head. The Koranic verses and the historical references (Hunain, Badr, the Iraqi revolt of 1920, al-Husayn) are on the page and are not reproduced.
