Saddam executes 60 Iraqi officers

The Scotsman ^ | Thu 27 Mar 2003 | Paul Gallagher

[frosty snowman]

Saddam executes 60 Iraqi officers

PAUL GALLAGHER

SADDAM Hussein has executed 60 army officers and replaced them with some of his most fanatical supporters to dissuade soldiers from deserting in the face of allied attack, according to an exiled Iraqi general.

Mohammed Nafee, who was a commander in Saddam’s forces in the Iran-Iraq war, claims the purge of the army higher ranks took place at the weekend. He has contacted Iraqi military sources in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, who passed on news of the mass executions.

Mr Nafee said the commanding officers of army units considered most likely to surrender were ordered to be removed from their posts and killed. The officers were colonels and captains in Saddam’s regular army. Some were replaced with members of the Saddam Fedayeen militia, otherwise known as Saddam’s Commandos, or his "brigade of martyrs".

Fedayeen militiamen have been paraded as suicide fighters through Baghdad in recent weeks, dressed entirely in white, the colour of self-sacrifice in Islam.

Led by Saddam’s elder son, Uday, they are among the most feared elements of the dictator’s machinery of government.

Mr Nafee, who fled Iraq five years ago and has settled with his family in Edinburgh, said: "The soldiers in the army are very frightened. I am told that more than 60 army officers were executed to cull deserters.

"The regular army has been told that if they don’t fight, they will be shot. More than 1,000 members of Saddam Fedayeen have been attached to army units to prevent them surrendering. The soldiers can’t do anything until they are sure they will be safe because they remember from 1991, when the uprising against Saddam resulted in the deaths of thousands of Iraqi people. They can’t test the situation because it is too dangerous if they get it wrong."

Mr Nafee said members of the Fedayeen had no option but to fight because they were too closely associated with the Iraqi dictator.

"These people are given great benefits in terms of money and power. They can do what they like in Iraq and get away with it," Mr Nafee added. "They know that when Saddam goes, they have no future in Iraq so they must fight to save his regime."

[Pan_Yans Wife]

If he keeps getting more frantic, and offing his own men, our job might get much easier in Baghdad, 60, then 100, then 250, then 432...

[the_doc]

You know, I doubt that the average Iraqi grunt thinks this situation is really cool. I think some of the Fedayeen guys may get fragged.

[merrin]

I can't decide if this is bad (because it makes surrender less likely) or good (because the new commanders are likely to be far less competent).

[Liberal Bob]

Fedayeen militiamen

Dead men walking.

[JasonC]

You must understand, evil is stupid in predictable ways. Evil men think that immorality of itself generates almost magical power, that all forms of decency are weaknesses. It is a superstition. All of this violent thrashing, in two weeks time, will seem in retrospect entirely impotent. Honor, justice, dedication, unity, intelligence, skill - they are not the fruit of such idiocy but of the opposite. And annihilate violent idiocy even in terms of sheer power.

[ClancyJ]

Well we sure can't tell which are the good ones and which the Saddam-lovers - so this will just have to be war. The faster we get this job done over there - the better.

[doug from upland]

He is still behind his hero, Stalin ---

The next trial in March, 1938, involved twenty-one leading members of the party. This included Nickolai Bukharin, Alexei Rykov, Genrikh Yagoda, Nikolai Krestinsky and Christian Rakovsky. They were accused of being involved with Leon Trotsky in a plot against Joseph Stalin and with spying for foreign powers. They were all found guilty and were either executed or died in labour camps.

Stalin now decided to purge the Red Army. Some historians believe that Stalin was telling the truth when he claimed that he had evidence that the army was planning a military coup at this time. Leopold Trepper, head of the Soviet spy ring in Germany, believed that the evidence was planted by a double agent who worked for both Stalin and Hitler. Trepper's theory is that the "chiefs of Nazi counter-espionage" led by Reinhard Heydrich, took "advantage of the paranoia raging in the Soviet Union," by supplying information that led to Stalin executing his top military leaders.

In June, 1937, Mikhail Tukhachevsky and seven other top Red Army commanders were charged with conspiracy with Germany. All eight were convicted and executed. All told, 30,000 members of the armed forces were executed. This included fifty per cent of all army officers.

The last stage of the terror was the purging of the NKVD. Stalin wanted to make sure that those who knew too much about the purges would also be killed. Stalin announced to the country that "fascist elements" had taken over the security forces which had resulted in innocent people being executed. He appointed Lavrenti Beria as the new head of the Secret Police and he was instructed to find out who was responsible. After his investigations, Beria arranged the executions of all the senior figures in the organization.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

My husband mentioned something along those lines.

He said that the world will always be ruled by military power. Those who have the most guns, rule the world.

The question is, do you rule the world for the side of good, and improve the world?

Or do you rule for the side of evil, and try to destroy the world?

[Justa]

Yeah, if you're an average grunt you're not going to feel to good about taking orders from a self-proclaimed "suicide fighter".

[piasa]

Executing your own people is generally not a good way to win friends and influence people.

Well, you might win over French and Germans, but you won't win over the locals.

[DennisR]

All I can say is, "I am glad there is only one superpower, and it is us!"

[Lib-Lickers 2]

thought Saddam bit the dust on opening day??,,,,,,,,

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I think this is good news for us!

OFFICIAL BUMP(TOPIC)LIST

[Deepest South]

Are the militia thugs trained military officers or just bloodthirty gangsters? Seems saddam would have been better off with experienced, trained officers in charge of troops rather than thugs. Fanatical leaders make major mistakes. So when the thugs start shooting those under them as their hero has done to his officers just who will be left to take on that Abrams with nothing but a white suit and a crazed look?

[frosty snowman]

So did I... and this could've been ordered by someone acting on Saddam's behalf for all we know.

[Bobby777]

has this story been corroborated? ... I'm just wondering how this type of information gets out ... Saddam has been known to execute military officers suspected of plotting to overthrow his regime ... hmmmm ...

[Billthedrill]

There were, during the Great Patriotic War (WWII in the Russian vernacular), incidents where the hottest fighting was between the Russian troops and the KGB "blocking battalions," positioned to their rear to prevent retreat. The Germans watched in confusion and delight. The KGB did not always win those little struggles.

[Delta 21]

Go Team!!!

[thoughtomator]

My answer would be that we would rule only so far as to ensure reasonable security for ourselves. Nations without guns end up like Tibet.