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Thread: Saddam Hussein Executed

  1. #1
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    Saddam Hussein Executed

    Reports: Saddam Hussein executed
    Deposed Iraqi dictator hanged for deaths of 148 Shiites in 1982

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16389128/

    (Gold9472: What does our leader get for the deaths of 655,000?)

    12/29/2006

    BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three years after he was hauled from a hole in the ground by pursuing U.S. forces, Saddam Hussein was hanged Saturday under a sentence imposed by an Iraqi court, al-Hurra TV, al-Arabiya and Sky News TV reported.

    The deposed president was found guilty over the killing of 148 members of the Shiite population of the town of Dujail after militants tried to assassinate him there in 1982, during Iraq’s war with Shiite Iran.

    The official witnesses to his execution gathered Friday in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone in final preparation for his hanging, as state television broadcast footage of his regime’s atrocities.

    The Pentagon said U.S. forces, always on high alert in Iraq, were braced for any upsurge in violence from Sunni insurgents loyal to Saddam.

    A U.S. judge refused late Friday to stop the execution, rejecting a last-minute court challenge by the former Iraqi president.

    "Petitioner Hussein's application for immediate, temporary stay of execution is denied," U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said in Washington after a hearing over the telephone with attorneys.

    An Iraqi appeals court upheld Saddam’s death sentence Tuesday for the killing of 148 people who were detained and tortured after the attempt on his life.

    Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said in statements released Friday that those who opposed the execution of Saddam were insulting the honor of his victims. His office said he made the remarks in a meeting with families of people who died during Saddam’s rule.

    “Our respect for human rights requires us to execute him, and there will be no review or delay in carrying out the sentence,” al-Maliki said.

    ‘God’s gift to Iraqis’
    In his Friday sermon, a mosque preacher in the Shiite holy city of Najaf called Saddam’s execution “God’s gift to Iraqis.”

    “Oh, God, you know what Saddam has done! He killed millions of Iraqis in prisons, in wars with neighboring countries and he is responsible for mass graves. Oh God, we ask you to take revenge on Saddam,” said Sheik Sadralddin al-Qubanji, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, known as SCIRI.

    Rumors and reports swirled Friday over when the execution would take place and whether U.S. forces had handed Saddam over to Iraqi custody, presumably the last step before the execution.

    Earlier reports said al-Maliki feared fueling religious tensions if Saddam were executed during Eid al-Adha, a Muslim holiday that starts at sundown Saturday.

    An execution during Eid carries great symbolism. The feast marks the sacrifice the prophet Abraham was prepared to make when God ordered him to kill his son, and many Shiites could regard Saddam’s death as a gift from God. Such symbolism could further anger Sunnis, who are resentful of new Shiite power.

    Najeeb al-Nueimi, a member of Saddam’s legal team, said U.S. authorities were maintaining physical custody of Saddam until the time of the execution to prevent him from being humiliated beforehand. He said the Americans also want to prevent the mutilation of his corpse, as has happened to other deposed Iraqi leaders.

    Saddam has been held at a U.S. base near Baghdad airport, but the place of execution has been kept secret.

    Meeting with half-brothers
    Saddam, who said in court he had no fear of dying, had a farewell meeting with two of his half-brothers on Thursday, his lawyers said, adding the fallen dictator was in high spirits and ready to die a “martyr.” A third half-brother and another aide are also condemned to die for crimes against humanity.

    Saddam’s conviction was hailed by President Bush as a triumph for the democracy he promised to foster in Iraq after the 2003 invasion.

    International human rights groups criticized the year-long trial, during which three defense lawyers were killed and a chief judge resigned complaining of political interference.

    Rights groups, along with the United Nations and many of the United States’ Western allies, oppose capital punishment and have voiced unease over the decision to put Saddam to death.

    Saddam's lawyers issued a statement Friday calling on "everybody to do everything to stop this unfair execution." The statement also said the former president had been transferred from U.S. custody, though American and Iraqi officials later denied that.

    The governments of Yemen and Libya made eleventh-hour appeals that Saddam's life be spared.

    Yemeni Prime Minister Abdul-Kader Bajammal wrote to the U.S. and Iraqi presidents, warning in his letter to President Bush that Saddam's execution would "increase the sectarian violence" in Iraq, according to the official Yemeni news agency Saba.

    Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi made an indirect appeal to save Saddam, telling Al-Jazeera television that his trial was illegal and that he should be retried by an international court.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


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    Pentagon: U.S. forces in Iraq vigilant about any escalation in violence

    http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/w...8-us-iraq.html

    By Lolita C. Baldor
    ASSOCIATED PRESS
    1:48 p.m. December 29, 2006

    WASHINGTON – The Pentagon said Friday that U.S. fighting forces in Iraq are ready for any escalation of violence there – even as condemned former President Saddam Hussein waged an 11th-hour appeal in American courts to spare his life.

