Posted on 12/15/2003 11:04:50 AM PST by knighthawk
IRAQ'S new press, born after the fall of Saddam Hussein, overnight cheered his capture by US forces and called for the day to go down as a national holiday marking the end of tyranny.
"Saddam Hussein, the most dangerous of criminals who fled when his regime was ousted on April 9, has finally fallen before the Iraqi people, who suffered for three decades from the power he and his family wielded," Al-Mutamar wrote.
"Those who nurtured hopes of a Saddam comeback should now realise that the game is up," said the newspaper, mouthpiece of Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress (INC).
December 14, day of the announcement of Saddam's capture near his hometown of Tikrit the previous night, should be declared "a national holiday, marking the day on which the Iraqi people were freed from a nightmare which haunted them for 35 years".
Saddam's capture represents "a natural end for the dictator ... who suffered the worst defeat in history", echoed As-Sabah, a newspaper controlled by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority ruling Iraq.
"Shame on the dictator who called on people to die to defend him but chose to hide in a hole in Ad Dawr near Tikrit" and give up without resistance, it said.
"Shame on a president who could have avoided the humiliation" of being shown surrendering the world over when scores of leaders had "exhorted him to spare the Iraqi people's blood" by stepping down and averting the US-led war launched last March.
The independent daily Az-Zaman said Saddam's end came as no surprise given that he had "spent eight months looking for a hiding place, no matter how small, in which to take shelter".
New Era, another independent newspaper, also poured scorn on Saddam, who put up no resistance when he was caught, "showing none of the courage that a leader, or even an ordinary citizen, would have shown by choosing to die" rather suffer such an ignominious feat.
The ousted president's capture marks "the end of the symbol of terror" and the beginning of "a free and dignified life, without wars, oppression and humiliation" for the Iraqi people, said Baghdad, which speaks for Iyad Allawi's National Accord Movement.
The paper urged Iraqis to strive to enable Iraq "to resume its place in the community of nations" and join hands in "rebuilding their country and restoring security and stability" in it.
Al-Taakhi, organ of Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), predicted that Saddam's capture would "undermine the political front" hostile to the coalition and its Iraqi allies, as well as strengthen the Iraqi interim Governing Council and "all supporters of the new era".
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