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  1. #1

    Hussein executed

    BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been executed, according to two Arabic language media outlets.

    Hussein was hanged before dawn on Saturday in Iraq, at about 6 a.m. (10 p.m. Friday ET), the U.S.-backed Al-Hurra television reported.

    Al-Arabiya reported that Barzan Hassan, Hussein's half-brother, and Awad Bandar, former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, were hanged after Hussein. All three were convicted of killings in the Iraqi town of Dujail nearly 25 years ago.

    Earlier, Munir Haddad, a judge on the appeals court that upheld the former dictator's death sentence, and an adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki each confirmed the paperwork needed for Hussein's execution had been prepared late Friday.

    "All the procedures have been completed," Haddad said.

    At the same time, a U.S. district judge refused a request to stay the execution.

    Attorney Nicholas Gilman said in an application for a restraining order, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Washington, that a stay would allow Hussein "to be informed of his rights and take whatever action he can and may wish to pursue."

    Haddad had called Gilman's filing "rubbish," and said, "It will not delay carrying out the sentence," which he called "final."

    Haddad also said there is no need for a presidential decree for the implementation of the execution.

    He said once the handover is completed, "the sentence will be carried out swiftly, without any delay. God willing."

    Haddad, who will attend the execution, said he received a call from al-Maliki's office asking him and a prosecutor to be ready for it.

    Haddad wouldn't disclose the location of the execution and said it won't be broadcast live on TV because of human rights issues.

    Meanwhile, 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" told him Hussein will be executed "very shortly -- in the next couple of hours."

    And di Stefano indicated that the move by lawyers in the U.S. court could mean Hussein is in U.S. military custody now.

    "The United States may very well have had a cause to effectively take him back in the event" a judge "grants the temporary restraining order, in which case his life would then be spared at least for a period of time or until such further order of the court," he said.

    Giving Hussein to the Iraqis despite a temporary restraining order would be contempt of court, di Stefano said.

    Conflicting reports These latest developments come during a day of conflicting reports over whether Hussein was in U.S. or Iraqi custody. Throughout the day, U.S. officials have not wavered in their stance that he remains in U.S. custody.

    There has been speculation that Hussein would be executed before Eid Al-Adha -- a holiday period that means Feast of the Sacrifice, celebrated by Muslims around the world at the climax of the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.

    There is a belief that the execution could be soon because the law does not permit executions to be carried out during religious holidays.

    Eid begins Saturday for Sunnis and Sunday for Shiites and lasts for four days. Hussein is a Sunni Muslim.

    Baha al-Araji, a member of the Iraqi parliament from the Muqtada al-Sadr bloc, said the government is seeking the "opinion of clerics, both Sunni and Shiite, whether they can carry out the death sentence against Saddam on Saturday since it's the start of Eid."

    "The clerics would issue a fatwa saying that due to exceptional circumstances the death sentence can be carried out," said al-Araji, whose political movement represents Shiite Muslims.

    Sheikh Jalaleddin al-Saghir, who is both a Shiite cleric and a parliament member from the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said, "There is absolutely no problem from a religious standpoint to carry out the death sentence at the start of Eid."

    Baghdad now is in its regular overnight curfew, and Iraqi and U.S. troops are bracing for protests and violence if an execution occurs.

    Ministerial aides said government officials have been in "emergency meeting," and al-Araji confirmed that officials were still debating whether to execute the former Iraqi leader on Saturday.

    Gallows in Green Zone Al-Araji said the scaffolding where Hussein is to be hanged is in Baghdad's Green Zone, the center of power for coalition officials.

    He said he saw a judge, a cleric and a physician at the site. According to Iraqi law, these people have to be present at the execution.

    "These people were told to remain there on standby waiting for orders for the government," al-Araji said.

    Al-Araji told CNN that he and other parliament members and government officials have been cleared to attend the hanging.

    "I would have wished for this to happen in Sadr City, where he has killed the most people," he said.

    If the hanging does occur on Saturday, it will "most likely take place between 6 a.m. and noon," he said. Those hours translate to 10 p.m. Friday and 4 a.m. Saturday in the Eastern United States.

    Speaking from Doha, Qatar, Najib al-Nuaimi, one of Hussein's defense attorneys, said Hussein's "fate definitely [is] in the hands of God."

    Meeting with half-brothers Another defense lawyer, Badie Aref, told CNN that Hussein met with two of his half-brothers in his cell on Thursday and passed on messages and instructions to his family.

    "President Saddam was just bracing for the worst, so he wanted to see his brothers and pass on some messages and instructions to his family," Aref said. The half brothers who visited were Sabawi and Wathban Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, he said.

    Another of Hussein's half-brothers, Barzan al-Tikriti, has been sentenced to death and is being held in Iraq under the same charges as Hussein.

    Aref said the U.S. soldiers guarding Hussein on Tuesday took away a radio he kept in his cell so he could not hear news reports about his death sentence, which was confirmed that day.

    "They did not want him to hear the news from the appeals court upholding the sentence," he said. "They gave him back the radio on Wednesday."

    Aref said Saddam found out about the appeals court verdict "a few hours after it was announced."

    Crimes against humanity Hussein was convicted on November 5 of crimes against humanity in connection with the killings of 148 people in the rown of Dujail after an attempt on his life.

    The dictator was found guilty of murder, torture and forced deportation.

    The Dujail episode falls within 12 of the worst cases out of 500 documented "baskets of crimes" during the Hussein regime.

    The U.S. State Department says torture and extrajudicial killings followed the Dujail killings and that 550 men, women and children were arrested without warrants.

    CNN's Aneesh Raman, Arwa Damon, Ryan Chilcote, Sam Dagher, Jomana Karadsheh and Ed Henry contributed to this report.


  2. #2
    I hope this was the single most painful hanging in the history of the world. It couldn't have happened to a better person.


