The Aziz Has Turned

How quickly they forget the good old days:

Former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz has started calling his youngest son – named Saddam after Iraq’s ousted leader – by the name Zuhair instead, according to letters obtained by the London-based Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat.

“My regards to everybody, how is your mother? And your youngest brother Zuhair?” Aziz said in a July letter to his two daughters, Zeinab and Maysaa. He also referred to the son as Zuhair in an October letter, the paper said in its Wednesday editions, which reproduced several of Aziz’s letters.

….Tariq Aziz, who once served as the public face of Saddam Hussein’s regime, was one of the former officials called in to identify the ousted Iraqi president after his arrest on Saturday, U.S. officials said. [AP]

“Tariq! And how are you?”

“Fine Saddam, and you?”

“Been better – and how is your young Saddam”

“Zuhair.”

“‘Zoo hair’! Ha ha, that’s what I had when they found me.”