So after careful forensic analysis and similar double-talkey hoo-hah, more “experts” have decided that Saddam Hussein has at least three doubles (and hasn’t actually been seen in public since 1998).
It’s been long rumored that Hussein uses doubles extensively, as part of the massive shell game he plays on a daily basis, never letting anyone know where the real Saddam is, lest a cruise missile (or disgruntled security agent or bodyguard) take him out.
So we already pretty well knew he had doubles. The real question is — do we have a good DNA sample of him, so that … well, should something untoward happen, we have some proof that it happened to him?
Actually, now that I think of it, hasn’t at least one of his sons defected? That might come in handy …
Alternatively, how could we convince one of the doubles to start issuing orders in a humanitarian, democratizing vein and then support him in a coup?
Come to think of it, Heinlein wrote a story years ago about a political double who assumed power. I don’t recall the name. I suppose the seed of it is probably in The Prince and the Pauper, for that matter.
And then there’s Biografi, the ultimately disappointing fictional travelogue about a fellow in search of the poor sap who may or may not have been a double for Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha.
1. Given Saddam’s paranoia, I’m certain that either (a) some of the doubles’ bodyguards are in fact utterly loyal agents of his that are there expressly to take the double out if something like that starts up, or (b) there is a set of code phrases that Saddam uses to verify that he’s the real one and actually give orders (something along the line of “I have your brother in my prison — do this or I’ll send you his entrails”). Or both.
2. Double Star. One of his less successful works, but I’ve heard it talked about in this context.
3. Love him or hate him (probably the latter), there’s just something fascinating about a guy named Enver Hoxha. Of course, most of my knowledge of Albania, Montenegro and Serbia, prior to that whole melt-down, came from Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe novel, The Black Mountain, so what do I know?