Latif was born to Kurdish Muslim parents, Yahia al-Salihi, a wealthy businessman and Bahar al-Midjadi. Because of his businessman father's wealth, Latif was able to attend the best schools in Iraq in order to get a good education. While attending school at the age of 15, Latif became classmates with Uday Hussein. Latif's classmates picked up on the fact that he had a resemblance to Uday.

Latif's second series of encounters with Uday came after the Iran-Iraq war had begun. Uday, who was of legal age for military service during the war, did not volunteer to fight, nor was he conscripted into the Iraqi military. At the age of 23, his unit received a dispatch ordering Latif to report to the Presidential Palace. Upon arriving at the Palace, Latif was informed that he was to become Uday's fiday (body double) to make public appearances in the guise of Uday whenever a dangerous situation was expected. Latif initially refused to take on the dangerous job and was subsequently imprisoned in solitary confinement. After the imprisonment, Latif agreed to pose as the body double for Uday. He was trained for 6 months to imitate Uday's speech patterns and manner. He underwent surgery and dental work to make their appearances more similar.

During Iraq's invasion of Kuwait Latif was used as a morale booster for the Iraqi troops, sent to Basra posing as Uday to meet with troops.

When a woman Uday was interested in paid more attention to Latif, Uday shot at him, grazing him. Latif fled north, where he was captured imprisoned by Kurdish rebels, being mistaken for Uday. Eventually his captors realized that he was not Uday, and he was released and granted asylum in Austria in 1992.

From the inside flap of Yahia's The Black Hole:

I would not be so presumptuous as to assume that every reader of this book has read The Devil's Double or Ich war Saddams Sohn [I was Saddam's Son]. It is possible that many readers will have approached this book hoping to learn more about the political and social aspects raised, particularly with regard to asylum seeking in general, or how the American CIA, Saudi Arabian and Austrian administrations deal with dissent of any kind. For readers who have not read the story of how I ended up in Austria, or those who have read it and require a reminder, the following few paragraphs cover the same ground very briefly.

He settled in Ireland for a decade, but his applications for citizenship were rejected.

In an interview with BBC News HARDtalk in 2009, Yahia called Uday Hussein "worse than a psychopath" and related an incident where Uday took "a beautiful woman and transformed her into a barely breathing hunk of meat". He added that the woman was later murdered and her body dumped.

A movie The Devil's Double directed by Lee Tamahori and starring Dominic Cooper was filmed in Malta in early 2010, and is expected to be released later in the year.

• I was Saddam's Son released on May 1, 1997 by Arcade Publishing Hardcover: 250 pages Co-author: Karl Wendl. (translated to German as Ich War Saddams Sohn on March 1, 2003 Although the book was published in 1997, the story never received widespread media attention until after the 2003 invasion of Iraq six years later. The book has sold over one million copies worldwide in twenty languages.

• The Devil's Double released on June 5, 2003 by Arrow Books Ltd. Paperback: 334 pages.

• The Black Hole: The Real Story of the Man Who Was Forced to Become the Double Of Saddam Hussein's Sadistic Son released on November 20, 2006 by Arcanum Publishing Paperback: 224 pages.

"The Black Hole" has been banned in Irish and US bookstores because it spotlights the CIA's policies of secret prisons and rendition in a time before 9/11

• Latif Yahia's Official Web site
• Latif Yahia's blog
• Latif Yahia's YouYube Channel
• Latif Yahia's twitter
• Latif Yahia in facebook
• Latif Yahia in IMDB
• Devils Double Film

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