Posted on 12/28/2006 5:37:50 AM PST by TexKat
BAGHDAD–Saddam Hussein urged Iraqis to embrace "brotherly coexistence" and not to hate U.S.-led foreign troops in a goodbye letter posted on a website yesterday, a day after Iraq's highest court upheld his death sentence and ordered him hanged within 30 days.
A top Iraqi government official, meanwhile, said Saddam's execution could proceed without the approval of Iraq's president, meaning there were no more legal obstacles to sending Saddam to the gallows.
One of Saddam's lawyers, Issam Ghazzawi, said the former dictator wrote the letter Nov. 5 – the day he was convicted by an Iraqi tribunal for ordering the 1982 killings of 148 Shiite Muslims in Dujail.
"I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking," said the letter, which was written in Arabic.
"I also call on you not to hate the people of the other countries that attacked us," it added, referring to the invasion that toppled his regime nearly four years ago.
Against the backdrop of sectarian killings that have dragged Sunni Arabs and Shiite Muslims into civil warfare over the past year, Saddam urged his countrymen to "remember that God has enabled you to become an example of love, forgiveness and brotherly coexistence."
But he also voiced support for the Sunni Arab-dominated insurgency, saying: "Long live jihad and the mujahedeen." He urged Iraqis to be patient and rely on God's help in fighting "against the unjust nations."
Saddam said he was giving his life for his country as part of that struggle. "Here, I offer my soul to God as a sacrifice, and if he wants, he will send it to heaven with the martyrs."
Despite his calls for conciliation among Iraqis, Saddam's legacy is brutal. He put suspected foes to death without trial, oppressed Kurds and Shiites, waged war on Iran and twice fought U.S.-led armies. He left an impoverished nation now gripped by sectarian bloodshed and an insurgency against the U.S. presence.
Violence struck Baghdad again yesterday, with a car bomb killing eight civilians and wounding 10 near an Iraqi army checkpoint. Four more civilians died in a mortar attack in a Shiite neighbourhood, and police found the bodies of 51 apparent victims of sectarian killings.
Questions had arisen about whether the appeal court's ruling needed to be approved by the Iraqi presidency, which customarily signs off on death sentences. But Busho Ibrahim, deputy justice minister, said approval wasn't necessary.
A spokesman for President Jalal Talabani acknowledged the legal argument that the execution could go ahead without ratification by the president, who has expressed opposition to the death penalty.
"Some people believe there is no need for his approval," spokesman Hiwa Osman said. "We still have to hear from the court as to how the procedure can be carried out."
An official from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa Party said "the government wants Saddam executed as soon as possible." Another official close to al-Maliki said the execution would take place before the end of the 30-day period.
Saddam will remain in a U.S. military prison near the airport, Camp Cropper, until the day of the execution, at which point he will be handed over to Iraqi authorities, the official said.
Ghazzawi, the defence lawyer, said Saddam's letter was published yesterday on the website of Saddam's former Baath Party.
The deposed leader said he was writing the letter because his lawyers had told him the Iraqi High Tribunal that tried his case would give him an opportunity to say a final word.
"But that court and its chief judge did not give us the chance to say a word, and issued its verdict without explanation and read out the sentence – dictated by the invaders – without presenting the evidence," Saddam wrote. "Dear faithful people," he added, "I say goodbye to you, but I will be with the merciful God who helps those who take refuge in him and who will never disappoint any honest believer."
Some Saddam loyalists threatened to retaliate if he is executed, warning in a posting on the same website that they would target U.S. interests.
"The Baath and the resistance are determined to retaliate, with all means and everywhere, to harm America and its interests if it commits this crime," the statement said, referring to Baath fighters as "the resistance." The Baath Party was disbanded after U.S.-led forces overthrew Saddam in 2003. The website is believed to be run from Yemen, where some exiled members of the party are based.
Saddam is in the midst of another trial, charged with genocide and other crimes during a 1987-88 military crackdown on Kurds in northern Iraq. An estimated 180,000 Kurds died during the operation. That trial was adjourned until Jan. 8, but experts have said the trial of Saddam's co-defendants is likely to continue even if he is executed.
Meanwhile, the U.S. command reported three American military deaths yesterday, bringing the U.S. death toll for December to 93 in one of the bloodiest months for U.S. troops this year.
