News Is Greeted With Joy, Relief

As many Iraqi Americans throughout Southern California erupted in joy Sunday over Saddam Hussein’s capture, many said they finally felt free from all shadows of fear cast by the longtime Iraqi dictator.

Even exiles who fled Iraq decades ago say Hussein’s long arm of terror had reached into their lives here, intimidating some of them from talking too much about their family experiences for fear of jeopardizing relatives back home. But after news of Hussein’s capture reached Rawa Ali, an Irvine travel agent, she found herself sharing the story of her brother’s disappearance in Iraq more than 20 years ago -- and surprising herself by uttering his name publicly for the first time.

“We used to be scared to say anything,” said Ali, whose brother, Raad Latif, was a university student in Baghdad when he was taken by Hussein’s forces in 1982. “Now we’re not scared of anything anymore.”

At bookstores, mosques and in private homes, others shared similar stories throughout Southern California, home to the nation’s largest concentration of Iraqi Americans outside Michigan. Community leaders estimate that about 40,000 Iraqi immigrants live in six Southern California counties, a mixture of Catholics, Kurds and Muslims who range from liquor store owners to engineers.

Burning up phone lines conveying the news of Hussein’s capture, many in the diverse community were united both in joy -- and relief from fear.

Muhammad Alnajafi, a Riverside jewelry retailer, said Hussein has continued to haunt his dreams more than 20 years after he fled Iraq.

Even after U.S.-led coalition forces ousted the dictator from power this spring, Alnajafi said he has had recurring nightmares that he had returned to Iraq, only to find that Hussein had recaptured power, sealed off the country and was coming to get him. Alnajafi said he would wake up trembling in shock.

“I still have some percentage of fear, even today. They planted this fear in us since we were kids,” said Alnajafi, who was a University of Baghdad business instructor when he left Iraq in 1979 to escape demands to join Hussein’s Baath Party. “Now that fear is banished forever.”

He and other Iraqi Americans said Hussein’s capture would allow their compatriots back home to finally show active support of U.S.-led coalition forces. Many, they said, had held back from full-scale cooperation because they feared vicious retaliation against them should Hussein or his supporters return to power.

Those sentiments were echoed in the bustling San Diego suburb of El Cajon, Southern California’s largest center of Iraqi immigrants.

Many exiles were “scared to talk, scared to show their faces on television,” said Alan Zangana, director of Kurdish Human Rights Watch. Hussein’s capture, however, represents “the end of the era of fear.”

Hussein’s capture also gave new hope to Iraqi Americans who initially opposed the war, such as Ridha Hajjar, a physician who directs the Ahlul-Beyt Mosque in Pomona.

Hajjar said many of his mosque members had hoped for non-military ways to remove Hussein. Some still fret that U.S. officials are “micromanaging” the postwar transition in Iraq, he said -- not sanctioning free elections, for instance, to allow the Iraqi people to select their own leaders to write their constitution. But those reservations were laid aside, at least for the moment, as Hajjar described a burst of hope for his native country’s future.

“The past is past,” said Hajjar, who came to the United States in 1966 for specialized medical training. “The overwhelming majority of people in my community are happy about the change and hopeful for the future.”

On Sunday, Hajjar led a special prayer service at the mosque, where about 25 Iraqi Americans turned up to greet each other with hugs, smiles, kisses and cheers at the news of Hussein’s capture. One man waved a large American flag as Hajjar led a prayer of thanks.

“We thank you Allah that you have made this possible, that you have liberated us of this tyranny,” Hajjar said.

Hadi Abdul, a 35-year-old Irvine researcher, changed his plans for the day to attend the special prayer service. “For one, I’m more relaxed than I used to be,” Abdul said. “I think this is the real mission accomplished.”

Several mosque members, however, said they hoped that the capture of Hussein would speed up the transfer of power from U.S. coalition forces to the Iraqi people.

Hatim K. Addal, 70, said that even as they feel indebted to the forces for toppling Hussein’s regime, some prefer foreign troops to leave Iraq.

“We want to say thank you for helping us,” Addal said. “Now we’re are capable of establishing our own country, and we won’t forget this.”

Other Southern California celebrations took place at the Nenayah Club in El Cajon, where more than 60 Iraqi exiles spent the day gathered around two large television sets sipping tea, playing dominoes and cheering the news of Hussein’s capture.

Some had been there since the night before -- when a winding down engagement party was infused with new life by the joyous news from Iraq.

People erupted in cheers and began dancing, said club owner Namrood Jado. Many did not go home, but instead brewed more tea and sat glued to the television. More Iraqis filtered in throughout the day -- even as their cellphones rang with invitations to celebratory parties in private homes.

At Al-Hikma Bookstore in Anaheim, more than 50 people gathered to exchange hugs, pass out candy and feast on such Mideast delicacies as stuffed lamb. In the small strip mall on Brookhurst Street, people drifted from the bookstore to an Arabic cafe, sharing their stories and remembering the moment they first heard the news.

Many said they were awakened by relatives in Iraq around 3 a.m. Sunday and had been celebrating ever since. Melissa Al Eshaiker of Irvine said she heard her phone ring at 3 a.m.; it was her mother excitedly conveying congratulations.

Half asleep, she grabbed the TV remote “and I saw this homeless guy” identified as Hussein. “This is the happiest day of my life,” she shouted outside the bookstore.

Ali, the Irvine travel agent, said she received a phone call at 3 a.m. from her brother in Laguna Niguel, who heard the news from their sister in the United Arab Emirates. She said that she and her husband jumped out of bed to confirm the news on Arabic satellite TV -- and then started making calls of their own to spread the news.

Her husband, Sam Ali, predicted that Hussein’s capture would accelerate the flow of Iraqi immigrants like himself to return to their homeland to help rebuild -- or even permanently relocate. A civil engineer, Ali said he already has begun working with Iraqi universities to send over books, computers and other needed items. He also has been involved in a project to restore ancient marshlands in southern Iraq, which Hussein had drained to root out resistance fighters.

Ali had planned to visit Iraq this month -- which would have been his first trip back in 24 years -- but postponed it until March because of the insecurity. Now, with Hussein captured, Ali said he wishes he had never rescheduled so that he could be there to celebrate with the people.

Like many other Iraqi Americans, Ali had initially supported the war, but harbored growing frustrations with U.S. postwar policy. As a member of the State Department’s “Future of Iraq” project, Ali had spent months working on transition plans but said few of them had been implemented.

But he said Hussein’s capture had given him and others “a boost in morale.”

“This is it. He’s been captured,” Ali said. “Now we feel we can turn a new page and start rebuilding the country with peace and democracy.”

Times staff writers Tony Perry and Stanley Allison contributed to this report.