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Iraq’s ousted dictator Saddam Hussein has been executed — dying on the gallows, according to MSNBC:
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Three years after he was hauled from a hole in the ground by pursuing U.S. forces, Saddam Hussein was hanged Saturday under a sentence imposed by an Iraqi court, al-Hurra TV, al-Arabiya and Sky News TV reported.
The deposed president was found guilty over the killing of 148 members of the Shiite population of the town of Dujail after militants tried to assassinate him there in 1982, during Iraq’s war with Shiite Iran.
The official witnesses to his execution gathered Friday in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone in final preparation for his hanging, as state television broadcast footage of his regime’s atrocities.
Most assuredly, video will be made available of the hanging as “proof” to any skeptical Iraqis that a man many thought was invincible due to his domination of their country for so long is no longer on the scene. (UPDATE: See the link to the BBC report below. It WAS filmed.) MORE:
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 and ready to die a “martyr.� A third half-brother and another aide are also condemned to die for crimes against humanity.
Saddam’s conviction was hailed by President Bush as a triumph for the democracy he promised to foster in Iraq after the 2003 invasion.
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.
Fox News is reporting it but stresses it is not confirmed:
Saddam Hussein, the former president of Iraq, was executed by hanging shortly before dawn on Saturday in Iraq, Arab media outlets reported.
The U.S. military and FOX News have not yet confirmed that the execution has taken place. Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya wire services and U.S.-backed TV station Al Hurrah reported his death.
The man dubbed the Butcher of Baghdad was convicted of crimes against humanity for the killing of 148 Shiite men and young boys after their failed assassination attempt in 1982 in the village of Dujail.
The BBC reports it, but without a journalistic hedge:
Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been executed by hanging at an unspecified location, reports say.
Iraqi TV said the execution took place just before 0600 local time (0300GMT). It was witnessed by a doctor, lawyer and officials. It was also filmed.
US troops and Iraqi security forces are on high alert for any violent backlash.
Reuters notes the delicacy and secrecy of the specific details surrounding the execution:
An appeals court upheld the death penalty on Tuesday. Iraq’s government has kept details of its plans to conduct the execution completely secret amid concerns it could spark a violent backlash from his former supporters.
More on the day’s events HERE.
(We’ll list times of updates in Pacific Standard Time).
7:45 pm:
ABC News says a “senior U.S. military official has CONFIRMED the hanging of Saddam Hussein.”
7:48 p.m: CBS News gives more details:
On his last night alive, Saddam sat alone on death row with his Koran, the Muslim holy book, CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston reports. As his time waned, Saddam received two of his half brothers in his cell and was said to have given them his personal belongings and a copy of his will.
Najeeb al-Nueimi, a member of Saddam’s legal team in Doha, Qatar, said he too requested a final meeting with the deposed Iraqi leader. “His daughter in Amman was crying, she said, ‘Take me with you,'” al-Nueimi said late Friday. But he said their request was rejected.
….CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports that until being turned over to Iraqi control, Saddam remained in a jail cell in U.S. custody. The U.S. military had been prepared since early Friday morning to hand over Saddam to the Iraqi government, which wanted to execute the deposed dictator as soon as possible.
8:33 p.m.
Saddam’s daughter doesn’t want her dad buried in Iraq (yet):
Ahead of the execution of Saddam Hussein, his daughter had asked that his body be buried in Yemen, a source close to the family said.His daughter Raghd, who is exiled 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 by telephone.
9 p.m. FACT BOX: Key Facts About Saddam.
9:24 p.m.
A Reuters report:
“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.
Several witnesses were present when the Iraqi dictator, who ruled between 1979 and 2003, took his last breath shortly before 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) Saturday.
Saddam’s half brother and Intelligence Head Barzan al-Tikriti, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, a senior judge belonging to the Iraqi Baath Party, were also executed alongside Saddam.
An official source within the Iraqi prime minister’s office told CNN that Saddam’s body was laid out in front of him. He also said that employees of the prime minister’s office cheered and danced around the body.
Reaction From A Wide Variety Of Weblogs:
–For the MOST EXTENSIVE blog reaction, GO HERE.
