Posted on 12/29/2006 7:25:33 PM PST by j_accuse
By Mariam Karouny 6 minutes ago
U.S.-backed Iraqi television station Al Hurra said Saddam Hussein had been executed by hanging shortly before 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Saturday.
Arabic satellite channel Arabiya also reported the execution had taken place.
The former Iraqi president ousted in April 2003 by a U.S.-led invasion was convicted in November of crimes against humanity over the killings of 148 Shi'ite villagers from Dujail after a failed assassination bid in 1982.
An appeals court upheld the death penalty on Tuesday and the government rushed through the procedures to hang him by the end of the year and before the Eid al-Adha holiday that starts on Saturday, coinciding with the haj pilgrimage to Mecca.
The government had kept details of its plans shrouded in secrecy amid concerns it could spark a violent backlash from his former supporters with Iraq on the brink of civil war.
The execution will delight Iraq's majority Shi'ites, who faced oppression during Saddam's three-decade rule, but may anger some in his resentful Sunni minority.
Some Kurdish leaders had sought a delay so they too could see justice for the man they accuse of genocide against them.
Saddam's conviction on November 5 was hailed by President Bush as a triumph for the democracy he promised to foster in Iraq after the invasion almost four years ago.
With U.S. public support for the war slumping as the number of American dead approaches 3,000, Washington is likely to welcome the death of Saddam, despite misgivings among many allies about capital punishment.
But the hanging could complicate efforts by Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to heal Iraq's sectarian divisions with violence spiralling out of control and threatening to pitch the country into full-scale civil war.
Once the belligerent strongman of the Middle East, Saddam's power crumbled when U.S. tanks swept into Baghdad in April 2003. He fled and was captured in December that year by U.S. soldiers who found him hiding in a hole near his hometown of Tikrit.
During his three decades in power, Saddam was accused of widespread oppression of political opponents and genocide against Kurds in northern Iraq. His execution means he will never face justice on those charges.
Defiant to the end, Saddam insisted during his trial that he was still the president of Iraq.
He said in a letter written after his conviction in November that he offered himself as a "sacrifice."
"If my soul goes down this path (of martyrdom) it will face God in serenity," he wrote in the letter.
(Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald, Ibon Villelabeitia, Claudia Parsons in Baghdad and Suleiman Khalidi in Dubai)
If that comparison of the CNN and Fox News graphics doesn't say everything about the inherent differences between the two networks (and why I detest CNN), I don't know what does. CNN's portrait makes it look like Churchill just died. I'm sure they're patting themselves on the back for their journalistic integrity and dignity, without the absurdity of it even occurring to them...
That's the one! Thank you! Got through to F. Lee Levin tonight, just had a great vacation in Yosemite, heard this news tonight - and got the dancing Snoopy! Life is good!
Cute!
I'm almost out of popcorn here folks. A liberal buddy of mine swears that there will be horrid and untold violences occuring after this hanging.
Haven't heard a peep out of Iraq yet, and my popcorn is getting mighty cold here!
I believe CNN used similar graphics for President Gerald Ford and James Brown.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
[“Tyrant has met his Majesty sword of justice.
I have no pity of these who destroy life of innocent.
Where are you now Sadam?
Where your smile is now?
Justice much terrible is on you of His Majesty of Majesty.
Evil is return to you in folds of your deeds.
For eternity you will burn of your guilt you monster.
My husband says farewell to you monster.
Tears of innocent is known, you were afraid, your keens crumble in your self.
You have received justice from above.
Now where are you?
Dark in place of pain with your brother Hitler and Stalin.
You have ruined et destroy life’s. You deserve this.
No pity of me on you, for you are evil and evil will be destroyed.
Face His Majesty sword of justice.
Depart you miserable creature.”]
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Thank you all. Thank you America.
Sadly- there will be the contingent( here and in Iraq) that will make Saddam the Elvis of Islam. There will be sightings forever. He HAS to be immortal, right?
Same will be true with Castro. He might have assumed room temp already, but I doubt that it will ever be officially announced much less accepted by those who need to make evil superhuman.
“We are officially barbarians now”They've already been that for a long time.
Cordially,
Here's the Saddam video
Full Saddam Execution Video Leaked from Cellphone
Warning: Could upset some viewers
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