Evil Saddam's last moments

SADDAM Hussein went to Hell with the vicious curses of executioners ringing in his ears, including one who snarled: “God damn you”.

Dramatic exchanges between the monster and his guards were revealed yesterday after grainy video footage of his final moments was posted on the internet.

The Iraqis were so delighted at the despot’s demise that immediately after his death they danced a jig around his body as it dangled from the noose.

oining in the outpouring of joy was the masked hangman, guards and even Iraqi officials.

But Saddam had been left in no doubt of the contempt in which he was held in his last few minutes alive. As he prepared to move onto the trap- door of the gallows, one of his guards turned to him and spat out: “God damn you.” The doomed tyrant was heard replying: “God damn you.” But then another voice could be heard urging Saddam to “go to hell”

The exchanges are contained in a dramatic clip of the execution filmed on a mobile phone either by a guard or one of the onlookers at the execution in Kadhamiya — the former HQ of Saddam’s military intelligence.

Fittingly, it was where Saddam had thousands of enemies tortured and hanged on the same gallows.

The unofficial recording, lasting almost two and a half minutes, showed scenes not broadcast in an official Iraqi government video of the execution. It was shot from a different angle, with manacled Saddam seen facing the camera, shuffling towards the trap-door.

The 69-year-old, who ruled Iraq for 24 merciless years, is surrounded by five masked guards. An audience of 15, including representatives of the Iraqi government, were there too.

In the exchange with his guards Saddam attempts to justify his war against Iran, which cost a million lives, and laughably proclaims victory against the United States.

One of the guards then shouts: “You have destroyed us. You have killed us. You have made us live in destitution.” Saddam counters: “I have saved you from destitution and misery and destroyed your enemies, the Persians and Americans.”

The outraged guard then snarls: “God damn you” — and the former leader returns the insult. A voice is also picked up saluting Muslim Shi’ite leader Moqtada al-Sadr, whose father is thought to have been murdered in 1999 by Saddam’s thugs. “Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada,” intoned the unseen figure.

Several seconds pass as Saddam, dressed in a woollen black knee- length overcoat, black trousers and white shirt, stands on the trap-door.

The noose with its giant knot is placed around his neck and lays on his left shoulder.

Saddam had already declined a hood. He claimed: “Death does not frighten me. We are going to Heaven and our enemies will rot in Hell.”

As the hangman prepares to pull the lever to open the trap-door, Saddam chants the Muslim profession of faith. “God is Great and Mohammed is his prophet. Palestine is Arab.”

It is the beginning of the second verse of the invocation, but before Saddam can complete it the executioner sends him hurtling to his death.

Saddam is seen plunging through the trap-door. As he dropped his neck snapped with an audible crack.

According to one witness he died with his eyes open. In the video his corpse is then seen dangling at the end of the rope with his head at a grotesque angle. One onlooker proclaims: “The tyrant has fallen.”

But his motionless body was left to dangle for TEN MINUTES before a doctor pronounced him dead. During that time the guards and executioner performed their dance.

Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie who was present, said: “It’s a very ordinary action of a number of people — some officials, some ordinary people, even the executioner, because they have lost their loved ones, their fathers, brothers, sisters, this is a natural reaction.” The corpse was later taken down, washed and wrapped in a white shroud.

Traces of blood were seen where the noose had cut into the neck. Saddam’s remains were then placed in a coffin.

Saddam had been sentenced to death for the mass murder of 148 Shia Muslims in 1982. The violence in Iraq continued yesterday. Six US troops were killed in ambushes following the hanging. Two children died in a rocket attack on Baghdad.

"Fallen tyrant" taunted in Saddam video

Mon Jan 1, 2007 3:18am ET

By Claudia Parsons

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - "The tyrant has fallen," a witness shouted after Saddam Hussein dropped through the trap door of the gallows, his neck broken in an instant by the rope moments after exchanging sectarian taunts with onlookers.

Grainy footage of the execution, apparently shot on a mobile phone by a witness who was standing below looking up at the gallows, was circulating widely on the Internet on Sunday, a day after Saddam was hanged for crimes against humanity.

As the hangmen prepare him for his final moment, some of those invited to attend standing below the platform taunted the former president, who was executed on Saturday before dawn.

The top news, photos, and videos of 2006. Full Coverage

One man shouts "Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada," a reference to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who heads a powerful Shi'ite political movement and a militia blamed by Washington and Sunni Arabs for running death squads targeting Saddam's Sunni Arab minority.

Saddam, the noose around his neck, appears to smile and shoot back: "Is this what you call manhood?"

Another onlooker, despite pleas from another for witnesses to observe the proprieties, yells: "Go to hell!" and Saddam, seemingly accusing his enemies of destroying the nation he once led, replies: "The hell that is Iraq?"

The sound was muffled and at times indistinct, leading some who initially heard low-quality versions of the video to conclude Saddam had made rather different comments.

Another voice can be heard shouting "Long live Mohammed Bakr al-Sadr," referring to a relative of Moqtada al-Sadr killed in the 1980s.

Though Sadr's movement is a major force in the coalition government of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the outspoken comments by his supporters in the execution chamber may fuel charges by Saddam's defense lawyers and his supporters in Iraq and the wider Arab world that the process has been "victors' justice".

The video, lasting about two-and-a-half minutes, shows Saddam drop through the trap door while still intoning the Muslim profession of faith. He was abruptly cut off in the second verse: "I bear witness that Mohammad..."

After he falls, the cry "The tyrant has fallen" is audible over shouting and other comments that could not be made out.

The top news, photos, and videos of 2006. Full Coverage

The video bore out witness comments that the 69-year-old former leader, who looked calm and composed as he stood on the gallows in an official video broadcast on Saturday, had shouted angry political slogans while masked guards were bringing him into the execution chamber once used by his own feared intelligence services.

Toward the end of the film, Saddam's body is shown swinging, eyes partly open and the neck bent almost at right angles to one side. The film is punctuated by flashes, apparently as witnesses took photographs.

(Additional reporting by Aseel Kami and Mohammed al-Ramahi)

Internet images fuel anger among supporters

The Telegraph Group

Baghdad: Saddam Hussain was buried in a secret funeral Sunday amid growing anger among his supporters as images showing his executioners taunting him and the moment of his death were published on the internet.

In accordance with Muslim tradition, Saddam was buried less than 24 hours after he was hanged in Baghdad for crimes against humanity.

His body was flown from the capital by American military helicopter to his home village of Awja, north of Baghdad, and washed and dressed in an unstitched white cloth before prayers in a grand mosque built by his regime in the nearby regional capital, Tikrit.

Iraqis ponder their violent history after execution

Reuters

Baghdad: When Ali Mohammad was woken by gunfire celebrating the hanging of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussain, he thought about the lessons of history in his country where rulers tend not to die quietly in their beds.

"When I realised Saddam had been executed I was very happy," said the 25-year-old student from the southern city of Diwaniya.

"I started watching television and it occurred to me that the end of every president in Iraq is either execution or assassination. I find that troubling."

Even in a region where power rarely changes hands through elections, Iraq has proved a dangerous place to rule.

http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Iraq/10093666.html

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