- Botched Saddam Execution Articles - Last Moments for Saddam, the Martyr: LYNCHERS' JUSTICE! - Bush and his administration's pathetic ways causing Destruction of Middle East -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the Gallows, Curses for U.S. And Iraqi 'Traitors' (as they are, it's a given) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ New York Times Company Dec 31, 2006, 1.1.2007 Saddam Hussein never bowed his head, until his neck snapped, he died proudly! Saddam died on Eid, a holy day of Sacrifice, a day of forgiveness, thus he died at perfect time, he won in death. He also showed Iraqi government is joke, they danced around his dead body. But many of them would also die from Iraqi civil war. Saddam died as he wished, defiant and brave to the end. The Iraqi government did not listen, it was hard for them to wait 3 days, they deserve the ridicule. Too bad though, kids immitated this & died themselves, another evil of this illegal war. Now puppet Iraqi bush gov turned him into the super martyr, death could not have chosen a better day. Let this stupid puppet government suffer consequences forever... Iraq is in terrible shape, 5 000 000 refugees and growing, no jobs, no security, no water, no electricity, no nothing. At least under Saddam SECURITY WAS EVERYWHERE, AT ALL TIMES AND ANYWHERE. IS THIS AMERICAN FREEDOM CRIMINAL BUSH SPOKE ABOUT IT ? THIS IS NOTHING BUT A BAD JOKE. SITUATION IS WORSE THAN EVER. YEA, IT WAS NO PICNIC UNDER SADDAM BUT WHY ? UNDER SADDAM, IT WAS TOUGH BECAUSE OF SANCTIONS WHICH KILLED 2 000 000 PEOPLE, MOST OF THEM NEW BORNS, YOUNG AND OLD. BUSH & HIS CRONIES MUST FACE JUSTICE! THE SOONER, THE BETTER! (TRIAL IN IRAQIA) THEY SHOULD STAND TRIAL IN SUNNI IRAQ. BUSH DESTROYED AMERICAN IMAGE, WHATEVER THAT WAS LEFT OF IT ANYWAYS, HE DESTROYED IT. NO WONDER... SADAM HANGED FOR KILLING THOSE WHO TRIED TO KILL HIM DURING THE TIME OF WAR... IMAGINE THE CONSEQUENCES... IF HE WAS KILLED, 148 WOULD NOT HAVE DIED IN RETURN BUT 1 480 000 COULD HAVE DIED FROM THE HANDS OF HIS SONS, AS A REVENGE. REVENGE WOULD HAVE BEEN HUGE AND SWIFT. AT LEAST THRU THIS TRIAL MANY OTHER IMPORTANT SO CALLED GENOCIDE CHARGES AGAINST SADAM WERE NEVER BROUGHT UP. THRU HIS DEATH, THOSE WERE DROPPED. THEY HAD TO. BUT IT ONLY PROVES A NEW DICTATORSHIP HAS REPLACED OLD DICTATOR. SADDAM CAME TO POWER THRU FORCE, SO DID THE NEW IRAQ GOVERNMENT, IT WILL END UP DREADFULLY ITSELF. His last words were equally defiant. ''Down with the traitors, the Americans, the spies and the Persians.'' The final hour of Iraq's former ruler began about 5 a.m., when American troops escorted him from Camp Cropper, near the Baghdad airport, to Camp Justice, another American base at the heart of the city. There, he was handed over to a newly trained unit of the Iraqi National Police, with whom he would later exchange curses. Iraq puppets took full custody of Mr. Hussein at 5:30 a.m. Two American helicopters flew 14 witnesses from the Green Zone to the execution site - a former headquarters of the Istikhbarat, the deposed government's much feared military intelligence outfit, now inside the American base. Mr. Hussein was escorted into the room where the gallows, with its red railing, stood, greeted at the door by three masked executioners known as ashmawi. Several of the witnesses present - including Munkith al-Faroun, the deputy prosecutor for the court; Munir Haddad, the deputy chief judge for the Iraqi High Tribunal; and Sami al-Askari, a member of Parliament - described in detail how the execution unfolded and independently recounted what was said. To protect himself from the bitter cold before dawn during the short trip, Mr. Hussein wore a 1940s-style wool cap, a scarf and a long black coat over a white collared shirt. His executioners wore black ski masks, but Mr. Hussein could still see their deep brown skin and hear their dialects, distinct to the Shiite southern part of the country, where he had so brutally repressed two separate uprisings. The small room had a foul odor. It was cold, had bad lighting and a sad, melancholic atmosphere. With the witnesses and 11 other people - including guards and the video crew - it was cramped. Mr. Hussein's eyes darted about, trying to take in just who was going to put an end to him. The executioners took his hat and his scarf. Mr. Hussein, whose hands were bound in front of him, was taken to the