Posted on 01/25/2010 5:13:24 PM PST by GOP_Lady
Saddam Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, who was hanged Monday, ordered the infamous poison gas attack on the northern Iraqi Kurdish village of Halabja in 1988 that killed 5,000 people and earned him the chilling moniker "Chemical Ali."
Mr. Majid was executed a week after he received his fourth death sentence on Jan. 17, the final one for the Halabja attack. He bore a striking resemblance to Mr. Hussein and was one of the most brutal members of the dictator's inner circle.
The general led sweeping military campaigns in the 1980s and 1990s that claimed tens of thousands of lives–wiping out entire villages in attacks against rebellious Kurds and cracking down on Shiites in southern Iraq. He was one of the last high-profile members of the former Sunni-led regime still on trial in Iraq.
Mr. Majid was a warrant officer and motorcycle messenger in the army before Saddam's Baath party led a coup in 1968. He was promoted to general and served as defense minister from 1991 to 1995, as well as a regional party leader.
In 1988, as the eight-year Iran-Iraq war was winding down, Mr. Majid commanded a scorched-earth campaign known as Anfal to wipe out a Kurdish rebellion in the north. An estimated 100,000 people–most of them civilians–were killed in less than a year.
Later, Mr. Majid boasted about the attacks, as well as the separate March 16, 1988, gas attack on Halabja, where an estimated 5,000 people died.
During the trials of figures in Mr. Hussein's regime, prosecutors played audiotapes of what they said were conversations between Messrs. Hussein and Majid.
In one of the recordings, Mr. Majid was heard vowing to "leave no Kurd (alive) who speaks the Kurdish language."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
A gas chamber full of Sarin. That's the ticket.
Enjoy HELL Ali!
Either way ... a just ending to another despotic criminal.
We use the electric char and the gas chamber. Iraq uses the gallows.
My personal favorite ... the firing squad. Too bad it will not be back.
Thanks for posting this GOP_Lady! There may have been other posts on this earlier but I missed them since I was at work.
No, that would be too quick.
You kidding? He have several lives left like a cat?
You’re welcome. :-)
Another Dart-board for the Kurds.
Next up on the gallows: Tariq Aziz.
He sure does.
He would still be gassing and murdering women and children if the democrats and Obummer had gotten their way.
“The banality of evil’’. So true. This schlub looks like he should have been selling falaffels from a cart on 8th. Ave. and 42nd. Street.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
