The former US defense secretary, an architect of the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, said the late Iraqi dictator gave him the video as a parting memento when Rumsfeld made a secret mission to Baghdad in 1983 as former president Ronald Reagan’s Mideast envoy.
“Such gifts can be unusual, but even so I was shocked by this one,” Rumsfeld said on his website, “The Rumsfeld Papers.”
“Saddam had given me a three-minute videotape documenting alleged Syrian ‘atrocities,'” he said.
“The blurred, choppy footage shows young Syrians biting the heads off of snakes and stabbing puppies, to the apparent applause of then-Syrian dictator Hafez al-Assad.”
Rumsfeld posted the black-and-white video on his website, with a warning: “This video depicts graphic violence. Some viewers may find it disturbing.” His office said on Twitter that it was the first time it had ever been made public.
It shows what appears to be a Syrian military unit putting on a display for an audience of dignitaries, including Assad.