Hussein Kamel al-Majid
| Hussein Kamel al-Majid | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Minister of Military Industries | |
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In office 1987–1995 |
|
| Prime Minister | Saddam Hussein |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 18 June 1954 Kingdom of Iraq |
| Died | 23 February 1996 (aged 42) Ba'athist Iraq |
| Political party | Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party |
| Spouse(s) | Raghad Hussein |
| Relatives | Saddam Kamel (brother) |
| Religion | Sunni Islam |
Hussein Kamel Hassan al-Majid (Arabic: حسين كامل حسن المجيد) (1954 – 23 February 1996) was the son-in-law and second cousin of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. He defected to Jordan and assisted United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection teams assigned to look for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Kamel rose through the military ranks to become the Supervisor of the Republican Guard, Iraq's elite military forces, in 1982. He later became the Minister of Industries, heading the Military Industrialisation Commission and supervising Iraq's weapons development programs from 1987. Kamel became oil minister of Iraq in 1990.
He married one of Saddam Hussein's daughters, Raghad Saddam, and lived in Iraq until 1995. On 7 August of that year, Kamel and his wife defected from Iraq, along with Kamel's brother, Saddam Kamel, and the brother's wife, Rana Saddam, another of Saddam Hussein's daughters. In a 21 September 1995 interview with CNN, Hussein Kamel explained:
This is what made me leave the country, the fact that Saddam Hussein surrounds himself with inefficient ministers and advisers who are not chosen for their competence but according to the whims of the Iraqi president. And as a result of this the whole of Iraq is suffering.
Jordan granted asylum to the Kamels, and there they began to cooperate with UNSCOM and its director Rolf Ekéus, the United States' CIA and the British MI6. The initial promises of a wealth of information were, allegedly, not fulfilled. According to U.S. and Jordanian officials, the intelligence provided by Hussein Kamel on Iraqi secret weapons programs was of limited content and value.
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