judge's room next door. He followed each order he was given. He sat down and the verdict, finding him guilty of crimes against humanity, was read aloud. ''Long live the nation!'' Mr. Hussein shouted. ''Long live the people! Long live the Palestinians!'' He continued shouting until the verdict was read in full, and then he composed himself again. When he rose to be led back to the execution room at 6 a.m., he looked strong, confident and calm. Whatever apprehension he may have had only minutes earlier had faded. The general prosecutor asked Mr. Hussein to whom he wanted to give his Koran. He said Bandar, the son of Awad al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court who was also to be executed soon. The room was quiet as everyone began to pray, including Mr. Hussein. ''Peace be upon Mohammed and his holy family.'' Two guards added, ''Supporting his son Moktada, Moktada, Moktada.'' Mr. Hussein seemed a bit stunned, swinging his head in their direction. They were talking about Moktada al-Sadr, the firebrand cleric whose militia is now committing some of the worst violence in the sectarian fighting; he is the son of a revered Shiite cleric, Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, whom many believe Mr. Hussein ordered murdered. ''Moktada?'' he spat out, mixing sarcasm and disbelief. Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser, asked Mr. Hussein if he had any remorse or fear. ''No,'' he said bluntly. ''I am a militant and I have no fear for myself. I have spent my life in jihad and fighting aggression. Anyone who takes this route should not be afraid.'' Mr. Rubaie, standing shoulder to shoulder with Mr. Hussein, asked him about the killing of the elder Mr. Sadr. They were standing so close to each other that others could not hear the exchange. One of the guards, though, became angry. ''You have destroyed us,'' the masked man yelled. ''You have killed us. You have made us live in destitution.'' Mr. Hussein was scornful: ''I have saved you from destitution and misery and destroyed your enemies, the Persians and Americans.'' The guard cursed him. ''God damn you.'' Mr. Hussein replied, ''God damn you.'' Two witnesses, apparently uninvolved in selecting the guards, exchanged a quiet joke, saying they gathered that the goal of disbanding the militias had yet to be accomplished. The deputy prosecutor, Mr. Faroun, berated the guards, saying, ''I will not accept any offense directed at him.'' Mr. Hussein was led up to the gallows without a struggle. His hands were unbound, put behind his back, then fastened again. He showed no remorse. He held his head high. The executioners offered him a hood. He refused. They explained that the thick rope could cut through his neck and offered to use the scarf he had worn earlier to keep that from happening. Mr. Hussein accepted. He stood on the high platform, with a deep hole beneath it. He said a last prayer. Then, with his eyes wide open, no stutter or choke in his throat, he said his final words cursing the Americans and the Persians. At 6:10 a.m., the trapdoor swung open. He seemed to fall a good distance, but he died swiftly. After just a minute, his body was still. His eyes still were open but he was dead. Despite the scarf, the rope cut a gash into his neck. His body stayed hanging for another ten minutes as those in attendance broke out in prayer, praising the Prophet, at the death of a 'dictator'. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- THE FINAL MOMENTS FOR SADDAM / Calm, exchanging taunts with others, -------------------------------------------------------------------- Houston Chronicles BAGHDAD, IRAQ - In the pre-dawn hours Saturday, ousted President of Iraq Saddam Hussein stood calmly at the gallows, a thick yellow noose around his neck, ready to die with an orderliness that now eludes Iraq. Three executioners, men in black ski masks and leather jackets, stood behind him. Saddam said "Ya Allah," preparing himself for the platform he stood on to open up. Suddenly, witnesses recalled, the room erupted in religious chants, as the Shiite Muslims in the audience seized the moment they had long sought. One man yelled, "Muqtada, Muqtada, Muqtada," unveiling his loyalty to radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al- Sadr. Saddam smiled, said the witnesses, and said sarcastically: "Muqtada?" In his final moments, shortly after