  3. #3
    where the hell is the photos of this turd all cnn is showing is the rope around his dang neck i wanna see this turd swingin..


  4. #4
    Just as I had posted here.
    THE BEAST IS FINALLY DEAD!!!!!!!!



  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by 3077India
    Just as I had posted here.
    THE BEAST IS FINALLY DEAD!!!!!!!!
    Not quite. Cut off a head of the Hydra and two more take it's place.


    But now the Medes and Persians (ie. The Shia Ayatollahs) take over. Driven by the prophets the Supreme Shia Ayatollahs broke out their torahs and recited to the El Iblis Jihadi....

    "....12: How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
    13: For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
    14: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
    15: Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
    16: They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;
    17: That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?
    18: All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.
    19: But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.
    20: Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.
    21: Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.
    22: For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD.
    23: I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts....."
    Isaiah 14.

    Now this is the Prophecy which all the Holy Land
    will be charged with at the sabbath. And the Grandmaster of the Iblis Assassin cult safe within Mecca. will command the destruction of all Babylon. And the Dark Princes of the Saudi have banned the importation of The Holy Bible, and have absolutely no interest or desire for a democratic republic in Iraq...





  6. #6
    Marine Free Member FistFu68's Avatar
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    HEY~WISE MAN!IN THE EMPIRE OF GOD,THE 1ST. WILL BE LAST;AND THE LAST WILL BE FIRST!!!


  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by hrscowboy
    where the hell is the photos of this turd all cnn is showing is the rope around his dang neck i wanna see this turd swingin..


    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6218485.stm


  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by FISTFU68
    HEY~WISE MAN!IN THE EMPIRE OF GOD,THE 1ST. WILL BE LAST;AND THE LAST WILL BE FIRST!!!
    Thats forbidden knowlege in the land of Iblis. And much of Arabia don't want to hear it
    .


  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Arcade
    Not quite. Cut off a head of the Hydra and two more take it's place.


    But now the Medes and Persians (ie. The Shia Ayatollahs) take over. Driven by the prophets the Supreme Shia Ayatollahs broke out their torahs and recited to the El Iblis Jihadi....

    "....12: How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
    13: For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
    14: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
    15: Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
    16: They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;
    17: That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?
    18: All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.
    19: But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.
    20: Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.
    21: Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.
    22: For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD.
    23: I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts....."
    Isaiah 14.

    Now this is the Prophecy which all the Holy Land
    will be charged with at the sabbath. And the Grandmaster of the Iblis Assassin cult safe within Mecca. will command the destruction of all Babylon. And the Dark Princes of the Saudi have banned the importation of The Holy Bible, and have absolutely no interest or desire for a democratic republic in Iraq...
    I wasn't exactly speaking from a biblical context. I was referring to the execution of Sodamn Insane.


  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by 3077India
    I wasn't exactly speaking from a biblical context. I was referring to the execution of Sodamn Insane.
    So am I... When will you guys learn that you're fighting clerics and prophecy driven military and paramilitary? Nothing is done by these forces without prophecy.



  11. #11
    Tucsonans see hanging as just end for Saddam

    By Alexis Huicochea , arizona daily star
    Sat Dec 30, 3:41 AM ET

    Amed Mamoud, a Kurd who came to the United States in 1979, spent Friday evening with his wife and her family at their Tucson home watching television news coverage of Saddam Hussein's execution.

    "It is a very good day, a joyful day and a historic day," Mamoud, the owner of the Sunrise Café, said shortly after Saddam's death was announced. "I grew up under Saddam's rule and it affected me in a very deep way. This shows that if you want to be a dictator and kill people, justice will be served and you will be punished for it."

    Mamoud, who lost more than 60 family members in 1988 by chemical weapons attack and had a cousin who was killed years earlier under Saddam's rule, said he does not believe the execution will change the situation in Iraq. But, he said, it will surely bring a sense of relief to many people.

    "That chapter is closed," said Mamoud, who earned a doctorate from the University of Arizona. "He caused terror to every family in that country and I believe that he deserved to die a more painful death rather than the few minutes he endured."

    Another Tucsonan, Zach Zimbelman, a sergeant in the Army National Guard, was stationed at Camp Taji — eight miles away from the spider hole where Saddam was captured — from 2003 to 2004.

    He agrees the execution of the former Iraqi dictator likely will not change the volatile situation in the country.

    "I think the execution is just and deserved but I don't feel it will influence anything," he said. "Saddam was locked away in a hole for quite some time and still soldiers and Marines were losing their lives. They continued to lose their lives even after he was caught."

    Tucson resident Ahmed Shafik, who has been in the United States for seven years, said on Friday that Saddam's punishment was well deserved, but was concerned about the backlash from insurgents.

    "He deserved it," said Shafik, a former member of Iraq's Paralympic weightlifting team who fled after earning the disfavor of Saddam's son Uday. "... I am worried that people will go crazy wanting to retaliate."

    Mohammed Abdel Wahab, president of the local Muslim Student Association, agreed.

    "There is a lot of concern that insurgents will increase their attacks," he said. "It is my personal opinion that the execution was called for by the Iraqi government through an independent court and it was important that the decision come from them."

    Arizona Daily Star
    Tucson Classifieds
    Press Pass - UA Sports

    Ellie


  12. #12
    Saddam Hussein hanged: witnesses

    By Claudia Parsons and Alastair Macdonald
    Sat Dec 30, 12:09 AM ET

    Saddam Hussein was hanged at dawn on Saturday, a dramatic end for a leader who ruled Iraq by fear for three decades before a U.S. invasion toppled him and was then convicted of crimes against humanity.

    As day broke on one of the holiest days of the Muslim year and the call to prayer echoed out from minarets across a dark and bitterly cold Baghdad, officially-backed television channels flashed the news shortly after six a.m. (10:00 p.m. EST).

    "It happened before my eyes," one Iraqi official said.

