AS A PRESIDENTIAL pilot for Iraq's deposed leader Saddam Hussein, Ali Al-Wahabi had many reasons for recording his memoirs. But perhaps it was the question from an American lawyer in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 that tipped the balance. He had sought the lawyer's help to remove his name from the Department of Homeland Security's No Fly List after it had been mistakenly added. Sitting in his office the man asked: '...can you tell me why Muslims in general and Arabs in particular hate Americans?'
Al-Wahabi was one of a small band of Iraqi Airways aircrew selected to ferry high-ranking government and party officials (plus their wives, girlfriends and children) around the globe in a Boeing 747 SP at short notice. During his time as first co-pilot then presidential pilot from 1980 until his defection to the west six years later, he flew some of the regime's most feared individuals to all four corners of the globe under the watchful eye of the dreaded intelligence service the Mukhabarat.
Having been knocked back by the large publishing houses and believing now was the right time to tell his story, Al-Wahabi and two business partners (one a former colleague from his time at Hong Kong Dragon Airways in the early 1990s) established Babylon Publishing. Pushed by friends and colleagues to speak out and frustrated by what he saw as a biased western news media, his self-published book Farewell Brave Babylon is the story of Iraq under Hussein, told by an Iraqi on the edge of the inner circle.
The book features tales of blackmail plots involving beautiful women, run-ins with the secret police and Ali Hassan Al-Majid, aka Chemical Ali, combined with historical and factual information about Iraq and what prompted the actions of its former dictator.
In writing it, Al-Wahabi hopes to entertain, but also fill in the gaps for those who rely on the western media for their information.
Although he believes the removal of Hussein by coalition forces was the best thing for the country he loves, his own career was aided by his membership to the ruling Ba'ath Party and family connections (his aunt went to school with Sajedah, Hussein's wife). He maintains many in the west are woefully misinformed of the history to the current conflict that goes back many years and the hypocrisy of western powers, in particular the US.
'I'm not after gaining any status out of this as much as I want to show the world the Iraqi perspective. What Iraqis really think other than what they hear from the media outside Iraq. Everybody is writing about it and none of them are Iraqis,' says the 52-year-old father of two as we sit in the Foreign Correspondent's Club.