    “U.S. forces in Iraq are obviously at a high state of alert anytime because of the environment that they operate in and because of the current security situation,” said spokesman Bryan Whitman, in advance of an appeal filed here on Saddam's behalf by his lawyers.

    Whitman said U.S. forces will “obviously take into account social dimensions that could potentially led to an increase in violence which certainly would include carrying out the sentence of Saddam Hussein.”

    Saddam has been in U.S. custody since he was captured in December 2003. As his execution drew near, Saddam's lawyers filed an appeal trying to stave it off.

    Hussein's lawyers filed documents Friday afternoon asking for a stay of execution. The 21-page request was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington before Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.

    His attorneys argued that because Hussein also faces a civil lawsuit in Washington, he has rights as a civil defendant that would be violated if he is executed. He has not received notice of those rights and the consequences that the lawsuit would have on his estate, his attorneys said.

    “To protect those rights, defendant Saddam Hussein requests an order of this court providing a stay of his execution until further notice of this court,” attorney Nicholas Gilman wrote.

    A similar request by the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, Awad Hamed al-Bandar, was denied Thursday and is under appeal. Al-Bandar also faces execution. The Justice Department argued in that case that U.S. courts have no jurisdiction to interfere with the judicial process of another country.

    Meanwhile, the White House declined Friday to talk about the timing of his execution.

    Deputy White House press secretary Scott Stanzel, talking to reporters Friday from Crawford, Texas, where President Bush was vacationing, said the hanging of Saddam was a matter for the sovereign Iraqi government. Earlier, the White House said the appeals court decision to uphold the sentence marked an important milestone for the Iraqi people's efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law.

    At the Pentagon, Whitman said U.S. military forces “stay at a constant state of high readiness in Iraq and I would expect through this period they would do the same.”

    He wouldn't comment further on any potential troop movements to strengthen security for the execution, but said the commanders in Iraq have the ability to move forces as they deem appropriate based on conditions on the ground.

    Whitman also said he wouldn't comment on anything that President Bush might be contemplating in terms of changing U.S. war policy in Iraq or in connection with the intensive administration review now under way on American strategy there.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


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    U.S. Court Refuses to Spare Iraqi

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...901269_pf.html

    The Associated Press
    Friday, December 29, 2006; 8:11 PM

    WASHINGTON -- A U.S. appeals court refused to block the military from sending a former top Iraqi official to his death Friday. A similar request by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is pending before a federal judge in Washington.

    Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, was convicted and sentenced alongside Saddam. He asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to order the military not to turn him over to Iraqi officials.

    The appeals court issued only a short order denying al-Bandar's request, removing a procedural hurdle before the execution is to be carried out.

    Al-Bandar argued that his trial violated his rights under the U.S. Constitution, but the Justice Department argued that foreigners being tried in foreign courts are not protected by the U.S. Constitution.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  4. #4
    Cloak & Swagger Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Gold9472

    (Gold9472: What does our leader get for the deaths of 655,000?)
    Is that figure with or without the 9/11 victims?

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cloak & Swagger
    Is that figure with or without the 9/11 victims?
    Without.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


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    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


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    Iran terms Saddam's execution as "victory for Iraqi people"

    http://rawstory.com/news/2006/Iran_t..._12302006.html

    dpa German Press Agency
    Published: Saturday December 30, 2006

    Tehran- Iran on Saturday termed the execution of Saddam Hussein as a "victory for the Iraqi people", state news agency IRNA reported.

    "The execution of Saddam Hussein was a victory for the Iraqi people and no other country should take credit for that," Deputy Foreign Minister Hamid-Reza told IRNA in a first reaction by Tehran to the execution.

    Assefi however criticised the swift execution and speculated that the United States preferred to avoid disclosure of more details in the court hearings.

    "Investigation into the Iraqi invasion in Iran (1980-1988) and in Kuwait (1990) could have disclosed the US involvement in Saddam's crimes and therefore the Americans preferred to close the case earlier," the Iranian official said.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  8. #8
    1voice2006 Guest
    Justice has been dealt. Time to move forward, hopefully Irag will their own affairs in order now.

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    Saddam: The questions that will live on

    http://news.independent.co.uk/world/...cle2112671.ece

    From Andrew Buncombe in Washington
    Published: 30 December 2006

    So why did George Bush decide to invade Iraq? Nearly four years and hundreds of thousands of casualties later, the reasons appear both as obvious and as elusive as they were in the spring of 2003.

    The official reasoning was always straightforward. Key among the claims included in the so-called Iraq War Resolution passed by Congress in October 2002 was that Iraq "poses a continuing threat to the national security of the United States and international peace and security in the Persian Gulf region". It added that Saddam's regime harboured chemical and biological weapons and was seeking to develop a nuclear arsenal.

