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(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...

Statement of President Bush on the death by hanging of Saddam Hussein, as provided by the White House: Today, Saddam Hussein was executed after receiving a fair trial — the kind of justice he denied the victims of his brutal regime. Fair trials were unimaginable under Saddam Hussein's tyrannical rule. It is a testament to the Iraqi people's resolve to move forward after decades of oppression that, despite his terrible crimes against his own people, Saddam Hussein received a fair trial. This would not have been possible without the Iraqi people's determination to create a society governed by the rule...

Dozens of Iraqi-Americans gathered late yesterday at a Detroit-area mosque to celebrate reports that Saddam Hussein had been executed, cheering and crying as drivers honked horns in jubilation. Dave Alwatan wore an Iraqi flag around his shoulders and flashed a peace sign to everyone he passed at the Karbalaa Islamic Educational Center in this suburb of Detroit, a city that has one of the nation's largest concentrations of people with roots in the Middle East. "Peace," he said, grinning and laughing. "Now there will be peace for my family." Mr. Alwatan, 32, said Saddam's forces tortured and killed relatives that...

<p>The Drop Broke Saddam's neck killing him instantly. At the executions following the Nuremberg Trials others were not so lucky.</p> <p>"..The executions, in a brightly lighted prison gymnasium where three looming black wooden gallows had been erected, were witnessed by a handful of Allied military officers and eight journalists, one of whom, Kingsbury Smith of International News Service, wrote a famous newspaper article, "The Execution of Nazi War Criminals, 16 October 1946," based on his eyewitness observations. Although Smith discreetly omitted mentioning it, the experienced Army hangman, Master Sgt. John C. Woods, botched the executions. A number of the hanged Nazis died, not quickly from a broken neck as intended, but agonizingly from slow strangulation. Ribbentrop and Sauckel each took 14 minutes to choke to death, while Keitel, whose death was the most painful, struggled for 24 minutes at the end of the rope before expiring..."</p>

Also, a few questions about the hanging. Will the judicial hanging be the short drop, standard drop or long drop? Go to Richard Clark's website (no, not that Richard A. Clarke) on the details on hangings, how hanging causes death and the equipment used in hangings. Quite an interesting read. Be forwarned. Some links contain graphic images. Though it'll be interesting to know...

Should the U.S. save millions in tax dollars by having a shorter time period for prisoners on Death Row, like Iraq? Yes No

By most codes of justice, his execution would be fitting retribution for a brutal life. But it won't extinguish the fires of sectarian hatred any more than it will relieve the pain of his victims By the time you read this, Saddam Hussein may be dead. When Iraq's Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Saddam's appeal of his death sentence, the tyrant's luck finally ran out. That there would be no reprieve was apparently evident to Saddam himself, who penned a farewell letter to his former subjects in which he seemed to welcome a martyr's death — while adding that if...

<p>WASHINGTON - Lawyers for Saddam Hussein have asked a U.S. judge to block his transfer to the custody of Iraqi officials poised to carry out his execution.</p> <p>Hussein's lawyers filed documents Friday afternoon asking for an emergency restraining order aimed at stopping the U.S. government from relinquishing custody of the condemned former Iraqi leader to Iraqi officials, a spokeswoman for a federal court in Washington D.C. said.</p>

Quote:"Giovanni di Stefano, one of Hussein's defense attorneys, told CNN the U.S. military officially informed him that the former Iraqi dictator has been transferred to Iraqi authorities for his execution and that a "credible source" had told him Hussein will be executed "very shortly -- in the next couple of hours." CNN Report Sources: Hussein execution nears POSTED: 3:05 p.m. EST, December 29, 2006 Story Highlights: • NEW: Iraqi lawmaker said he saw judge, cleric, and physician at gallows • NEW: Reports conflict over whether Hussein is in U.S. or Iraqi custody • Hussein's lawyers say U.S. officials have canceled...

(KDKA) PITTSBURGH -- A former Iraqi man now living in Pittsburgh speaks out as officials in his home country prepare to execute Saddam Hussein. Abe Alkhuzai was one of thousands who were tortured and beaten by Saddam's regime. Now, Alkhuzai says he just can't believe this is happening. But he says what he endured under Saddam's regime continues to haunt him everyday. Alkhuzai is thrilled to hear Saddam Hussein could be hanged even sooner than expected. "In 36 hours, Saddam Hussein is going to get killed," he said. "I think he deserves his justice." Video smuggled into the U.S. shows...