    "He has been executed," said a senior U.S. official in Washington, where the death of a man branded a dangerous tyrant and threat to world security was welcomed by an administration facing mounting public dismay at a war in which the American death toll is fast approaching 3,000.

    President Bush said Saddam's execution was an important milestone on Iraq's path to democracy.

    "Bringing Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the violence in Iraq, but it is an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain, and defend itself," Bush said in a statement from his Texas ranch.

    Details of the execution were scant but state television Iraqiya said Saddam, 69, had mounted the scaffold first, followed by his half-brother and a former judge who were convicted with him last month for killing 148 Shi'ite men from the town of Dujail.

    "The three men were executed. First Saddam Hussein, then Barzan al-Tikriti and then Awad al-Bander," an Iraqiya announcer said, reading what he said was an official statement.

    The event was filmed but it was unclear when or if images would be shown to help convince Iraqis Saddam is dead.

    It was not clear where the executions took place, although key officials who were to attend the hanging had told Reuters they had been told to gather in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone government compound.

    An early execution will delight Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ites, who were oppressed under Saddam, but may anger Saddam's resentful Sunni minority as well as some Kurds who were hoping to see him convicted of genocide against him.

    Some officials had believed the start of the week-long Eid al-Adha holiday at noon, coinciding with the haj pilgrimage to Mecca, would have caused a delay of the execution before a late night meeting between Maliki and U.S. officials agreed the final procedures.

    NEW START?

    Washington may also be hoping it marks the turning of a new page in Iraq as Bush prepares to unveil a new direction in Iraq policy amid public anger at the war.

    The death of three Marines, announced on Saturday, took the American death toll since the March 2003 invasion to 2,996.

    Defense lawyer Issam Jhazzawi told Reuters Saddam's exiled daughters in Jordan had braced for his imminent death. "The family are praying for him every minute and are calling on God that He let his soul rest in peace among the martyrs," he said.

    His daughter Raghd, in Jordan, "is asking that his body be buried in Yemen temporarily until Iraq is liberated and it can be reburied in Iraq," a source close to the family said.

    Seeking an 11th hour reprieve, defense lawyers asked a U.S. federal court to order a halt to the execution because Saddam is a defendant in a civil case in Washington. But a U.S. judge denied the move, saying Saddam was not being held in U.S. custody and as a result her court lacked jurisdiction.

    U.S. troops are on alert for trouble from insurgents among Saddam's Sunni minority. While there were some protests at November's verdict by a U.S.-sponsored court, few Sunnis have deep feelings about the fate of the fallen strongman.

    The governor of Salahaddin province said on Friday if Saddam was executed he would declare a four-day curfew in Tikrit, Saddam's home town. There was no word on whether Baghdad would be under curfew, as regularly happens at tense moments.

    An execution at the start of Eid is highly symbolic. The feast marks the sacrifice the prophet Abraham was prepared to make when God ordered him to kill his son and many Shi'ites could regard Saddam's death as a gift from God. Such symbolism could further anger Sunnis, resentful of new Shi'ite power.

    Saddam was found guilty over the killing, torture and other crimes against the Shi'ite population of the town of Dujail after Shi'ite militants tried to assassinate him there in 1982.

    Saddam, who said in court he had no fear of dying, had a farewell meeting with two of his half-brothers on Thursday, his lawyers said, adding the fallen dictator was in high spirits.

    International human rights groups criticized the year-long trial, during which three defense lawyers were killed and a chief judge resigned complaining of political interference.

    The United Nations and many of Washington's Western allies called on Bush and Maliki not to go ahead with the execution.

    (Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi in Dubai and Mariam Karouny and Mussab Al-Khairalla in Baghdad)

    Ellie


  13. #13
    Saddam Hussein dies on the gallows, exiting the Iraqi stage after a long, brutal reign

    By: CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA - Associated Press

    BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Clutching a Quran and refusing a hood, Saddam Hussein went to the gallows before sunrise Saturday, executed by vengeful countrymen after a quarter-century of remorseless brutality that killed countless thousands and led Iraq into disastrous wars against the United States and Iran.

    In Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City, people danced in the streets while others fired guns in the air to celebrate the former dictator's death. The government did not impose a round-the-clock curfew as it did last month when Saddam was convicted to thwart any surge in retaliatory violence.

    It was a grim end for the 69-year-old leader who had vexed three U.S. presidents. Despite his ouster, Washington, its allies and the new Iraqi leaders remain mired in a fight to quell a stubborn insurgency by Saddam loyalists and a vicious sectarian conflict.

    The execution took place during the year's deadliest month for U.S. troops, with the toll reaching 108.

    President Bush said that Saddam's execution marks the "end of a difficult year for the Iraqi people and for our troops" and cautioned that his death will not halt the violence in Iraq.

    Yet, Bush said in a statement issued from his ranch in Texas, "it is an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain and defend itself, and be an ally in the war on terror."

    Ali Hamza, a 30-year-old university professor, said he went outside to shoot his gun into the air after he heard the news.

    "Now all the victims' families will be happy because Saddam got his just sentence," said Hamza, who lives in Diwaniyah, a Shiite town 80 miles south of Baghdad.

    "We are looking for a new page of history despite the tragedy of the past," said Saif Ibrahim, a 26-year-old Baghdad resident.

    But people in the Sunni-dominated city of Tikrit, once a power base of Saddam, lamented his death.

    "The president, the leader Saddam Hussein is a martyr and God will put him along with other martyrs. Do not be sad nor complain because he has died the death of a holy warrior," said Sheik Yahya al-Attawi, a cleric at the Saddam Big Mosque.

    State-run Iraqiya television initially reported that Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, also were hanged. However, three officials later said only Saddam was executed.

    "We wanted him to be executed on a special day," National Security adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie told state-run Iraqiyah.

    Sami al-Askari, the political adviser of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, told The Associated Press that Saddam struggled when he was taken from his cell in an American military prison but was composed in his last moments.

