Just remembered this. I discovered recently that Saddam got his start working as an assasin for the CIA. His job was to assisninate the ruler of Iraq at that time. He failed at that job, and the CIA took care of it using a different tactic; a CIA backed coup that installed the Ba'ath party in power. Saddam was a member of the Ba'ath party, and he rose from within the ranks to become the ruler of Iraq.

I already knew about the coup, but I didn't know until just recently that Saddam had worked for the CIA as an assasin prior to the coup.