the dawn call for prayer, Saddam came face to face with today's Iraq, which he had never met, having spent the past three years in American custody. Since his capture, the Shiites his government violently repressed have come to power. They were the last people Saddam saw before his death. "Go to hell," a voice yelled in response to Saddam's remark, according to a grainy video taken by a cell phone that was flashed on television networks Saturday night. "Long live Muhammad Bakr Sadr," yelled another voice. Bakr Sadr is the uncle of Muqtada al-Sadr and founder of the Islamic Dawa Party, of which Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is a senior leader. Then, Munqith Faroun, who prosecuted Saddam, yelled: "The man is facing execution. Please don't." The room quieted down a little bit. According to accounts from five witnesses, as well as Iraqi and U.S. officials, as he neared death, Saddam wore ironed black pants, an ivory white shirt and a black, luxurious top coat. His shoes were polished to a shine. He dyed his hair black and trimmed his silver beard. He waited with dignity. Saddam began to recite an Islamic prayer. 14 men alerted On Friday night, al-Maliki's office informed 14 men that they might get a phone call, officials said. Since Tuesday, when Iraq's highest court upheld Saddam's death sentence, it was clear that his execution would arrive soon. The al-Maliki government had wanted to execute Saddam early Friday morning, said U.S. and Iraqi officials in interviews. But legal issues, security concerns and Iraq's political divide postponed the plan. By late Friday, Saddam's execution papers were signed. Muneer Haddad, a judge on Iraq's appeals court, received the call at 1:30 a.m. A voice said: "Come to the prime minister's office at 3:30 in order to carry out the execution," recalled Haddad. He arrived, along with Faroun, and joined the rest of the group. They included the acting minister of justice, national security officials, members of parliament and several top al-Maliki advisers. About 5 a.m. they stepped into two U.S. military helicopters, seven in each. They flew 15 minutes to an Iraqi army base overlooking the Tigris River in Baghdad's Khadimiya neighborhood, Haddad recalled. It once housed Saddam's former military intelligence service, where his opponents were executed. About the same time, U.S. military officials took Saddam from his prison cell at Camp Cropper, near the Baghdad airport, and flew him to the Green Zone, the fortified enclave that houses the U.S. Embassy and senior Iraqi officials. There, they handed Saddam over to the Iraqis, according to U.S. officials. The Iraqis then drove Saddam in an armored convoy to Khadimiya. Confronted by hangman: The hangmen took Saddam to a large room with no windows with a staircase that leads to a tall gallows with a large pit at the bottom. "It was very cold," Haddad recalled. "It had the stench of death." Haddad and Faroun walked with Saddam and his hangmen to the steps of the gallows. Then, one of the masked men, Haddad recalled, turned to Saddam and said: "You have destroyed Iraq, impoverished its people and made us all like beggars while Iraq is one of the richest countries in the world." Saddam replied: "I did not destroy Iraq. I made Iraq into a rich, powerful country." (Which is mostly true if criminal U.S. and U.N. did not apply barbaric sanctions which killed millions, mostly kids and old and sick) Faroun stepped in and ordered the hangman to back away. Saddam took his hat off. The hangmen uncuffed his hands, then placed them behind his back and recuffed them. They also tied his feet together, witnesses said. One Iraqi official asked him whether he was afraid, Haddad recalled. "I am not afraid. I have chosen this path," Saddam replied. Then the hangmen slowly helped him up the stairs. Defiant to the last: The chief hangman offered Saddam a black hood and asked him to place it over his head, but he refused. The man explained that his death would be more painful. Saddam again refused, witnesses said. So the hangman folded the hood and wrapped it around Saddam's neck like a neck warmer. "He was shivering, and his face was pale," said one witness who asked not to be identified because he feared for his safety. "I think up to the moment when they put the rope around his neck, he was not believing what was happening." Faroun saw a different