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“In 1963, the Baath Party successfully overthrew the government and took power which allowed Saddam to return to Iraq from exile. While home, he married his cousin, Sajida Tulfah. However, the Baath Party was overthrown after only nine months in power and Saddam was arrested in 1964 after another coup attempt. He spent 18 months in prison, where he was tortured, before he escaped in July 1966.” [Month and day used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Jennifer Rosenberg, “Saddam Hussein,” About.com, Updated Dec. 16, 2014, Accessed on 2/1/2016

In Iraq, “The Ba’ath also began to infiltrate the armed forces, and in February [8] 1963 was able to launch a successful coup that ended the regime of [Prime Minister] General [Abd al-Karim] Qassim [of Iraq].”

 – Ali A. Allawi, The Occupation of Iraq, Page 29

“In November [18] 1963, the Ba’ath’s chaotic and bloody rule ended in its overthrow by Arab nationalist officers allied with the president, Abd el-Salam ‘Aref, one of the leaders of the 1958 Revolution. The party was suppressed, and, as it went underground, leadership once again switched, this time to a career officer and former prime minister, Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr. Saddam Hussein was put in charge of organising the party’s civilian wing, and became the clandestine party’s deputy secretary general.”

 – Ali A. Allawi, The Occupation of Iraq, Page 29

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Osama bin Laden’s father, Mohammad “Bin Laden became one of the most powerful men in the [Saudi] kingdom, even helping to put King Faisal on the throne in the early 1960s [November 2, 1964] and paying the wages of the entire Saudi civil service for the following four months because of a hole in the nation’s coffers. It was a stunning risk that was richly rewarded: Faisal was so grateful he decreed that all construction contracts should go to bin Laden, and even briefly made Mohammad the Minister for Public Works. Mohammad bin Laden’s company has since become a massive commercial entity, responsible for building much of Saudi Arabia, and rebuilding Kuwait and Beirut, with offices and palaces across the Middle East and an estimated turnover in the mid-1990s of $36 billion.”

 – Simon Reeve, The New Jackals, Page 158

“…after his escape [from prison on July 23, 1966], [Saddam Hussein] made contact with Robert Anderson, a CIA officer who made frequent trips to Baghdad to monitor efforts by the Soviets to take control of Iraq’s oil reserves.”

 – Con Coughlin, Saddam: His Rise and Fall, Page 64

“Formal diplomatic relations between the United States and Iraq were suspended after the Six Day War in [June 5-10] 1967.”

 – Charles Duelfer, Hide and Seek, Page 36

“On Jan. 21, 1968, The Washington Post ran a front-page photo of a U.S. soldier supervising the waterboarding of a captured North Vietnamese soldier. The caption said the technique induced ‘a flooding sense of suffocation and drowning, meant to make him talk.’ The picture led to an Army investigation and, two months later [February 28, 1968], the court martial of the soldier.”

 – Eric Weiner, “Waterboarding: A Tortured History,” National Public Radio, Nov. 3, 2007

“In July [16] 1968, the Ba’ath, in alliance with a few dissident army officers, launched a successful coup against the regime of [Iraqi President] Abd el-Rahman ‘Aref. Using both state and party platforms, and working under the wing of his kinsman, [coup leader] Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr, now the president of Iraq, Saddam [Hussein] was able to consolidate his position in the faction-riven Ba’ath Party.”

 – Ali A. Allawi, The Occupation of Iraq, Page 29

In Iraq, “Saddam [Hussein] helped lead the revolution on July 17, 1968, which eventually brought the Baath party to power under Gen. Ahmed Hassan Bakr.”

 – “Profile: Former Iraqi Leader Saddam Hussein,” China Daily, June 30, 2004