thedrifter
01-04-07, 08:36 AM
January 03, 2007
General reveals details of Saddam execution
By Gina Cavallaro
Staff writer
Saddam Hussein was courteous to his American guards up to the end, but his execution would have been handled differently if it had been up to the Army, a spokesman in Baghdad said Wednesday.
“He was courteous, as he always had been, to his U.S. military police guards,” Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, spokesman for Multi-National Force-Iraq, told media at the Green Zone, according to a transcript of the press conference.
“His characterization did change at the prison facility when the Iraqi guards were assuming control of him, but he was still dignified towards us. He spoke very well to our military police, as he always had.
“He thanked the military police squad, the lieutenant, the squad leader, the medical doctor we had present, and the colonel that was on site,” Caldwell said, adding that Saddam’s thanks may have been spoken in English.
Hussein was captured in a hideout in Tikrit in December 2003 under the watch of the 4th Infantry Division. He later was sentenced to death for the deaths of 148 Iraqis in 1989.
He was executed Dec. 30 in the gallows of an Iraqi prison shortly after being handed over to Iraqi authorities.
The execution took on a macabre carnival atmosphere with a band of hooded Iraqi men who can be seen and heard, as captured on a telephone video, taunting the dictator in his last moments.
“You know, if you’re asking me, would we have done things differently, yes, we would have,” Caldwell said repeatedly throughout the press conference.
“But that’s not our decision. That’s a government of Iraq decision.”
Hussein had been in physical custody of U.S. forces since his capture, Caldwell said, while Iraqi authorities always maintained legal authority.
When officials with Iraq’s Ministry of Justice requested that Hussein be returned to their physical control, arrangements were made to transport him to the prison where he was executed.
Hussein was flown by helicopter from Camp Victory south of Baghdad, where he had been held for most of the three years he was in custody, to a location outside the Green Zone. Papers were signed and the prisoner was handed off, Caldwell said.
“We landed at the landing zone at about 5:15 a.m., from Banzai landing zone, where then we moved him over to a holding cell. And at 5:30 a.m. at Azbarata Prison, a Minister of Justice prison facility, we turned him back over, the physical control of him, to the prison warden, and then we backed out at that point,” Caldwell said.
“We had absolutely nothing to do with anything further than just the physical movement and security of him, as we had always done, to get him to a predetermined location, which in the past had been to the courthouse where the proceedings had been taking place,” he said.
The execution chamber, he said, was not inspected by U.S. forces “because we’re not responsible at that point.”
Hussein, he said, was aware that being turned over to the Iraqis meant he was going to his death. U.S. forces, he said, had nothing to do with the execution site or with searching the people who attended the event.
Caldwell revealed other details. He said that after the execution, U.S. helicopters moved some Iraqi witnesses back to the Green Zone and transported Hussein’s body to Tikrit at the request of the Iraqi government.
At no time, however, did U.S. forces handle the dictator’s remains.
“No coalition force or Multi-National Force ever touched, was involved with or participated in the movement nor used any other vehicles other than our helicopter itself to assist with this,” Caldwell said.
“Those Iraqis who did board the helicopters did bring Saddam’s body with them. But we had absolutely nothing to do with any movement other than just providing the physical helicopters with the pilots on board. The crew chiefs didn’t even participate in helping the people load Saddam’s body on or anything like that.”
Ellie
General reveals details of Saddam execution
By Gina Cavallaro
Staff writer
Saddam Hussein was courteous to his American guards up to the end, but his execution would have been handled differently if it had been up to the Army, a spokesman in Baghdad said Wednesday.
“He was courteous, as he always had been, to his U.S. military police guards,” Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, spokesman for Multi-National Force-Iraq, told media at the Green Zone, according to a transcript of the press conference.
“His characterization did change at the prison facility when the Iraqi guards were assuming control of him, but he was still dignified towards us. He spoke very well to our military police, as he always had.
“He thanked the military police squad, the lieutenant, the squad leader, the medical doctor we had present, and the colonel that was on site,” Caldwell said, adding that Saddam’s thanks may have been spoken in English.
Hussein was captured in a hideout in Tikrit in December 2003 under the watch of the 4th Infantry Division. He later was sentenced to death for the deaths of 148 Iraqis in 1989.
He was executed Dec. 30 in the gallows of an Iraqi prison shortly after being handed over to Iraqi authorities.
The execution took on a macabre carnival atmosphere with a band of hooded Iraqi men who can be seen and heard, as captured on a telephone video, taunting the dictator in his last moments.
“You know, if you’re asking me, would we have done things differently, yes, we would have,” Caldwell said repeatedly throughout the press conference.
“But that’s not our decision. That’s a government of Iraq decision.”
Hussein had been in physical custody of U.S. forces since his capture, Caldwell said, while Iraqi authorities always maintained legal authority.
When officials with Iraq’s Ministry of Justice requested that Hussein be returned to their physical control, arrangements were made to transport him to the prison where he was executed.
Hussein was flown by helicopter from Camp Victory south of Baghdad, where he had been held for most of the three years he was in custody, to a location outside the Green Zone. Papers were signed and the prisoner was handed off, Caldwell said.
“We landed at the landing zone at about 5:15 a.m., from Banzai landing zone, where then we moved him over to a holding cell. And at 5:30 a.m. at Azbarata Prison, a Minister of Justice prison facility, we turned him back over, the physical control of him, to the prison warden, and then we backed out at that point,” Caldwell said.
“We had absolutely nothing to do with anything further than just the physical movement and security of him, as we had always done, to get him to a predetermined location, which in the past had been to the courthouse where the proceedings had been taking place,” he said.
The execution chamber, he said, was not inspected by U.S. forces “because we’re not responsible at that point.”
Hussein, he said, was aware that being turned over to the Iraqis meant he was going to his death. U.S. forces, he said, had nothing to do with the execution site or with searching the people who attended the event.
Caldwell revealed other details. He said that after the execution, U.S. helicopters moved some Iraqi witnesses back to the Green Zone and transported Hussein’s body to Tikrit at the request of the Iraqi government.
At no time, however, did U.S. forces handle the dictator’s remains.
“No coalition force or Multi-National Force ever touched, was involved with or participated in the movement nor used any other vehicles other than our helicopter itself to assist with this,” Caldwell said.
“Those Iraqis who did board the helicopters did bring Saddam’s body with them. But we had absolutely nothing to do with any movement other than just providing the physical helicopters with the pilots on board. The crew chiefs didn’t even participate in helping the people load Saddam’s body on or anything like that.”
Ellie