    He said Saddam was clad completely in black, with a jacket, trousers, hat and shoes, rather than prison garb.

    Shortly before the execution, Saddam's hat was removed and Saddam was asked if he wanted to say something, al-Askari said.

    "No I don't want to," al-Askari, who was present at the execution, quoted Saddam as saying. Saddam repeated a prayer after a Sunni Muslim cleric who was present.

    "Saddam later was taken to the gallows and refused to have his head covered with a hood," al-Askari said. "Before the rope was put around his neck, Saddam shouted: 'God is great. The nation will be victorious and Palestine is Arab."'

    Saddam was executed at a former military intelligence headquarters in Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah, al-Askari said. The neighborhood is home to the Iraqi capital's most important Shiite shine, the Imam Kazim shrine.

    Al-Askari said the government had not decided what to do with Saddam's body.

    Photographs and video footage were taken, al-Rubaie said.

    "He did not ask for anything. He was carrying a Quran and said: 'I want this Quran to be given to this person,' a man he called Bander," he said. Al-Rubaie said he did not know who Bander was.

    "Saddam was treated with respect when he was alive and after his death," al-Rubaie said. "Saddam's execution was 100 percent Iraqi and the American side did not interfere."

    The station earlier was airing national songs after the first announcement and had a tag on the screen that read "Saddam's execution marks the end of a dark period of Iraq's history."

    The execution came 56 days after a court convicted Saddam and sentenced him to death for his role in the killings of 148 Shiite Muslims from a town where assassins tried to kill the dictator in 1982. Iraq's highest court rejected Saddam's appeal Monday and ordered him executed within 30 days.

    A U.S. judge on Friday refused to stop Saddam's execution, rejecting a last-minute court challenge.

    U.S. troops cheered as news of Saddam's execution appeared on television at the mess hall at Forward Operating Base Loyalty in eastern Baghdad. But some soldiers expressed doubt that Saddam's death would be a significant turning point for Iraq.

    "First it was weapons of mass destruction. Then when there were none, it was that we had to find Saddam. We did that, but then it was that we had to put him on trial," said Spc. Thomas Sheck, 25, of Philadelphia, who is on his second tour in Iraq. "So now, what will be the next story they tell us to keep us over here?"

    Sgt. Elston Miramonte, 25, of Monticello, N.Y., said Saddam got what he deserved.

    "All the people that he killed, did they deserve to die? He had a fair trial, and it was time to execute him," he said.

    The execution was carried out around the start of Eid al-Adha, the Islamic world's largest holiday, which marks the end of the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, the hajj. Many Muslims celebrate by sacrificing domestic animals, usually sheep.

    Sunnis and Shiites throughout the world began observing the four-day holiday at dawn Saturday, but Iraq's Shiite community -- the country's majority -- was due to start celebrating on Sunday.

    Al-Maliki had rejected calls that Saddam be spared, telling families of people killed during the dictator's rule that would be an insult to the victims.

    "Our respect for human rights requires us to execute him, and there will be no review or delay in carrying out the sentence," al-Maliki's office quoted him as saying during a meeting with relatives before the hanging.

    Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said Saddam "was the head of injustice and this (execution) is a clear message to anyone who thinks of following the track of terrorism and killing. This is the end of this man after 35 years."

    Human Rights Watch criticized the execution, calling Saddam's trial "deeply flawed."

    "Saddam Hussein was responsible for massive human rights violations, but that can't justify giving him the death penalty, which is a cruel and inhuman punishment," said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's International Justice Program.

    The hanging of Saddam, who was ruthless in ordering executions of his opponents, will keep other Iraqis from pursuing justice against the ousted leader.

    At his death, he was in the midst of a second trial, charged with genocide and other crimes for a 1987-88 military crackdown that killed an estimated 180,000 Kurds in northern Iraq. Experts said the trial of his co-defendants was likely to continue despite his execution.

    Many people in Iraq's Shiite majority were eager to see the execution of a man whose Sunni Arab-dominated regime oppressed them and Kurds.

    Before the hanging, a mosque preacher in the Shiite holy city of Najaf on Friday called Saddam's execution "God's gift to Iraqis."

    "Oh, God, you know what Saddam has done! He killed millions of Iraqis in prisons, in wars with neighboring countries and he is responsible for mass graves. Oh God, we ask you to take revenge on Saddam," said Sheik Sadralddin al-Qubanji, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

    On Thursday, two half brothers visited Saddam in his cell, a member of the former dictator's defense team, Badee Izzat Aref, told the AP by telephone from the United Arab Emirates. He said the former dictator handed them his personal belongings.

    A senior official at the Iraqi defense ministry said Saddam gave his will to one of his half brothers. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

    In a farewell message to Iraqis posted Wednesday on the Internet, Saddam said he was giving his life for his country as part of the struggle against the U.S. "Here, I offer my soul to God as a sacrifice, and if he wants, he will send it to heaven with the martyrs," he said.

    One of Saddam's lawyers, Issam Ghazzawi, said the letter was written by Saddam on Nov. 5, the day he was convicted by an Iraqi tribunal in the Dujail killings.

    The message called on Iraqis to put aside the sectarian hatred that has bloodied their nation for a year and voiced support for the Sunni Arab-dominated insurgency against U.S.-led forces, saying: "Long live jihad and the mujahedeen."

    Saddam urged Iraqis to rely on God's help in fighting "against the unjust nations" that ousted his regime.

    Najeeb al-Nauimi, a member of Saddam's legal team, said U.S. authorities maintained physical custody of Saddam until the execution to prevent him being humiliated publicly or his corpse being mutilated, as has happened to previous Iraqi leaders deposed by force. He said they didn't want anything to happen to further inflame Sunni Arabs.

