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Most-wanted Iraqi playing cards


In the 2003 invasion of Iraq by a United States-led coalition, the U.S. developed a set of playing cards to help troops identify the most-wanted members of President Saddam Hussein's government, mostly high-ranking Baath Party members or members of the Revolutionary Command Council. The cards were officially named the "personality identification playing cards".

Table of contents
1 About the cards
2 Spades
3 Clubs
4 Diamonds
5 Hearts
6 Other
7 Sources

About the cards

Each card contains the wanted person's name, a picture if available, and the job performed by that individual. The highest-ranking cards, starting with the aces and kings, were used for the people at the top of the most-wanted list. The ace of spades is Saddam Hussein, the aces of clubs and hearts are his sons Qusay and Uday, and the ace of diamonds is Saddam's presidential secretary Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti. This strict correspondence to the order of the most-wanted list was not carried through the entire deck, but some time later in 2003, the list itself was renumbered to conform (almost) to the deck of cards. 

Ostensibly, since soldiers often play card games in their leisure time, U.S. military leaders decided that putting information on playing cards would be a more effective way to get information to coalition troops than just distributing an information bulletin.  However, in reality, the cards were produced in a very limited run.  According to interviews conducted by Stars And Stripes Magazine with Pentagon spokeswoman Megan Fox, there were only about 200 printed, and none have been distributed to the troops. [1].

Texas-based Liberty Playing Card Co. first manufactured the cards for wider distribution.  The U.S. military inadvertently included in the jokers the trademarked Hoyle joker owned by The United States Playing Card Company of Cincinnati, Ohio.  Although The U.S. Playing Card company does not object to the government's use of the image, they do object to other companies using the trademarked image. Thus, in some sense, the U.S. military inadvertently granted The U.S. Playing Card Company exclusive rights to manufacture the authentic decks, if the trademarked images on the jokers are considered a requirement for being authentic.

The deck of cards spawned many imitations and parodies, such as decks featuring members of the Bush administration.




Spades


Clubs


Diamonds


Hearts


Other

There are also two jokers: one lists Arab titles, the other Iraqi military ranks.  There are no cards for most-wanted #45 (was #26), Nayif Shindakh Thamir, #53 (was #34) Husayn al-Awadi, or #54 (was #35) Khamis Sirhan al-Muhammad.

See also: U.S. list of most-wanted Iraqis

The Hoyle joker image is a trademark of the U.S. Playing Card Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, and its image is shown here to illustrate the entire official set. Its presentation here does not indicate any endorsement by the company.


Sources