A handout photograph released by the Iraqi Special Tribunal on August 23, 2005, shows former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein being questioned at an undisclosed location. A senior Catholic cleric has said he hopes Saddam will be spared execution, citing the Church's opposition to the death penalty. REUTERS/Iraqi Special Tribunial/Handout/Files
Saddam has MySpace?
Cardinal condemns Saddam‘s sentence
2006/12
ROME - A top Vatican official condemned the death sentence against Saddam Hussein in a newspaper interview published Thursday, acknowledging the crimes of the ousted Iraqi leader but reiterating that capital punishment goes against the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.
Cardinal Renato Martino, Pope Benedict XVI ‘s top prelate for justice issues and a former Vatican envoy to the United Nations , said that Saddam‘s execution would punish "a crime with another crime" and expressed hope that the sentence would not be carried out.
"The death penalty is not a natural death. And no one can give death, not even the State," he said.
On Tuesday, Iraq ‘s highest court rejected Saddam‘s appeal against a conviction and death sentence for the killing of 148 people in Dujail, in northern Iraq, in 1982. The court said the former president should be hanged within 30 days.
http://www.leadingthecharge.com/ViewArticle.aspx?id=38018&source=2
Pay-per-view opportunity?!
Tick Tick Goodbye Tick...????...wait Saddam we have good news and bad news...the good news is the guy in the next cell wants to buy your shoes......the bad news, on credit
I wouldn't expect a Catholic cardinal to be pro death penalty and I hope they do pray for his soul. He has 30 days to get right with God. That is more mercy than he gave his victims.
Bu'Bye...
"Saddam Hussein has received due process and legal rights that he denied the Iraqi people for so long, so this is an important day for the Iraqi people," Stanzel said.
http://cbs13.com/topstories/topstories_story_360151832.html
I really wish that guy had just thrown a grenade down in that hole.
It is an under-reported fact that many of Saddam's former officers in the Baathist elements of the insurgency have continued to entertain serious hope of restoring the dictator to power. My experience with Baathist sympathizers during my recent assignment in Iraq was that this is even more widespread among the rank and file. Saddam himself has referred to this several times during his trial and his American quisling lawyers have supported the assertion.
The standard media response was simply to laugh it off as the delusion of a condemned psychopath, something like Hitler's last-days raving about "secret weapons" that would turn the tide of war. (And let us not forget that there was a lot of substance to Nazi claims of super-weapons, though the allies had them trumped with the atomic bomb.)
The reason for the lack of emphasis on this desire to restore Saddam is obvious: media shills would not want anyone to think that something as simple as hanging one criminal could derail a large part of the insurgency. It just does not fit with the media-left worldview that terrorism and insurgency could spring from anything but the most deep-rooted and legitimate motives; poverty, oppression, colonialism, etc.
At the risk of belaboring the obvious, just stringing the bastard up will not end the Baathist insurgency entirely, especially in the short run. They will pander to the media and the Democratic Congress, for example, by representing all of their subsequent attacks as "Dire Revenge" for the hanging. Of course, these are attacks they would have carried out anyway, but the usual suspects are desperately willing to be taken in by the claim.
It fits their "cycle of violence" meme perfectly and they are loathe to even consider other possibilities, even very obvious ones.
In the longer term, support for the Baathist elements will decline, probably at a precipitous rate. This will not eliminate AQ and the Al-Sadr forces, though AQ may have a hard time of it in some areas without Baathist support, but it will allow our resources to be concentrated better.
"Saddam has MySpace?"
Yup, however on his site he is listed as a 22 year old college cheerleader named Bambi Hussein.
He is the biggest mass murderer alive today.
It will be a good lesson to all future mass murderers that the hangman's noose is waiting for them.
It is time to kick the dictators out.
Me, too; thought the same thing a thousand times.
Yet another reason why I am a non-practicing Catholic.
"Yup, however on his site he is listed as a 22 year old college cheerleader named Bambi Hussein. "
I thought it was Obama Hussein?
Thanks Tex..ALWAYS great to see your threads.. so full of info.
I cant help but wonder how great it could have been for Iraq if Saddam had used his cunning/power/abilities to do good rather than evil.. Wonder if he is totally in denial how much harm he did to his subjects, not just the murders, which were awful, but overall for the social, political, etc picture and how he strangled the life out of decency, happiness & prosperity for his people..
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