Saddam. "He was holding tight. He was not scared," he said. Before the rope was put around his neck, Saddam shouted: "God is great, the nation will be victories and Palestine is Arab." Saddam stepped onto the platform. As Saddam recited his Islamic prayer for the second time, the chief hangman asked for silence. Then, the floor of the gallows was opened. "He died in a tenth of a second," said Faroun. (I SERIOUSLY DISPUTE THAT) "He did not move a leg or foot." Saddam's body hung for about ten minutes, witnesses said. Then, it was brought down and covered in a white sheet. A doctor examined him and then turned around to the audience. "It's finished," he said. (I say, it was only the beginning) Early, next day, Saddam's body was loaded into one of the helicopters and flown to the Green Zone, where an ambulance took his body. He was buried next to his two sons in a family plot in his birth-place, Ouja, early today, the Associated Press reported. (2 miles away from the place where sons are buried) Local Muslims say hanging cast pall on holiday: Hanging on Holiday Wrong (Not Allowed): ========================================= Beth Daley. Boston Globe. Boston, Mass Dec 31, 2006 Saddam Hussein's execution on one of Islam's holiest holidays was disrespectful and cast a pall on a day traditionally reserved for acts of compassion and celebration with family and friends, some local Muslims said yesterday. Thousands attended an 8 a.m. prayer service at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Roxbury to celebrate Eid al-Adha - a holy day that honors the willingness of the Prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his son to God. (Eid al adha last 3 days, last holiday of Islamic calendar. Lasting for 3 days, it concludes of annual Hajj, pilgrimate to Mecca. All muslim holidays begin at sundown on the vening before the date given. Islamic calendar based on lubar observation. In 2006 the feast started on December 30, it concluded on January 1 for Sunnis, January 2 for Shiites, with the rising of the sun, 7 AM. Thus, this indicates that Shiite american puppets hang Saddam on the culmination of Eid. He should have been hanged not earlier than January 3rd, 2007. Shame on the puppet government! Only created more division and hatred -LJ) While opinions varied about whether the former Iraqi dictator should have been killed, many of those at the service asked why Hussein was killed on a day they equate with happiness, forgiveness, and unity. "It's like executing someone on Christmas. It's an insult," said Jason DeLeon, 28, of Roxbury, who attended the service with his wife, Aaliyah Turner, and young son. "What is the difference between today and tomorrow?" According to Islam, as Ibrahim was about to kill his son, God intervened and allowed Ibrahim to slaughter a sheep instead. The day, sometimes called the Feast of Sacrifice, also signifies the end of the hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Hussein was sentenced to death in November by an Iraqi court in connection with the mass murder of 148 Shi'ites in the 1980s. Some said Hussein's trial - and the timing of his death - was orchestrated by the United States. Karim Aoua, of Belmont, said the trial and hanging appeared to be purely a "US vendetta." Yesterday's service at the Lewis Center was marked by heavy security, with all pocketbooks and backpacks searched. Those in attendance were given clear plastic bags to put their shoes in before they knelt to pray. Organizers estimate that 5,000 people attended. Turner said she was working to find peace with the decision to hang Hussein on Eid, but that she still felt it was wrong. "It is blatant disrespect for the religion," Turner said. "Are Christians assassinated on Christmas? If you can't find any Christians assassinated on Christmas, then why would you assassinate a Muslim on Eid ?" Criminal Bush and Tragedy in Middle East: ------------------------------------------------ Bush's Mess in Iraq: ---------------------- Bush has created a comprehensive catastrophe across the Middle East: In every vital area, from Afghanistan to Egypt, his policies have made the situation worse than it was ever before !!! Timothy Garton Ash, Guardian Newspapers Limited, Dec 14, 2006) Iraq's choice was highly unusual: to try its own despot in his own country before Iraqi judges (with US training). Mr. Hussein could have been