Beginning on July 22, 1979, shortly after Saddam became president of Iraq, “a plot against Saddam by senior Ba’athists in league with the Syrian faction of the Ba’ath Party was supposedly uncovered. This resulted in the execution of twenty-two senior Ba’athists, including four members of the Revolutionary Command Council. Some were close friends and associates of Saddam during his rise to power. His ruthlessness, power-drive and cunning won out. Saddam was now the undisputed master of Iraq.”
– Ali A. Allawi, The Occupation of Iraq, Page 29