    "This is the end of an era in Iraq," al-Nauimi said from Doha, Qatar. "The Baath regime ruled for 35 years. Saddam was vice president or president of Iraq during those years. For Iraqis, he will be very well remembered. Like a martyr, he died for the sake of his country."

    Iraq's death penalty was suspended by the U.S. military after it toppled Saddam in 2003, but the new Iraqi government reinstated it two years later, saying executions would deter criminals.

    Saddam's own regime used executions and extrajudicial killings as a tool of political repression, both to eliminate real or suspected political opponents and to maintain a reign of terror.

    In the months after he seized power on July 16, 1979, he had hundreds of members of his own party and army officers slain. In 1996, he ordered the slaying of two sons-in-law who had defected to Jordan but returned to Baghdad after receiving guarantees of safety.

    Saddam built Iraq into a one of the Arab world's most modern societies, but then plunged the country into an eight-year war with neighboring Iran that killed hundreds of thousands of people on both sides and wrecked Iraq's economy.

    During that war, as part of the wider campaign against Kurds, the Iraqi military used chemical weapons against the Kurdish town of Halabja in northern Iraq, killing an estimated 5,000 civilians.

    The economic troubles from the Iran war led Saddam to invade Kuwait in the summer of 1990, seeking to grab its oil wealth, but a U.S.-led coalition inflicted a stinging defeat on the Iraq army and freed the Kuwaitis.

    U.N. sanctions imposed over the Kuwait invasion remained in place when Saddam failed to cooperate fully in international efforts to ensure his programs for creating weapons of mass destruction had been dismantled. Iraqis, once among the region's most prosperous, were impoverished.

    The final blow came when U.S.-led troops invaded in March 2003. Saddam's regime fell quickly, but political, sectarian and criminal violence have created chaos that has undermined efforts to rebuild Iraq's ruined economy.

    While he wielded a heavy hand to maintain control, Saddam also sought to win public support with a personality cult that pervaded Iraqi society. Thousands of portraits, posters, statues and murals were erected in his honor all over Iraq. His face could be seen on the sides of office buildings, schools, airports and shops and on Iraq's currency.

    Associated Press Writer Will Weissert contributed to this report.

    Comments from critics of death penalty for Saddam Hussein

    Some comments from critics of executing Saddam Hussein:

    "I think he deserves punishment and sharp and unequivocal punishment. ... But I would say of him what I have to say about anyone who has committed even the most appalling crimes in this country, that I believe the death penalty effectively says there is no room for change and repentance." -- Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, on BBC Radio.

    Saddam's execution punishes "a crime with another crime. ... The death penalty is not a natural death. And no one can give death, not even the state." -- Cardinal Renato Martino, Pope Benedict XVI's top prelate for justice issues, to the Rome newspaper La Repubblica.

    "We oppose the death penalty in all cases, regardless of the individual or the crime. ... (But) it's an Iraqi trial, with Iraqi defendants, in an Iraqi court -- it's a decision for the Iraqi authorities." -- Rob Tinline, spokesman for the British Foreign Office.

    "All sections of Iraqi society, as well as the wider international community, have an interest in ensuring that a death sentence provided for in Iraqi law is only imposed following a trial and appeal process that is, and is legitimately seen as, fair, credible and impartial." -- Louise Arbour, U.N. high commissioner for human rights.

    "It will not increase our moral authority in the world. ... Saddam's heinous crimes against humanity can never be diminished, but he was our ally while he was doing it. ... Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth will make us blind and disfigured. ... Saddam as a war trophy only deepens the catastrophe to which we are indelibly linked." -- the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

    "The question is not whether Saddam Hussein is a murderer. That seems to be pretty clear. It is about the issue whether you are allowed to take someone else's life. ... And that is the true reason why Europe opposes this." -- Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht to VRT network.

    "I don't believe that Saddam's execution would remotely help bring peace to the country. ... Even politically I think it would carry ... more negative consequences than positive ones." -- Italian Premier Romano Prodi.

    "Every dictator must answer for his actions, every dictator. This does not always happen in history. ... (But) I will never defend the death penalty, not even for the worst politician." -- Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

    Germany "rejects the death penalty. ... The death penalty is, however, foreseen and possible under Iraqi law. There is no indication that these court proceedings in Iraq, including the appeals process, were not conducted in accordance with the legal principles there." -- Thomas Steg, spokesman for the German government.

    Denmark "supports the establishment of a democracy and an independent judicial system in Iraq. But we do not support the death penalty." -- Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller.

    "Imposing the death penalty, which is indefensible in any case, is especially wrong after the unfair proceedings of the Dujail trial." -- Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program for Human Rights Watch.

    "Putting into action such an inhumane sentence casts aside the aspirations of the Iraqi people for the transformation of their country." -- Ravil Gainutdin, head of the Russian Council of Muftis, to the RIA-Novosti news agency.

    AT A GLANCE: Events in the life of Saddam Hussein

    A glance at the life of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein:

    April 28, 1937 -- Born in village near Tikrit, north of Baghdad.

    1957 -- Joins underground Baath Socialist Party.

    1958 -- Arrested for killing his brother-in-law, a Communist. Spends six months in prison.

    Oct. 7, 1959 -- On Baath assassination team that ambushes Iraqi strongman Gen. Abdel-Karim Kassem in Baghdad, wounding him. Saddam, wounded in leg, flees to Syria then Egypt.

    Feb. 8, 1963 -- Returns after Baath takes part in coup that overthrows and kills Kassem.

    July 30, 1968 -- Becomes chief of internal security under President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, his cousin.

    July 16, 1979 -- Takes over as president from al-Bakr, launches major purge of Baath members.

    Sept. 22, 1980 -- Sends troops into Iran; war lasts eight years.

    March 28, 1988 -- Uses chemical weapons against Kurdish town of Halabja, killing estimated 5,000 civilians.

    Aug. 2, 1990 -- Invades Kuwait, but sees his army driven out by U.S.-led coalition five months later.

