In 1983 Saddam Hussein gave Donald Rumsfeld a present: a three-minute video featuring youngsters biting the heads off snakes and stabbed puppies. And now Rumsfeld has now given the video to the rest of the world.

At the time Rumsfeld was working as President Reagan's special Mideast envoy and Hussein was at odds with Syria, and the video shows Syria's then-president Hafez al Assad cheering the snake-biting and puppy-stabbing. Rumsfeld writes, "Saddam’s message was clear: The Syrian regime was barbaric. Though his evidence was hardly convincing, his conclusion was a tough one to dispute."

It's just the latest bit of memorabilia from his decades of government service the former defense secretary has posted on The Rumsfeld Papers, a web site he's using to promote his memoir, Known and Unknown.

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Elspeth Reeve