Saddam Hussein Watch: Saddam Executed as Iraq War Violence Continues
Reuters: Saddam hanged as violence goes on
Saddam Hussein was hanged at dawn on Saturday for crimes against humanity after
Iraq’s prime minister rushed through an execution that delighted victims of Saddam’s harsh rule.The former president, toppled by the U.S. invasion four years ago, was shown going calmly to his death on the scaffold in images of his last moments broadcast on state television.
“It was very quick. He died right away,” one official witness told Reuters, adding that the body was left to hang for 10 minutes and death was recorded at 6:10 a.m. (0310 GMT).
The bearded Saddam, still robust at 69, refused a hood or to have a cleric present but did say a brief prayer before a short drop to oblivion on gallows once used by his own secret police.
Hot Air (Via Michelle Malkin) has the Video here.
Saddam Hussein the Butcher of Baghdad is dead. Let’s move on,finish the job and allow the Iraqi people to determine their own fate without a ruthless dictator.
Grainy video later showed his body in a white shroud, the neck twisted and blood on a cheek. An adviser to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he would probably end up in a secret grave.
Three decades after Saddam established his personal rule by force, it closed a chapter in Iraq’s history marked by war with
Iran and a 1990 invasion of Kuwait that turned him from ally to enemy of the United States and impoverished his oil-rich nation.But, as President Bush said in a statement, sectarian violence pushing Iraq toward civil war has not ended.
Car bombs set off by suspected insurgents from Saddam’s once dominant Sunni minority killed over 70 people in Baghdad and near the Shi’ite holy city of Najaf, striking areas populated by Shi’ite Muslims oppressed for decades and now in the ascendancy.
But Maliki, his fragile authority among fellow Shi’ites enhanced after he forced through Saddam’s killing over Sunni and Kurdish hesitation just four days after his appeal failed, reached out to Saddam’s Sunni followers.
“Saddam’s execution puts an end to all the pathetic gambles on a return to dictatorship,” he said in a statement as state television showed film of him signing the death warrant in red ink. “I urge … followers of the ousted regime to reconsider their stance as the door is still open to anyone who has no innocent blood on his hands to help in rebuilding … Iraq.”
It is time to rebuild Iraq…….
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This video image released by the Biladi TV stations, which are affiliated with the Dawa party of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. appears to show the body of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein wrapped in a white shroud following his execution Saturday Dec. 30. 2006. Clutching a Quran and refusing a hood, Saddam Hussein went to the gallows before sunrise Saturday, executed by vengeful countrymen after a quarter-century of remorseless brutality that killed countless thousands and led Iraq into disastrous wars against the United States and Iran.
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Saddam Hussein Watch: Hangman Cometh – Within Hours
Cox & Forkum: Old Acquaintance
Iraq War Watch: Saddam Huissein Convicted and Sentenced to Hang For Crimes Against Humanity
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2 Comments
gillesroy
Political designs behind Saddam’s execution :
1. Saddam is clearly the scapegoat for an international war syndicate, which includes many in our current political leadership, both in front and behind the scenes. Evacuating due process, controlling evidence and terrorizing the prosecution team were all par for the course in Saddam’s trial. A key reason for the speedy road to execution, was to eliminate a prominent player and key witness of this international criminal war conspiracy, thereby avoid further indictment of members of our leadership, many of whom have been accessory to Saddam’s actual crimes.
2. To « bookend » media fatigue and public indifference, re : Saddam’s trial. The whole point of the « trial » was to deliver a quick public execution, and thereby feed the hunger for blood so brilliantly cultivated in Western public opinion. An execution gives sense of heightened drama, and inagurates the next round of intensified bloodshed in the region… and beyond.
3. Lastly, to make Saddam a martyr for (gasp!) sympathisers, thereby deepening chaos in the middle-east over a longer period of time. Certainly, the US-led war in Iraq can be called a success insofar as its central purpose has been to aid the spreading of chaos in the Middle-East.
Babsy
By golly, I belive you got it spot on!!! Now my Halliburton stock will pay big dividends on all that Iraqi oil we’re going to steal over the next few decades. It really was a good tale to tell the world that Saddam had WMD when in fact, through the kindness of his own heart, he destoyed them all before we got there. Made our conquest a lot easier.