    In an address to the nation just three days before the invasion, Mr Bush declared: "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised."

    It quickly became clear that central claim was not true, and it became equally clear the administration had been manipulating uncertain and "caveated" intelligence to make the case for a war that had been decided on long before. The famous Downing Street memo suggests that as early as July 2002 " intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy". Indeed, within hours of the attacks of 9/11, senior elements within the administration were seeking for a strike against Iraq even though there was no evidence it was involved.

    But if the alleged threat of WMD was based on manipulated intelligence – some provided by Iraqi exiles such as Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress - what else motivated the US? Many remain convinced the overwhelming factor was a desire to control Iraq's oil supplies, the second largest proven reserves in the world. Such a view has been reinforced by recent recommendations of Iraq Study Group which said: " The United States should assist Iraqi leaders to reorganise the national oil industry as a commercial enterprise, in order to enhance efficiency, transparency, and accountability."

    Veteran dissident Noam Chomsky said: "It is glaringly obvious that Iraq is estimated to have the second largest energy reserves in the world and is right at the heart of the world's major energy producing region, and that establishing a client state in Iraq would considerably enhance policies that go back to the dawn of the oil age, and in particular to the post-war period when the US was taking over global domination, and established as a very high and natural policy principle the need to control this ‘stupendous source of strategic power'."

    He added: "It takes remarkable obedience to authority to believe that the US would have 'liberated' Iraq - or taken revenge - if its main exports were lettuce and pickles, and the major petroleum resources were in the South Pacific."

    Some point out that a desire among some in government to oust Saddam predated 9/11, and suggest in the aftermath of those attacks, a climate existed in which it was easier to pursue an invasion. Indeed, among the signatories to the 1998 letter from the neo-con Project for the New American Century calling on President Clinton to take on Saddam were former Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz.

    Mr Wolfowitz later said Saddam's alleged possession of WMD was just one of many reasons for invading. "For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction, because it was the one reason everyone could agree on," he said.

    David Swanson, a founder of afterdowningstreet.org, a coalition of peace and activist groups, said: "The one thing we know is that the reasons they told us were false. [I think] they wanted an Iraq that looked free but isn't and they wanted to control it¿They wanted the oil and the power that comes with controlling that oil and making profits for British and US oil companies."

    Did other factors influence Mr Bush? Was he seeking revenge against "the guy who tried to kill my dad" – a reference to an alleged plot to kill the president's father during a visit to Kuwait in 1993 or was there even a broader strategic rationale, one that would benefit Israel – something claimed by peace activist Cindy Sheehan.

    What does seem certain is that there was a confluence of factors and interests coming together in the aftermath of 9/11 that allowed Mr Bush to proceed to war with little opposition from the Congress, or indeed, the media.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


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    EU opposes death penalty against Saddam Hussein

    http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_5551285.htm

    www.chinaview.cn
    2006-12-31 03:00:23

    BRUSSELS, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) leaders and officials expressed on Saturday the EU's opposition to the death penalty against former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

    "The passing of Saddam Hussein closes a long, painful chapter in the history of Iraq. While the EU opposes capital punishment as a matter of principle, Saddam's trial and punishment mean that those who commit crimes against humanity cannot escape justice," EU commissioner on external relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner said.

    The commissioner made the comment in a written statement in response to the execution of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who was hanged earlier on Saturday.

    Waldner noted that Saddam Hussein's career and legacy show the "futility of the politics of violence and terror", adding that she hopes that all Iraqi leaders will now find the wisdom and courage to join forces to end the violence and to build a future of stability and prosperity for their country and people.

    "The European Commission will continue to give active and substantial support to those who work for reconciliation and progress in Iraq," she added.

    Earlier, Cristina Gallach, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana reiterated the EU's opposition to death penalty.

    "The EU condemns the crimes committed by Saddam Hussein. The EU's position is that we are always against death penalty," the spokeswoman, who was reluctant to notify her name, told Xinhua over phone.

    Finland, which will hand over the EU presidency in two days to Germany, echoed the similar position.

    "The EU has a very consistent view against using the death penalty and it should have not been used in this instance either, although there is no doubt over Saddam's guilt of very serious crimes against humanity," Finland's Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja told Finnish YLE television.

    EU Aid and Development Commissioner Louis Michel believed capital punishment was at odds with the democracy Iraq's leaders were trying to build.

    "You don't fight barbarism with acts that I deem as barbaric. The death penalty is not compatible with democracy," he said.

    "Unfortunately Saddam Hussein risks to appear as a martyr, and he does not deserve that. He is not a martyr, he committed the worst things," he added.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


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