Deposed Tunisian dictator Mahmahbod Abudablahblah is coming to Puget Sound and will be speaking in Schneebeck Concert Hall this coming Wednesday at 7 p.m. Abudablahblah is best remembered as the leader of the first regime to be deposed by the Arab Spring, setting off a chain of revolutions that continue in the region today. The Abudablahblah regime was responsible for the death of hundreds of political dissidents and members of rival tribes.
Yet the former dictator’s message to the campus is one of hope. In an exclusive interview with The Trail, the self-styled “Supreme Friend and Most Judicious Leader of the most Holy Land of Tunisia” held nothing back.
Good looking, dressed in a simple pair of slacks and a black tee shirt, with a Mediterranian aura, Abudablahblah had a charm and simple eloquence that were immediately apparent.
“You know, I was in a really bad place. I never asked to be made the ruthless dictator of a small North African county,” he began. “Looking back at it, its still hard to follow how all of it even happened. It feels like one day you’re trying to organize a small group of political protesters, before you know it you’re sending your soldiers into the countryside for virgins to staff your harem. You never feel like you’re making your own choices.”
“All of the things I did felt like decisions I was forced to make. I was caught between the future I felt I needed to plan for my country and the reality that the facts on the ground forced me to accept. It’s crazy; there you are with so much power, but ultimately you’re the most powerless,” he said.
Abudablahblah continued, “After so long, and after dealing with so much, you start to take your difficulties out on yourself and the people around you. I became the monster the world wanted me to be. And I was good at being a monster.”
Of that there can be no doubt: In order to maintain political control, Abudablahblah took the orphaned children of those he killed and conscripted them into the Tunisian armed forces—using the most innocent to commit the worst of the regime’s crimes.
“When the revolution came, that was when I hit bottom. I was ready to end it all, to use the chemical weapons we had been stockpiling for years against my own people. I was going to kill them all. Black it all out. I was ready to just be done,” Abudablahblah said as he began to cry.
Then the accident happened. Unbeknownst to Abudablahblah, his royal engineers had already defected and sworn allegiance to the rebels. When he issued the command to release the sarin gas, the engineer’s sabotage kicked in and the royal palace was flooded by the deadly neurotoxin.
“There’s no question about it: I should be dead. Only 30 people have ever survived being poisoned by sarin, and none of the other survivors have spoken about their experiences. It’s horrible, but in a way I needed it. I needed to be broken down to the bone before I could recognize that I could change. That I could do good. And being good has been good to me.”
Abudablahblah awoke in a Morroccan hospital following the gassing, but quickly abdicated and fled to America.
“I’ve been traveling the country giving motivational talks. I feel like I am really helping people. I have a message to deliver, and I think it resonates: It gets better; you don’t have to have opponents flogged to death in front of their parents. We have the power to be whoever we want.”
When asked about justice, Abudablahblah said he has no regrets.
“You know, I could see how people look at my success—the bestselling book, the meetings and endorsements from celebrities, the TV appearances and travel—and say I’m cashing in on a tragedy I was responsible for. But if I could stop just one person from becoming a megalomaniacal dictator, well, then, it’ll all be worth it,” he said.
The Tunisian people could not be reached for comment on that statement.