U.S. preparing for Saddam's execution By LAUREN FRAYER, Associated Press Writer 3 minutes ago As Saddam Hussein's lawyer made a last-ditch effort to impede his execution Thursday, the White House was preparing for the ousted dictator to be hanged as early as this weekend, a senior administration official said. The timetable was based on information that U.S. officials in Baghdad received from the Iraqi government. But, there were differing accounts. Iraq's deputy justice minister, Bosho Ibrahim, said Saddam shouldn't be hanged for another few weeks. "The law does not say within 30 days, it says after the lapse of 30...

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour called on Iraqi authorities to act with restraint in regards to the implementation of ousted tyrant Saddam Hussein's death sentence. "There were a number of concerns as to the fairness of the original trial, and there needs to be assurance that these issues have been comprehensively addressed. I call therefore on the Iraqi authorities not to act precipitately," Arbour said. (Reuters)

The Iraqi government is "anxious to get Saddam's execution done" and that it is likely to be carried out before the New Year — perhaps even within the next 24 hours, a U.S. military official told FOX News.

Hundreds of Iraqis have offered to act as hangman in the execution of Saddam Hussein, according to senior officials in the Baghdad Government. Some requests have been e-mailed to the office of Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, from around the world. Mr al-Maliki has also been directly petitioned by government officials who want to place the noose around Saddam’s neck. Many ordinary Justice Ministry employees are too terrified to carry out an execution, fearing reprisals from the dead man’s family. Those who do volunteer to act as the executioner may well have lost a relative to violence in the...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein called on Iraqis not to hate the U.S.-led forces that invaded Iraq in 2003 in a farewell letter posted on a Web site Wednesday, a day after an appeals court upheld the former dictator's death sentence and ordered him to be hanged within one month. One of Saddam's attorneys, Issam Ghazzawi, confirmed to The Associated Press in Jordan that the letter was authentic, saying it was written by Saddam on Nov. 5 — the day he was convicted by an Iraqi tribunal for ordering the killings of scores of Shiite Muslims in the city of...

NEW YORK (AFP) - Human Rights Watch urged the Iraqi government not to execute Saddam Hussein, describing the trial that convicted the former president for crimes against humanity as "deeply flawed." "Imposing the death penalty, indefensible in any case, is especially wrong after such unfair proceedings," said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's international justice programme. "That a judicial decision was first announced by Iraq's national security adviser underlines the political interference that marred Saddam Hussein's trial," he added. Saddam was sentenced to death in November after a trial lasting more than a year for ordering the deaths of...

On December 26, 1862, thirty-eight Indians were hanged in a mass execution in downtown Mankato. They were executed for their parts in the Sioux Uprising which took place in August of that year. The Sioux Uprising was a short-lived and bloody conflict that took the lives of many settlers and Indians in the Minnesota River Valley in southern Minnesota. The Sioux Uprising eventually touched off other conflicts between whites and Indians that spread across the Great Plains 'til 1890. A military tribunal originally sentenced 308 Indians to death for their parts in the uprising - but President Lincoln (upon the...

Some speculate this week’s lethal injection caused slow, excruciating death JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Death penalty foes have warned for years of the possibility that an inmate being executed by lethal injection could remain conscious, experiencing severe pain as he slowly dies. That day may have arrived. Angel Nieves Diaz, a career criminal executed for killing a Miami topless bar manager 27 years ago, was given a rare second dose of deadly chemicals as he took more than twice the usual time to succumb. Needles that were supposed to inject drugs into the 55-year-old man’s veins were instead pushed all the...

SAN FRANCISCO - A federal judge who imposed a moratorium on executions in California ruled Friday that the state's method of lethal injection is unconstitutional because it violates the ban on cruel and unusual punishment. California's "implementation of lethal injection is broken, but it can be fixed," U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel said. Fogel said the case raised the question of whether a three-drug cocktail administered by the San Quentin State Prison is so painful that it "offends" the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Fogel said he was compelled "to answer that question in the affirmative." Fogel's...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. --Defense attorneys and death penalty opponents were outraged Thursday over an execution in which the condemned man took more than half an hour to die, needed a rare second dose of lethal chemicals, and appeared to grimace in his final moments. "I am definitely appalled at what happened. I have no doubt he suffered unduly," Angel Nieves Diaz's attorney, Suzanne Myers Keffer, said after Diaz died by injection. Executions in Florida normally take about 15 minutes, with the inmate rendered unconscious and motionless within the first three to five minutes. But Diaz took 34 minutes to die and...