    Feb. 20, 1996 -- Orders killing of two sons-in-law who had defected to Jordan but returned to Baghdad after receiving guarantees of safety.

    Nov. 27, 2002 -- Under U.N. threat of "serious consequences," allows U.N. weapons experts back into Iraq.

    March 17, 2003 -- Gets 48-hour deadline from President Bush to give up power and leave Iraq. War begins three days later, chasing him from Baghdad on April 9.

    July 22, 2003 -- His sons, Qusai and Odai, killed in gunbattle with American soldiers.

    Dec. 13, 2003 -- Captured while hiding in hole in ground near Tikrit.

    July 1, 2004 -- Arraigned before judge, rejects charges of war crimes and genocide.

    Oct. 19, 2005 -- Goes on trial with seven co-defendants charged in 1982 killings of 148 Shiite Muslims, stemming from attempt to assassinate him in Dujail.

    March 1, 2006 -- Admits ordering trial of 148 Shiites eventually executed, but insists doing so was legal.

    April 4, 2006 -- Faces new criminal charges, for second trial with six others, in connection with brutal 1987-88 crackdown on Kurds in northern Iraq.

    June 19, 2006 -- Hears prosecution demand death penalty in closing arguments at Dujail trial, saying he showed "no mercy" in the killings of women and children.

    Aug. 21, 2006 -- At opening of second trial, shouts at prosecutors and refuses to enter plea to charges of genocide and war crimes.

    Nov. 5, 2006 -- Trembles but remains defiant as tribunal in first trial announces guilty verdict and sentences him to hang.

    Dec. 26, 2006 -- Iraq's highest court rejects appeal of conviction, saying Saddam must be hanged within 30 days.

    Convictions and sentences in the trial of Saddam Hussein, seven co-defendants

    Details of the convictions and sentences for Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants in trial for 1982 war crimes in the town of Dujail. The specific convictions come under the broad headings, under Iraqi law, of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

    The sentences are served concurrently in cases where a defendant received more than one conviction and sentence.

    The three defendants sentenced to death are likely to be hanged together, Iraqi officials have said. They are Saddam, his half brother Barzan Ibrahim and the former head of the Revolutionary Court, Awad Hamed al-Bandar.

    Saddam Hussein, former Iraqi president:

    -- Guilty of murder, sentenced to death.

    -- Guilty of forced deportation, sentenced to 10 years in prison.

    -- Guilty of torture, sentenced to 10 years in prison.

    Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief:

    -- Guilty of murder, sentenced to death.

    -- Guilty of forced deportation, sentenced to 10 years in prison.

    -- Guilty of torture, sentenced to 10 years in prison.

    Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former head of the Revolutionary Court:

    -- Guilty of murder, sentenced to death.

    Taha Yassin Ramadan, former Iraqi vice president:

    -- Guilty of murder, sentenced to life in prison.

    -- Guilty of forced deportation, sentenced to 10 years in prison.

    -- Guilty of torture, sentenced to 7 years in prison.

    -- Guilty of inhumane acts, sentenced to 7 years in prison.

    -- The appeals court said Tuesday that Ramadan's life sentence was too lenient, and returned his case to the High Tribunal for reconsideration. The chief judge demanded he be sentenced to death instead.

    Abdullah Kazim Ruwayyid, former Baath Party official:

    -- Guilty of murder, sentenced to 15 years in prison.

    -- Guilty of torture, sentenced to 7 years in prison. (Sentences run concurrently so he will serve 15 years).

    Mizhar Abdullah Ruwayyid, former Baath official:

    -- Guilty of murder, sentenced to 15 years in prison.

    -- Guilty of torture, sentenced to 7 years in prison. (Sentences run concurrently so he will serve 15 years).

    Ali Dayih Ali, former Baath official:

    -- Guilty of murder, sentenced to 15 years in prison.

    -- Guilty of torture, sentenced to 7 years in prison. (Sentences run concurrently so he will serve 15 years.)

    Mohammed Azawi Ali, former Baath official:

    -- Acquitted of all charges and ordered released from custody immediately.

    Comments made by Saddam Hussein during his two trials.

    By The Associated Press

    Comments made by Saddam Hussein during his two trials:

    "I realize there is pressure on you and I regret that I have to confront one of my sons. But I'm not doing it for myself. I'm doing it for Iraq. I'm not defending myself. But I am defending you." -- Dec. 5, 2005, speaking to judge at his first trial, for killings of 148 Iraqi Shiite Muslims from Dujail.

    "I am not afraid of execution." -- Dec. 5, 2005, nearly a year before he was sentenced to death.

    "I'm not complaining about the Americans, because I can poke their eyes with my own hands." -- Dec. 21, 2005, after accusing American guards of beating him.

    "For 35 years I led you, and you say, 'Eject him?' ... For 35 years, I administered your rights." -- Jan. 29, 2006, to chief judge who ordered Saddam be removed from the courtroom.

    "Where is the crime? Where is the crime?" -- March 1, after declaring he ordered trial of 148 Shiites who were eventually executed, because he suspected them of involvement in assassination attempt.

    "I sentence an underage Iraqi to death? I wouldn't do it even if you were to carve my eyes out." -- April 5, in response to accusations some of the Shiites killed were children.

    "If you are scared of the interior minister, he doesn't scare my dog." -- April 5, to the chief judge, who asked Saddam not to make political statements about new Iraqi administration.

    "I'm Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq. I am above all." -- May 22.

    "I ask you being an Iraqi person that if you reach a verdict of death, execution, remember that I am a military man and should be killed by firing squad." -- July 26.

    "I am in prison but the knights outside will liberate the country." -- July 26, while arguing with chief judge.

    "Not even 1,000 people like you can terrify me." -- July 26, to chief judge.

    "Long live the people and death to their enemies!" -- Nov. 5, after being sentenced to death.