put before an international tribunal abroad, or before a panel of international and domestic judges in Iraq. But the choice was made to keep the trial close to Iraqis in hopes of fostering a fair judicial system as well as reconciliation among Iraqis. (it made it even worse) Why do we have internation criminal courts ? Just for a laugh ? Well... they are to laugh at. What an amazing bloody catastrophe! The Bush administration's policy towards the Middle East over the five years since 9/11 is culminating in a multiple train crash. Never in the field of human conflict was so little achieved by so great a country at such vast expense. In every vital area of the wider Middle East, American policy over the last five years has taken a bad situation and made it worse. If the consequences were not so serious, one would have to laugh at a failure of such heroic proportions - rather in the spirit of Zorba the Greek who, contemplating the splintered ruins of his great project, memorably exclaimed: "Did you ever see a more splendiferous crash?" But the reckless incompetence of Zorba the Bush has resulted in the death, maiming, uprooting or impoverishment of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children - mainly Muslim Arabs but also Christian Lebanese, Israelis and American and British soldiers. By contributing to a broader alienation of Muslims it has also helped to make a world in which, as we walk the streets of London, Madrid, Jerusalem, New York or Sydney, we are all, each and every one of us, less safe. Laugh if you dare. In the beginning, there were the 9/11 attacks. It's important to stress that no one can fairly blame George Bush for them. The invasion of Afghanistan was a justified response to those attacks, which were initiated by al-Qaida from its bases in a rogue state under the tyranny of the Taliban. But if Afghanistan had to be done, it had to be done properly. It wasn't. Creating a half-way civilised order in one of the most rugged, inhospitable and tribally recalcitrant places on the planet was always going to be a huge challenge. If the available resources of the world's democracies, including those of a new, enlarged Nato, had been dedicated to that task over the last five years, we might at least have one partial success to report today. Instead Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld drove us on to Iraq, aided and abetted by Tony Blair, leaving the job in Afghanistan less than half- done. Today Osama bin Laden and his henchmen are probably still holed up in the mountains of Waziristan, just across the Afghan frontier in northern Pakistan, while the Taliban is back in force and the whole country is a bloody mess. Instead of one partial success, following a legitimate intervention, we have two burgeoning disasters, in Afghanistan and in Iraq. The United States and Britain invaded Iraq under false pretences, without proper legal authority or international legitimacy. If Saddam Hussein, a danger ous tyrant and certified international aggressor, had in fact possessed secret stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, the intervention might have been justified; as he didn't, it wasn't. Then, through the breathtaking incompetence of the civilian armchair warriors in the Pentagon and the White House, we transformed a totalitarian state into a state of anarchy. Claiming to move Iraq forward towards Lockean liberty, we hurled it back to a Hobbesian state of nature. Iraqis - those who have not been killed - increasingly say things are worse than they were before. Who are we to tell them they are wrong? Now we are preparing to get out. After working through Basra in Operation Sinbad, a reduced number of British troops will draw back to their base at Basra airfield. We will sit in a desert and call it peace. If the White House follows the Baker-Hamilton commission's advice, US troops will do something similar, leaving embedded advisers with Iraqi forces. Three decades ago, American retreat was cloaked by "Vietnamisation"; now it will be cloaked by Iraqisation. Meanwhile, Iraqis can go on killing each other all around, until perhaps, in the end, they cut some rough-and-ready political deals between themselves - or not, as the case may be. The theocratic dictatorship of Iran is the great winner. Five years ago, the Islamic republic had a reformist president, a substantial democratic