Gamifying War: Where Are They Now?

Nearly 20 years after the U.S. turned Iraqi’s Most Wanted into playing cards, many of the captured have been released or died while in custody, but several remain at large.

A U.S.-led coalition stormed into Iraq on March 20, 2003, ostensibly to seek and destroy the weapons of mass destruction our intelligence showed most definitely, 100%, no-doubt were strewn all across the country.

There was just one problem: The American public wasn’t exactly sold on the invasion. Sure, it was fine to go into Afghanistan and pound the Taliban. The tie between them and the 9/11 hijackers was irrefutable. But Iraq? It certainly seemed to many that George W. Bush was trying to complete a mission started by his father in 1991.

This skepticism came despite military luminaries such as Colin Powell making the case on live TV with detailed spy imagery showing that there, again, most definitely, 100%, no-doubt were WMD’s in Iraq and that those WMD’s were meant to harm the United States.

So the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), a component of the Department of Defense, pulled out a familiar marketing tool to help sell the war: Gamification.

Companies have been gamifying stuff for years. There’s the tried-and-true toy in the box of Cracker Jacks, the mazes and word searches on the back of cereal boxes and the secret decoder rings kids could get with the right number of proofs of purchase to unlock exclusive content via radio shows.

While we were just a few years past the release of Playstation 2 and Xbox 360, the DIA went old-school with its propaganda to help sell the second Gulf War and created what it called “personality identification playing cards.”

Each card depicted a different Iraqi baddie with a complicated name, and news reports started to be filled with news of “the capture of the jack of spades” or “the surrender of the nine of hearts.” It was a great way to make a war seem more like a night out with the boys playing poker and less like a questionable invasion of another’s sovereign territory with absolutely zero provocation. Plus, when you reduce a human being to a game piece, it’s much less icky to think about a laser-guided bomb wiping them off the face of the planet (along with their wife and five kids).

With the 20-year anniversary of the beginning of our invasion coming up next year, I thought it would be interesting to do some research and find out what happened to those depicted on the playing cards. The idea was spurred by the fact that my wife found a deck of these things while cleaning out some of her parents’ stuff.

So I dove into the depths of the internet and, in the process, created one whopper of a questionable search history for Big Brother to consider, should they be watching. What I found was interesting.

• Of those on the 58 cards, we captured and/or killed 54 of them.
• A good number of those folks we captured were eventually released, most fleeing Iraq and settling in places like Jordan and Germany.
• A lot of those we captured died while in U.S. custody, which appears to have more to do with the fact that these folks generally weren’t young when the war started and we held many of them for a very long time.
• A few of these folks were actually proven right. Several testified in advance of the invasion that there were no longer WMD’s in Iraq. These folks were ridiculed in the media and imprisoned for a lot longer than that it took us to not find squat.
• Only one was ultimately taken out by COVID.
• One guy died a really, really horrible death.

The cards had something of a priority rank to them. The aces were high-value targets — think Saddam Hussein and his sons. The 2’s and 3’s? Some of them appear to just have chosen really poorly whom to associate with.

So let’s start at the fates as of mid-2022 of Iraq’s Most Wanted.

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The Dead

Aces

Saddam Hussein, president – EXECUTED

• Captured, 2003
• Sentenced to death for crimes against humanity in the killings of Shiite villagers in 1982, 2003
• Executed by hanging, 2006.

Qusay Saddam Husayn, son of Saddam – KILLED

• Killed in a standoff with the U.S. Army, 2003

Uday Saddam Husayn, son of Saddam – KILLED

• Killed in a standoff with the U.S. Army, 2003

Abid Hamid Mahmud, presidential secretary – EXECUTED

• Captured, 2003
• Sentenced to death for organizing a crackdown against banned political parties that included assassinations in the 1980s and 1990s
• Executed, 2012

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Kings

Ali Hasan al-Majid, AKA Chemical Ali, chief of Iraqi intelligence service – EXECUTED

• Accused of using chemical weapons in attacks against Kurds in the 1980s and 1990s
• Captured, 2003
• Convicted, 2007
• Executed by hanging, 2010

Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, RCC vice chairman – DIED

• Reportedly killed in an airstrike during a combined operation of Shiite militias and Iraqi forces, 2015.
• However, video surfaced of him talking about events that happened after that airstrike.
• Died, 2020.

