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Celebrations break out after Hussein's hanging [power outage?]
CNN ^ | Dec 30, 2006 | Arwa Damon, Elaine Quijano and Aneesh Raman

Posted on 12/29/2006 10:32:51 PM PST by jdm

(CNN) -- A witness to Saddam Hussein's execution in Baghdad said that celebrations broke out after the former dictator died, and that there was "dancing around the body."

"Saddam's body is in front me," said an official in the prime minister's office when CNN telephoned. "It's over."

In the background, Shiite chanting could be heard. When asked about the chanting, the official said "These are employees of the prime minister's office and government chanting in celebration."

The execution took place shortly after 6 a.m. (10 p.m. Friday ET), Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, told Iraqi television.

A power outage delayed the spread of the news to Iraqi citizens. But as word got out, gunfire broke out in the capital's streets. It was unclear whether the shooting was celebratory in nature.

Temperatures hovered around freezing hours after the hanging at the start of a Muslim holy day, and CNN correspondents reported relatively few Iraqis on the streets of Baghdad.

Feisal Istrabadi, Iraq's U.N. ambassador, told CNN the execution was "a very solemn moment for me."

"I can understand why some of my compatriots may be cheering. I have friends whose particular people I can think of who have lost 10, 15, 20 members of their family, more," Istrabadi said.

"But for me, it's a moment really of remembrance of the victims of Saddam Hussein."

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki did not attend the execution, according to an adviser to the prime minister interviewed on state television. Al-Maliki is a member of Iraq's Shiite majority, which was oppressed during Hussein's reign.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: celebration; execution; iraq; saddam; saddamhussein; saddamshanging; witness
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This is a more comprehensive story to supplement an earlier post.
1 posted on 12/29/2006 10:32:52 PM PST by jdm
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To: jdm
It was unclear whether the shooting was celebratory in nature.

Of couse it was celebratory, CNN. Stop spinning.

2 posted on 12/29/2006 10:37:24 PM PST by Allegra (Vote Dulcie / Finbar 2008)
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To: jdm

Chanting to celebrate?


3 posted on 12/29/2006 10:38:12 PM PST by BunnySlippers (SAY YES TO RUDY !!!)
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To: jdm
He'll never run his mouth again.

And he won't be shaking his finger at the next Judge he faces, either.

4 posted on 12/29/2006 10:39:37 PM PST by Bonaparte
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To: jdm
He's joined Uday and Qusay in hell.


5 posted on 12/29/2006 10:40:33 PM PST by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
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To: jdm

I'll bet it really galled CNN to have to report on his execution.


6 posted on 12/29/2006 10:42:48 PM PST by jazusamo (http://warchronicle.com/TheyAreNotKillers/DefendOurMarines.htm)
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To: NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
And that's a good thing VERY good thing
7 posted on 12/29/2006 10:43:02 PM PST by Valin (History takes time. It is not an instant thing.)
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To: jdm


...didn't Saddam win 100% of the Iraqi vote in late 90's in what I was told were the fairest elections the world has ever seen?

So why are the Iraqis so happy right now? Why did they even find him guilty to begin with?


8 posted on 12/29/2006 10:43:52 PM PST by Tzimisce (How Would Mohammed Vote? Hillary for President! www.dndorks.com)
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To: jdm
One small step for Saddam, One giant leap for Ending the War.
9 posted on 12/29/2006 10:44:59 PM PST by trumandogz (Rudy G 2008: The "G" Stands For Gun Grabbing & Gay Lovin.)
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To: jdm
When asked about the chanting, the official said "These are employees of the prime minister's office and government chanting in celebration."

I love how CNN is so very specific, so very early in the story that these are GOVERNMENT PEOPLE doing the chanting--making sure no one thinks these are just regular folks.

If only they were just as specific in other stories involving spontaneous (?) demonstrations.

10 posted on 12/29/2006 10:45:43 PM PST by Darkwolf377 (Immigration is to Illegal Immigration what Birth is to Abortion.)
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To: Tzimisce

If it was Jimmah who declared it the world's fairest election, there's your answer right there! The Iraqi situation may calm down ASAP now that the Baath party remnants realize that the party's over (in more ways than one).