opposition, and straitened finances because of low oil prices. The mullahs were running scared. Now the prospects of democratisation are dwindling, the regime is riding high on oil at more than $60 a barrel, and it has huge influence through its Shia brethren in Iraq and Lebanon. The likelihood of it developing nuclear weapons is correspondingly greater. We toppled the Iraqi dictator, who did not have weapons of mass destruction, and thereby increased the chances of Iran's dictators acquiring weapons of mass destruction. And this week Iran's President Ahmadinejad once again called for the destruction of the state of Israel. Those American neocons who set out to make the Middle East safe for Israel have ended up making it more dangerous for Israel. We did not need an Iraq Study Group to tell us that resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict through a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine is crucial. In its last months the Clinton administration came close to clinching the deal. Under Bush, things have gone backwards. Even the Bush-backed Ariel Sharon scenario of separation through faits accomplis has receded, with the summer war in Lebanon, Hamas ascendancy in Palestine (itself partly a by-product of the Bush-led rush to elections), and a growing disillusionment of the Israeli public. Having scored an apparent success with the "cedar revolution" in Lebanon and the withdrawal of Syrian troops, the Bush administration, by its tacit support of sustained yet ineffective Israeli military action this summer, undermined the very Lebanese government it was claiming to support. Now Hizbullah is challenging the country's western-backed velvet revolutionaries at their own game: after the cedar revolution, welcome to the cedar counter- revolution. In Egypt, supposedly a showcase for the United States' support for peaceful democratisation in the Bush second term, electoral success for Islamists (as in Palestine and Lebanon) seems to have frightened Washington away from its fresh-minted policy before the ink was even dry. On the credit side, all we have to show is Libya's renunciation of weapons of mass destruction, and a few tentative reforms in some smaller Arab states. So here's the scoresheet for Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and Egypt: worse, worse, worse, worse, worse, worse and worse. With James Baker, the United States may revert from the sins of the son to the sins of the father. After all, it was Baker and George Bush Sr who left those they had encouraged to rise up against Saddam to be killed in Iraq at the end of the first Gulf war - not to mention enthusiastically continuing Washington's long- running Faustian pact with petro-autocracies such as Saudi Arabia. I'm told that Condoleezza Rice, no less, has wryly observed that the word democracy hardly features in the Baker-Hamilton report. The U.S. may not be the only culprit. Changing the Middle East for the better is one of the most difficult challenges in world politics. The people of the region bear much responsibility for their own plight. So do Europeans for past sins of commission and current sins of omission. But Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Stuart, Feist and others must take the lion's share of the blame. There are few examples in recent history of such a comprehensive failure. Congratulations Mr. criminal president, you are the man, you have made one hell of a superb disaster. CONGRATULATIONS !!! (hope you & yours get what's coming to you in due right time) And assuming life gets better a little bit in Iraq in 15 years... SO WHAT and at what cost in lifes, nerves, resources, etc ? Will Bush and his cronies get just trial in Iraq or will they be themselves out through slick legal maneuvering (as they are masters at BS-ing) of the woods too ? Where is real justice ? I don't see it in america. Peaceful transition of government could have been achieved without war or without any use of force. Bush and his cronies said few days before the war started with hand on their hearts that they used up all the peaceful resources... THEY DID NOT EVEN TOUCH ON PEACEFUL SOLUTIONS... Bush should go to Iraq and continue his course alone, he will really be welcomed there... With flowers ? Sure, those that explode. Real criminals must face justice sooner or later like Pol Pot mywikibiz.com/Pol_Pot_Suicide !!!