Sadam Hussein's Pilot Mohammed Sulaiman | Mike Ritland Podcast Episode 128

About this video

Mike Ritland interviews Mohamed Suleiman, who served 32 years in the Iraqi Air Force including as Saddam Hussein’s personal pilot, alongside co-author Lauren Ungeldy discussing their book ‘Flying the Tyrant’. Suleiman recounts his childhood dream of becoming a pilot, growing up on military bases during multiple wars, and life under Saddam’s brutal regime where even joking about the dictator meant execution. He describes the Iran-Iraq War’s heavy casualties, the terror imposed by Saddam’s intelligence apparatus, and his eventual path to America.

Key takeaways

• Suleiman attributes his lifelong pilot identity to his father’s influence and childhood immersion in Iraqi Air Force culture, even attempting to fly with an umbrella at age four
• According to Suleiman, Saddam’s regime maintained absolute control through immediate execution for any criticism, with intelligence services killing dissenters without trial—even for casual jokes mentioning Saddam’s name
• Suleiman recounts the Iran-Iraq War as producing over a billion casualties, with frequent mission losses and widespread death affecting his friends, family, and the Iraqi population

Episode details: published February 27, 2023 · 61.6K views · 2:34:32 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Stories told by Mike Ritland’s podcast guests are the guests’ own accounts, attributed to them — not independently verified. Commentary is Ritland’s, presented as his analysis.

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