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Queens

Muhammad Hamza Zubaydim, Retired RCC member – DIED IN CUSTODY

• Reportedly responsible for torture and murder in the suppression of the 1991 uprising
• Featured in a video kicking and beating captives
• Captured, 2003
• Died at a U.S. hospital in Baghdad after complaining of chest pains, 2005

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Jacks

Ibrahim Ahmad Abd al-Sattar Muhammad, Armed Forces Chief of Staff – DIED IN CUSTODY

• Captured, 2003
• Died of cancer while in custody at Al-Karkh Hospital in Baghdad, 2010

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Tens

Latif Nusayyif Jassim, Ba’ath Party military bureau deputy chairman – DIED IN CUSTODY

• Captured, 2003
• Sentenced to life in prison for the 1999 murder of Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad Al-Sadr
• Died of a chronic illness at a Baghdad hospital, 2021

Taha Yasin Ramadan, vice president/RCC member – EXECUTED

• Captured, 2003
• Sentenced to life in prison, 2006
• Sentenced to death after appeals court said original sentence was too light, 2007
• Executed, 2007

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Nines

Rukan Razuki Abd al-Ghafar, Head of Tribal Affairs Office – KILLED

• Killed by an airstrike, 2003

Mizban Khadr Hadi, RCC member – DIED IN CUSTODY

• Surrendered, 2003
• Died in custody from terminal illness, 2020

Taha Muhyi Al-Din Maruf, vice president/RCC member – DIED

• Captured, 2003
• Died in exile in Amman, Jordan, 2009

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Eights

Tariq Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister – DIED IN CUSTODY

• Surrendered, 2003
• Died of a heart attack in the city of Nasiriyah, 2015

Sultan Hashim Ahman, minister of defense – DIED IN CUSTODY

• Captured, 2003
• Died in custody from a heart attack at Nasiriyah Central Prison, 2020

Hikmat Mizban Ibrahim, deputy prime minister and finance minister – DIED IN CUSTODY

• Captured, 2003
• Died in custody due to lack of his heart medications, though another source cites cancer, 2012

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Sevens

Watban Ibrahim Hasan, half-brother of Saddam Hussein, president advisor – DIED IN CUSTODY

• Captured while trying to flee to Syria, 2003
• Handed over to Iraqi authorities with the expectation of execution within a month, 2011
• Died in custody of natural causes, 2015

Ayad Futayyih Khalifa al-Rawi, Quds forces chief of staff – DIED IN CUSTODY

• Captured, 2003
• Died of a stroke while in custody, 2018

Zuhayr Talib Abd Al-Sattar, director of military intelligence – DIED

• Surrendered, 2003
• Died in Amman, Jordan, 2020

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Sixes

Husam Muhammad Amin, head of National Monitoring Directorate – DIED

• Captured, 2003
• Released, 2005
• Died of COVID complications in the United Arab Emirates, 2021

Sabawi Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, presidential adviser, half-brother of Saddam Hussein, leader of the Iraqi Secret Service in 1991 – DIED IN CUSTODY

• Captured and turned over by Syria to Iraqi forces, who turned him over U.S. forces, 2005
• Sentenced to death, 2009
• Died of cancer, 2013

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Fives

Barzan Ibrahim Hasan, Saddam Hussein’s half-brother, presidential advisor, leader of the Iraqi secret service during the 1991 Gulf War – EXECUTED (really, really badly)

• Captured, 2003
• Executed by hanging, during which he was decapitated by the hangman’s rope after errors calculating his weight and the length of rope needed for the drop from the platform.

Abd Al-Baqi Abd Karim Al-Sadun, Ba’ath Party branch command chairman – DIED

• Captured, 2015
• Sentenced to death, 2016
• Died after being admitted to a hospital for eye surgery, 2021

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Fours

Yahya Abdallah al-Ubaydi, Ba’ath Party branch command chairman – KILLED

• Killed, 2003

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Threes

Saad Abdul-Majid, Ba’ath Party branch command chairman – DIED

• Captured, 2003
• Released and left Iraq, 2005
• Died, 2021

Sayf al-Din Al-Mashhadani, Ba’ath Party branch command chairman – KILLED

• Captured, 2003
• Taken from an Iraqi prison and executed by ISIS, 2014

Fadil Mahmud Gharib, Ba’ath Party brand command chairman – KILLED

• Captured, 2003
• Some sources say he was taken from prison and killed by ISIS, 2014

Muhsin Khadr al-Khafaji, Ba’ath Party branch command chairman – DIED IN CUSTODY

• Captured, 2004
• Died in custody, 2017

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Twos

Ghazi Hammud, Ba’ath Party brand command chairman – DIED

• Captured, 2003
• First of the Most Wanted to be released, 2005 (because of poor health)
• Died of colon cancer, 2007