    "I call on all Iraqis, Arabs and Kurds, to forgive, reconcile and shake hands." -- Nov. 7, at his second trial, where was charged with genocide for military crackdown on Iraqi Kurds.

    Ellie


  14. #14
    Saddam Hussein Executed for War Crimes

    By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA

    BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein struggled briefly after American military guards handed him over to Iraqi executioners. But as his final moments approached, he grew calm. He clutched a Quran as he was led to the gallows, and in one final moment of defiance, refused to have a hood pulled over his head before facing the same fate he was accused of inflicting on countless thousands during a quarter-century of ruthless power.

    A man whose testimony helped lead to Saddam's conviction and execution before sunrise said he was shown the body because "everybody wanted to make sure that he was really executed."

    "Now, he is in the garbage of history," said Jawad Abdul-Aziz, who lost his father, three brothers and 22 cousins in the reprisal killings that followed a botched 1982 assassination attempt against Saddam in the Shiite town of Dujail.

    Iraqi television showed what it said was Saddam's body, his head uncovered and the neck twisted at a sharp angle.

    The footage showed the man identified as Saddam lying on a stretcher, covered in a white shroud. His neck and part of the shroud have what appear to be bloodstains. His eyes are closed.

    In Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City, hundreds of people danced in the streets while others fired guns in the air to celebrate. The government did not impose a round-the-clock curfew as it did last month when Saddam was convicted to thwart any surge in retaliatory violence.

    It was a grim end for the 69-year-old leader who had vexed three U.S. presidents. Despite his ouster, Washington, its allies and the new Iraqi leaders remain mired in a fight to quell a stubborn insurgency by Saddam loyalists and a vicious sectarian conflict.

    The execution took place during the year's deadliest month for U.S. troops, with the toll reaching 108.

    President Bush said in a statement issued from his ranch in Texas that bringing Saddam to justice "is an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain and defend itself, and be an ally in the war on terror."

    He said that the execution marks the "end of a difficult year for the Iraqi people and for our troops" and cautioned that Saddam's death will not halt the violence in Iraq.

    Within hours of Saddam's execution, a bomb planted aboard a minibus exploded in a fish market south of Baghdad, killing 31 people. At least 58 others were wounded in the explosion in Kufa, a Shiite town 100 miles south of the Iraqi capital, said Issa Mohammed, director of the morgue in the neighboring town of Najaf.

    Ali Hamza, a 30-year-old university professor, said he went outside to shoot his gun into the air after he learned of Saddam's death.

    "Now all the victims' families will be happy because Saddam got his just sentence," said Hamza, who lives in Diwaniyah, a Shiite town 80 miles south of Baghdad.

    But people in the Sunni-dominated city of Tikrit, once a power base of Saddam, lamented his death.

    "The president, the leader Saddam Hussein is a martyr and God will put him along with other martyrs. Do not be sad nor complain because he has died the death of a holy warrior," said Sheik Yahya al-Attawi, a cleric at the Saddam Big Mosque.

    Police blocked the entrances to Tikrit and said nobody was allowed to leave or enter the city for four days. Despite the security precaution, gunmen took to the streets of Tikrit, carrying pictures of Saddam, shooting into the air, and calling for vengeance.

    Security forces also set up roadblocks at the entrance to another Sunni stronghold, Samarra, and a curfew was imposed after about 500 people took to the streets protesting the execution of Saddam.

    A couple hundred people also protested the execution just outside the Anbar capital of Ramadi, and more than 2,000 people demonstrated in Adwar, the village south of Tikrit where Saddam was captured by U.S. troops hiding in an underground bunker.

    In a statement, Saddam's lawyers said that in the aftermath of his death, "the world will know that Saddam Hussein lived honestly, died honestly, and maintained his principles."

    "He did not lie when he declared his trial null," they said.

    Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, were not hanged along with their former leader as originally planned. Officials wanted to reserve the occasion for Saddam alone.

    "We wanted him to be executed on a special day," National Security adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie told state-run al-Iraqiya television.

    Sami al-Askari, the political adviser of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, told The Associated Press that Saddam initially resisted when he was taken by Iraqi guards but was composed in his final moments.

    He said Saddam was clad in a black suit, hat and shoes, rather than prison garb. His hat was removed and his hands tied shortly before the noose was slipped around his neck.

    Saddam repeated a prayer after a Sunni Muslim cleric who was present.

    "Saddam later was taken to the gallows and refused to have his head covered with a hood," al-Askari said. "Before the rope was put around his neck, Saddam shouted: 'God is great. The nation will be victorious and Palestine is Arab.'"

    Iraqi state television showed footage of guards in ski masks placing a noose around Saddam's neck. Saddam appeared calm as he stood on the metal framework of the gallows. The footage cuts off just before the execution.

    Saddam was executed at a former military intelligence headquarters in Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah, al-Askari said. During his regime, Saddam had numerous dissidents executed in the facility, located in a neighborhood that is home to the Iraqi capital's most important Shiite shine _ the Imam Kazim shrine.

    Al-Askari said the government had not decided what to do with Saddam's body.

    The Iraqi prime minister's office released a statement that said Saddam's execution was a "strong lesson" to ruthless leaders who commit crimes against their own people.

    "We strongly reject considering Saddam as a representative of any sect in Iraq because the tyrant only represented his evil soul," the statement said. "The door is still open for those whose hands are not tainted with the blood of innocent people to take part in the political process and work on rebuilding Iraq."

    The execution came 56 days after a court convicted Saddam and sentenced him to death for his role in the killings of 148 Shiite Muslims from Dujail. Iraq's highest court rejected Saddam's appeal Monday and ordered him executed within 30 days.

    A U.S. judge on Friday refused to stop Saddam's execution, rejecting a last-minute court challenge.

    U.S. troops cheered as news of Saddam's execution appeared on television at the mess hall at Forward Operating Base Loyalty in eastern Baghdad. But some soldiers expressed doubt that Saddam's death would be a significant turning point for Iraq.

