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)
Rejoice in the news that he got a fair trial and a swift hanging...justice has been served.
Now watch the liberal weenies and the leftist propaganda press try to make a martyr out of the vicious thug. Bush did it!
May satan burn the flesh from his souless spirit.
Let me be the first one....
I just saw Saddam ordering a Slurpee at the 7-11 in Bloomfield, Connecticut. I think it was grape.
Now let others report sightings...
As reported by terrorist-backed al-Reuters in Baghdad and Dubai.
Well, too late for Harry and Nancy to restore him to office now.
I heard Sharriah law won't allow someone older than 69 (?) to be executed - Saddam would have turned 69 in a few weeks.
I give two, maybe three weeks until we start hearing how great this asshat was. He will have a legacy as close as possible to Mohammed as possible without desecrating their beloved “Mohamed the child molester”.
he's looking for the promised helen thomas...
Meanwhile, in the United States, Democrats want to do the same thing to the Bush Administration.
Callahan you stole my line. My sentiments exactly.
If they had pursued more convictions, Saddam would turn 69 and could not be executed.
JUSTICE TOO THE PIG.
Earlier I was listening to a Salem Network news update (as opposed to ABDNC)...one of the Iraqis interviewed said about the method of hanging,"He should not be given treatment like one of Dr. Kevorkian's patients". I said, "Yep, this is definitely NOT an ABC update!"
Hahahaha Nice!
Just heard Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann are sobbing and weeping thinking this will help Pesident Bush.
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