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There’s Something Bizarre in Baghdad

Saddam Hussein’s belief in magic should give us a clue that
dark forces are manipulating his trial—and keeping his weapons hidden.

“We actually died from weapons of mass destruction used by Saddam Hussein. We don’t need outsiders to tell us what Saddam did or did not have. He did have, develop and used weapons of mass destruction. We experienced it firsthand. He used them on us! Whether he buried them, sold them, hid them or took them out of the country we do not know, but that is beside the point.”
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari

Saddam Hussein’s trial resumes this week after numerous delays, threats, security snafus, Monday's raucous shouting match and six assassinations (yes six, including a judge and a potential witness) since legal proceedings began Oct. 19 in Baghdad. During recent court appearances, Saddam has remained defiant as ever, acting like a bigheaded Hollywood actor who lost his star power and is doomed to appear in late-night infomercials.

It might seem comical that this once-powerful dictator has been deposed, caught red-handed in a spider hole and forced to live in a jail cell while the tabloids publish photos of him in his underwear. But we shouldn’t laugh too soon. I’m concerned that unseen forces are working in Iraq today that people in the West don’t take seriously.

We should not dismiss the role of the occult in this case

Consider these strange and seemingly unrelated details:

It is common knowledge that Saddam Hussein used poisonous gas to murder Kurdish civilians, and he sometimes used acid to torture his own countrymen. Some eyewitnesses also say they saw Saddam’s diabolical weapons of mass destruction. Yet today, much of the West is convinced the weapons never existed.
Saddam has told insiders that he believes he is the reincarnation of King Nebuchadnezzar II. He even spent $500 million during the 1980s to reconstruct ancient Babylon.
Many Iraqis believe Saddam can’t be killed because he has occult powers. According to a rumor that has circulated in Iraq for years, Saddam had a mysterious blue stone implanted in one of his arms, giving him magical protection from bullets and bombs. Some of the former Iraqi leader’s top military leaders have said they believe Saddam has seven lives and cannot die.

Is the man deranged? Of course. Are these rumors of his supernatural power simply Middle Eastern superstition? Absolutely. But the fact remains that what we are dealing with here is not just a routine war-crimes trial.

Something sinister is working in and around Saddam. We should not dismiss the role of the occult in this case.

Many people in the sophisticated, educated West don’t believe in the supernatural realm. Western intellectuals scoff at the idea that unseen forces can affect the lives of mortals. But I suspect even the most die-hard scholars will rethink who really has been pulling the strings in this Middle East conflict.

Saddam may not have a magic stone embedded in his arm. But his sorcery is powerful enough to convince large numbers of world leaders that he never had weapons of mass destruction. It’s as if he—or something working through him—has the power to hide the evidence.

Last week in Tokyo, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari chastised a room full of journalists for denying the existence of Saddam’s WMDs.

Said Zebari: “We actually died from weapons of mass destruction used by Saddam Hussein. We don’t need outsiders to tell us what Saddam did or did not have. He did have, develop and used weapons of mass destruction. We experienced it firsthand. He used them on us! Whether he buried them, sold them, hid them or took them out of the country we do not know, but that is beside the point.”

I did not read Zebari’s comments in any Western newspaper. A Tokyo-based journalist who has written for Charisma, Ken Jospeh Jr., attended the press conference on Nov. 25 and recorded these words himself. I wonder why Zebari’s viewpoints are not included in headlines or news stories in the United States? Could it be because the occult forces at work here have blinded us?

The apostle Paul told the church in Ephesus—a first-century bastion of occultism—that our spiritual struggle is “against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12, NASB). That means we don’t approach life simply from a reasoned intellectual viewpoint. We have to be aware of the supernatural, or else something unseen just might take advantage of us.

We have the authority, in the name of Christ, to subdue magic, overpower deception and expose occult schemes. If you are a praying Christian, and you believe in God’s power to subvert demonic powers, I encourage you to intercede until this trial concludes and Saddam is fully brought to justice.

J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma and an award-winning journalist. He writes a column for Charisma Online twice a week.

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