Self-Published Author Featured on National PBS Show

Self-Published Author Featured on National PBS Show

Former Iraqi Prisoner Gives Insight into Saddam's Hellish Prisons

BLOOMINGTON, Ind., March 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Self-published author Nabil Seyam, who was held hostage by the Saddam Hussein regime during the first Gulf War, is the featured guest on John McLaughlin's nationally broadcast public television show "McLaughlin One-On-One" this weekend.

The show airs throughout the United States on PBS affiliate stations beginning today. The program will also air on WRC-TV, the NBC affiliate in Washington, D.C., this evening. Seyam, who holds a doctorate degree, knows what it is like to be a prisoner of Hussein's old regime. He remembers the terror, violence and desperation that led him there. In his new book, "An American Hostage in Iraq" (now available through AuthorHouse), he recalls his long journey from captivity under Saddam Hussein to living the American dream in the heartland.

Born in a poor Palestinian home in Kuwait, Seyam dreamed of one day studying at a university and getting a good job to support his family. He eventually made it to Wichita State University in Kansas where he met his first wife, Carrie. They married and returned to Kuwait to start a family. Seyam got a good job as a safety engineer for a successful pipe manufacturer, and Carrie taught at an American school. Then Hussein came.

Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. Like many Kuwaitis, Seyam lost his job, and his family was reduced to selling eggs outside of mosques and even making the dangerous trek to Basra, Iraq, to sell electronics. Being Palestinian, he passed through checkpoints, but his American status put him at risk. As U.S. forces moved into the deserts of Saudi Arabia, Americans were being detained, arrested and taken to strategic locations to be used as "human shields." Seyam's luck ran out two months after the invasion. At a checkpoint, he was arrested, beaten and bused to Baghdad with a group of 25 captives. He spent 15 days in a hotel that the military had commissioned as headquarters for operations.

International pressure helped secure his freedom, but the experience left him traumatized, jobless and penniless. The U.S. Embassy paid for his flight back to Kansas where he and his family began anew. Seyam used food stamps, worked temp jobs and fought to reclaim the life that Hussein's regime had stolen. Eventually, he became the corporate director of health and safety for an international company, bought a house in a nice neighborhood and began speaking out for all of the Muslims in the area. He founded the first Muslim school in Wichita, as well as the local Muslim Community Center.

AuthorHouse is the world leader in publishing and print-on-demand services. Founded in 1997, AuthorHouse has helped more than 23,000 people worldwide become published authors. For more information, visit http://www.authorhouse.com/.

EDITORS: For review copies or interview requests, contact:

Communications Department
Tel: 800-839-8640 ext.5337
Fax: 812-961-3133
Email: rmjohnson@authorhouse.com
(Please provide a street address for review copies.)

This release was issued through eReleases(TM). For more information, visit http://www.ereleases.com/.

Source: AuthorHouse

CONTACT: AuthorHouse Communications Department, +1-800-839-8640 ext.5337
or Fax: +1-812-961-3133 or rmjohnson@authorhouse.com

Web site: http://www.authorhouse.com/

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