Adil Abdallah Mahdi, Ba’ath Party branch command chairman – DIED IN CUSTODY

• Captured, 2003
• Died of kidney failure, 2004

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Released

Queens

Barzan Abd al-Ghafur Sulaiman Majid, Special Republican Guard commander

• Captured, 2003
• Released, 2020

Muzahim Sa’b Hassan al-Tikriti, air defense forces commander

• Captured, 2003
• Released, 2012

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Tens

Hamid Raja Shalah, Air Force Commander

• Captured, 2003
• Last prisoner of war from the Gulf War to be released, 2007

Abd al-Tawab Mullah Huwaysh, deputy prime minister

• Captured, 2003
• Released, 2006, and believed to reside in Germany

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Nines

Jamal Mustafa Abdullah, husband of Saddam Hussein’s youngest daughter, deputy head of tribal affairs –

• Surrendered, 2003
• Released from al-Hoot prison, 2020

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Eights

Walid Hamid Tawfiq, governor of Basra

• Surrendered, 2003
• Released from al-Hoot prison, 2020

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Sevens

7: Mahmud Dhiyab, Minister of Interior

• Surrendered, 2003
• Released, 2012

Sixes

Amir Rashid Muhammad al-Ubaydi, AKA “Missile Man,” presidential adviser, former oil minister

• Surrendered, 2003
• Released, 2012

Muhammad Mahdi Salih, minister of trade

• Captured, 2003
• Handed over to Iraqi authorities, 2010
• Found not-guilty of all charges, 2012, and left Iraq.
• Reportedly living in Amman, Jordan.

Fives

Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, AKA “Mrs. Anthrax“

• Weapons of mass destruction scientist
• Only female in the deck
• Received her doctorate in microbiology from Mizzou in 1983
• Surrendered, 2003
• Released, 2005
• Left Iraq, 2005
• Sentenced in absentia to 15 years for embezzling public funds, 2016

Fours

Humam Abd al-Khaliq Abd al-Ghafur, minister of higher education and scientific research

• Captured, 2003
• Reportedly, when Americans arrested him, they threw him to the ground and a soldier stood on his head and neck, permanently disabling him.
• Released, 2005

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Twos

Ugla Abid Saqr, Ba’ath Party regional chairman

• Captured, 2003
• Released, 2013

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Released?

Sevens

Amir Hamudi Hasan al-Sadi, presidential scientific adviser

• Known as “the organizational genius behind the Iraqi superweapons program”
• Insisted before the war that Iraq had destroyed such weapons
• Surrendered, 2003
• Reportedly released, 2005, though some doubt the authenticity of that report

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In Custody

Kings

Aziz Saleh al-Numan, Ba’ath Party branch command chairman

• Captured, 2003
• Transferred to Iraqi custody and sentenced to death, 2011
• There is no report his execution has taken place

Queens

Kamal Mustafa Abdallah Sultan, secretary of the Republican Guard

• Surrendered, 2003
• Sentenced to death for his role in suppressing the 1991 uprising, 2011.

Fours

Muhammad Zimam Abd Al -Razzaq, half-brother of Saddam Hussein, Ba’ath Party branch command chairman

• Captured, 2004

Samir Abd Al-Aziz, Ba’ath Party branch command chairman

• Captured by Kurdish forces near Mosul, 2003
• Sentenced to life in prison, 2004

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At-Large

Kings

Hani Abd al-Latif Tilfah, director, special security organization

• Known as an expert in torture
• Some sources say he was captured in 2004 and acquitted of charges in 2011.
• Most sources say he remains at large.

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Jacks

Sayf Al-Din Fulayyih Hasan Taha Al-Rawi, Republican Guard chief of staff

• Captured, 2004
• Freed while being transferred to Baghdad by British mercenaries looking to collect $500,000 reward after a sniper shot a mercenary and a firefight ensued.
• At large as of 2022.

Rafi Abd Al-Latif Tilfah, director of general security

• At large
• Posted on a list of 60 Most Wanted People in Iraq by Iraqi authorities, 2018

Tahir Jalil Habbush, Iraqi intelligence service –

• At large, with a $1 million reward for information leading to his capture
• Believed to have been in Syria and played a direct roll in day-to-day operations of the insurgency against U.S.-led coalition forces.

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Twos

Rashid Taan Kazim, Ba’ath Party regional chairman

• Iraqi government says he was arrested in 2006, but the BBC reports he’s still at large.
• U.S. government has announced a $1 million reward for anyone who helps in leading to his arrest.

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