11 posted on 12/29/2006 10:47:03 PM PST by Moonmad27
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To: Tzimisce
...didn't Saddam win 100% of the Iraqi vote in late 90's in what I was told were the fairest elections the world has ever seen?

Yes, he won with 100% of the votes cast. All one votes (the one he cast, which was all he needed for victory).

12 posted on 12/29/2006 10:47:43 PM PST by SoldierDad (Proud Father of a 2nd BCT 10th Mountain Soldier fighting the terrorists in Iraq)
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To: jdm

Al-Sadr and Mullahs in Iran will celebrate this too.


13 posted on 12/29/2006 10:47:44 PM PST by Kill Osama
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To: jdm

It's going to be hard now for the Liberals to posit that we'd be better off if Saddam were still in power. After all, Saddam is in hell, so he can no longer serve as the Iraqi dictator in a way that the Liberals prefer.


14 posted on 12/29/2006 10:48:28 PM PST by elhombrelibre (Free Syria and Iraq, Lebanon, and Israel will all be secure.)
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To: jdm

It's going to be hard now for the Liberals to posit that we'd be better off if Saddam were still in power. After all, Saddam is in hell, so he can no longer serve as the Iraqi dictator in a way that the Liberals prefer.


15 posted on 12/29/2006 10:48:32 PM PST by elhombrelibre (Free Syria and Iraq, Lebanon, and Israel will all be secure.)
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To: Tzimisce

I'm hoping you just forgot to add the "sarcasm" tag to your post.


16 posted on 12/29/2006 10:48:46 PM PST by dawn53
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To: jdm
As word got out, gunfire broke out in the capital's streets. It was unclear whether the shooting was celebratory in nature.

CNN, you're the so-called newshounds. Why didn't your reporters figure out whether the shooting was celebratory or violently reactionary before reporting this shinola of a story?

Temperatures hovered around freezing hours after the hanging at the start of a Muslim holy day, and CNN correspondents reported relatively few Iraqis on the streets of Baghdad.

Wait a minute? I thought there was a bunch of Global WarmingTM going on all over the world ... yes, Algore promised it and therefore it is so ... how can temperatures be near freezing in the desert of Baghdad when they are some 50 degrees in New York City?

/pffffttt rant off

17 posted on 12/29/2006 10:52:48 PM PST by Mr_Moonlight
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To: SoldierDad

Any references to Jimmah and the election of Saddam? When did this happen? Jimmah said that about the Pallies and Hamas, but I think all would agree the Pallies did freely choose to make their own bed in that sad situation. But wasn't Saddam more or less forced on Iraq?


18 posted on 12/29/2006 10:58:03 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck
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To: jdm

Note, how CNN avoids discussing Saddam's bloody regime.

The UK Guardian, a liberal UK paper actually talks about it. WHere does that put CNN -- but we already know that.

A thug who used terror and war to stay in power (Saddam Hussein -- "must read")

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1760197/posts


Promptly he led Iraq into war with Iran, a punishing eight-year conflict that left more than 1 million people dead.

War was to characterise Saddam's rule, the glue he used to hold together his country and to maintain the dominance of his Sunni Muslim minority over the persecuted Shia and Kurdish communities.

As the Iran-Iraq war ended, he went into battle against the Kurds of northern Iraq, committing some of the gravest war crimes of his regime, wiping out villages with chemical gas attacks at a time when he was still an ally of the west. He sent his forces storming into Kuwait in 1990, disguising a long-harboured land grab with atavistic notions of pan-Arab unity. When western forces pushed his troops back, he then went to war on the Shia and the Kurds who had risen up in rebellion against him at home. He deployed his troops and his attack helicopters and the uprising was crushed with summary brutality. Graves across the south and the north were filled with the bodies of thousands of rebels. Most of those corpses were only recovered, mourned and reburied 12 years later, after Saddam's fall. The most modest assessments put at 200,000 the number of Iraqis who "disappeared" in the Saddam years.


19 posted on 12/29/2006 11:06:43 PM PST by FairOpinion
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To: trumandogz
"One small step for Saddam, One giant leap for Ending the War."

Actually one giant leap (into hell) for Saddam, one tiny step for defeating the Insurgents (a.k.a. Gulf War III)

20 posted on 12/29/2006 11:14:26 PM PST by cookcounty (The "Greatest Generation" was also the most violent generation.)
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