    "First it was weapons of mass destruction. Then when there were none, it was that we had to find Saddam. We did that, but then it was that we had to put him on trial," said Spc. Thomas Sheck, 25, who is on his second tour in Iraq. "So now, what will be the next story they tell us to keep us over here?"

    At his death, he was in the midst of a second trial, charged with genocide and other crimes for a 1987-88 military crackdown that killed an estimated 180,000 Kurds in northern Iraq. Experts said the trial of his co-defendants was likely to continue despite his execution.

    Many people in Iraq's Shiite majority were eager to see the execution of a man whose Sunni Arab-dominated regime oppressed them and Kurds. Before the hanging, a mosque preacher in the Shiite holy city of Najaf on Friday called Saddam's execution "God's gift to Iraqis."

    In a farewell message to Iraqis posted Wednesday on the Internet, Saddam said he was giving his life for his country as part of the struggle against the U.S. "Here, I offer my soul to God as a sacrifice, and if he wants, he will send it to heaven with the martyrs," he said.

    One of Saddam's lawyers, Issam Ghazzawi, said the letter was written by Saddam on Nov. 5, the day he was convicted by an Iraqi tribunal in the Dujail killings.

    Najeeb al-Nauimi, a member of Saddam's legal team, said U.S. authorities maintained physical custody of Saddam until the execution to prevent him being humiliated publicly or his corpse being mutilated, as has happened to previous Iraqi leaders deposed by force. He said they didn't want anything to happen to further inflame Sunni Arabs.

    "This is the end of an era in Iraq," al-Nauimi said from Doha, Qatar. "The Baath regime ruled for 35 years. Saddam was vice president or president of Iraq during those years. For Iraqis, he will be very well remembered. Like a martyr, he died for the sake of his country."

    Iraq's death penalty was suspended by the U.S. military after it toppled Saddam in 2003, but the new Iraqi government reinstated it two years later, saying executions would deter criminals.

    Saddam's own regime used executions and extrajudicial killings as a tool of political repression, both to eliminate real or suspected political opponents and to maintain a reign of terror.

    In the months after he seized power on July 16, 1979, he had hundreds of members of his own party and army officers slain. In 1996, he ordered the slaying of two sons-in-law who had defected to Jordan but returned to Baghdad after receiving guarantees of safety.

    Saddam built Iraq into a one of the Arab world's most modern societies, but then plunged the country into an eight-year war with neighboring Iran that killed hundreds of thousands of people on both sides and wrecked Iraq's economy.

    When the U.S. invaded in 2003, Iraqis had been transformed from among the region's most prosperous people to some of its most impoverished.

    Associated Press Writer Will Weissert contributed to this report.

    A service of the Associated Press(AP)

    Ellie


  15. #15
    Exclusive: Videographer of Saddam Execution
    In a NEWSWEEK exclusive, the man hired to videotape Saddam Hussein’s execution recalls the brutal dictator’s humble final moments.
    WEB EXCLUSIVE
    By Michael Hastings
    Newsweek
    Updated: 2:14 a.m. CT Dec 30, 2006

    Dec. 30, 2006 - Ali Al Massedy was 3 feet away from Saddam Hussein when he died. The 38 year old, normally Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's official videographer, was the man responsible for filming the late dictator's execution at dawn on Saturday. "I saw fear, he was afraid," Ali told NEWSWEEK minutes after returning from the execution. Wearing a rumpled green suit and holding a Sony HDTV video camera in his right hand, Ali recalled the dictator's last moments. "He was saying things about injustice, about resistance, about how these guys are terrorists," he says. On the way to the gallows, according to Ali, "Saddam said, ‘Iraq without me is nothing.’"

    Ali says he followed Saddam up the gallows steps, escorted by two guards. He stood over the hole and filmed from close quarters as Saddam dropped through—from "me to you," he said, crouching down to show how he shot the scene. The distance, he said, was "about one meter," he said. "He died absolutely, he died instantly." Ali said Saddam's body twitched, "shaking, very shaking," but "no blood," he said, and "no spit." (Ali said he was not authorized to disclose the location, and did not give other details of the room.)

    Ali said the videotape lasts about 15 minutes. When NEWSWEEK asked to see a copy, Ali said he had already handed the tape over to Maliki's chief of staff. "It is top secret," he said. He would not give the names of officials in attendance, though he estimates there were around 20 observers. One of them, Iraqi National Security Adviser Mouwaffak al-Rubaie, told CNN that Saddam clasped a Koran as the noose was tied around his neck, and refused to wear a hood. He also said that government officials had not decided whether or not to release the videotape. The execution reportedly took place at 6:05 a.m. local time. Prime Minister Maliki did not attend.

    Ali was greeted as a hero when he returned from the execution a little after 7 a.m., flying in with other officials and landing in two helicopters in the Green Zone. A convoy of 20 or so GMCs and Toyota Land Cruisers waited outside to drive some of the Iraqi officials home.

    The Iraqi bodyguards, mostly Shiites they said, had passed the time smoking and praying—some prayed on cardboard mats on the street.

    It was a cold morning in Baghdad, a few degrees above freezing, and in the post dawn light the guards' breaths could be seen in the air. When the thudding of helicopters began, the body guards rushed towards the entrance to the landing zone. They swarmed around Ali, snapping digital pictures on camera phones and cheering. "Saddam finished, Saddam finished," a guard who gave his name as Mohammed told NEWSWEEK. Ali looked somewhat stunned as he exited, carrying the camera.

    "All Iraqis will be happy," he says. "This is the most important day for me [as a cameraman,]" he said. "This page [in history] is over, this page is over. All Iraqis will be happy from the north to the south to the east to the west." One of the judges who presided over the execution then came out to the street; Ali jumped in a car with him. The convoy of SUVs drove off, one after the other, with the occasional honk of the horn.

    Ellie


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