Who Is Meanest Of Them All?

Who is the meanest man in Iraq? Those who think it is Saddam Hussein may want to change their opinion. Saddam's new Interior Minister, his paternal cousin Ali Hassan Majid, is as pitiless as they come -- "a total brute," as a British diplomat describes him.

Born in 1940 in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, Majid began his career in the Baath Party's internal-security branch, whimsically called the Instrument of Yearning. Its reputation for rough torture made it the most feared organization in Iraq. Grateful for Majid's help in ridding him of Baathist rivals, Saddam made him Minister of Municipalities. But his real job was to be Saddam's No. 1 enforcer.

When Saddam was casting about for someone to put down the worst rebellion he has ever faced, he needed to look no farther than his own family. Cousin Majid ordered a poison-gas attack on restive Kurds in 1988, killing 5,000 and earning him the nickname "the butcher of Kurdistan." Last September, Majid, who like Saddam has a limited education and little sophistication about the outside world, was made governor of occupied Kuwait so that he would suppress the resistance. He was responsible for the summary execution of its members and the abduction of an estimated 2,000 Kuwaitis to Iraq.