—Hot Air has a roundup and declares: “Sic Semper Tyrannis. Watch this space for more details.”
—Ed Morrissey is starting a roundup and doing live blogging. He writes: “Perhaps the Maliki government still believes it can use this as a unifying event for Iraqis. It would be nice.”
“The Americans want him to be hanged respectfully,” one of Hussein’s attorneys points out, according to AP, apparently without even a hint of irony.
The oxymoron aside, for our part, we don’t have much to say about all of this, other than how brutally disgusting it is, how Osama still runs free, how well more than the number of American’s killed on 9/11 have now been killed in Bush’s appalling revenge plot on behalf of his father, and how neither Americans in general, nor certainly the troops on the ground, are any safer due to Bush’s appalling failure as a U.S. “President”.
Will I cheer his death? No. And I’ll give his suffering as much consideration as he showed his many victims. None. I wonder if CBS broke into its regular programming to announce Saddam’s death, something its executives couldn’t bring themselves to do when Gerald Ford died.
—Hot Air’s Bryan has a long “remembrance” of Saddam. A tiny part 4 U: “Saddam Hussein was an evil man. He was the Hitler that we stopped before he could do even more damage. Tonight he’s dead. Good.”
—Daily Kos: “Would that this could bring peace to the people of Iraq.”
—DJ Sped: “Sadaam said that he was going to heaven with God, yeah right. God’s gonna send his ass right down to hell. “
Was the capture of Saddam Hussein worth American lives? 2,995 dead, over 22,000 wounded, you tell me I say no. What are the positives of the war? The Overthrow of the Baath Party and Saddam Hussein and Election of a new government is all that I see in the news, how about you? How would the death of Saddam Hussein quell the violence in Iraq and how would the people of Iraq react only time will tell. So I ask, was the justice today an injustice or the begining of something special in Iraq? Only God holds the answers to these question.
—Babalu Blog: “Good riddance. If only the castro brothers were next on the gallows.”
—John Cole: “Finally, even though I know he is guilty, and deserves to die, I still can not help but look at the pictures of the gallows and get a chill. There is something so final, so irreversible, so barbaric and primitive about capital punishment (in particular, hanging) that I still can not embrace it, even for scum like Hussein. Advocates of capital punishment will tell you that the finality and the barbaric aspect of the act are features, not bugs. I am not so sure.”
—Michelle Malkin has a roundup, plus a quote from a reader who feels CNN’s coverage shows political bias: “Lots of readers are peeved by CNN’s memorial tribute to Saddam. Reader Roger writes, “Did Gerald Ford get this much respect on CNN’s home page?””
—Peter David: “First, I’m opposed to capital punishment. Period. Second, just what Iraq needs: A high-profile martyr to rally around and provide reason for an even more massive explosion of violence than we’ve already seen.
—Dean Esmay upon reading the initial report: “I hope it’s true.”
—Clarity and Resolve: “Saddam Hussein will not be down for breakfast…Anyone who wants to can meet me out in the street where we shall ululate, pass out sweets, and fire a few rounds off into the sky.”
–Pajamas Media has an extensive roundup.
—Shakespeare’s Sister: “And I’m not even sure that this is “getting it right.” Leaving aside any debate about the ethics of capital punishment for a moment, I’m not remotely convinced that turning Hussein into a martyr to satiate our need for vengeance is the wisest strategic decision in the long run. In my estimation, there was every reason to lock him up and throw away the key, and, beyond that, little about which to be certain. And death is well… certain.”
—Patterico’s Pontifications: “Does this mean that Iraq is fine now, or that we are at some kind of a turning point? Does it mean that Iraq will be different tomorrow in any perceptible way? Of course not. But in the grand scheme of things, this is a huge step forward. When the history of the war is written, this will be one of the pages. And this will remain so despite the best attempts to minimize it, by lefties both inside and outside Big Media.”
—Prairie Pundit: “The famous Texas defense lawyer Percy Foreman often argued that his clients victims deserved to die, when he was saving them from the death penalty. Saddam Hussein also deserved to die. His career as a genocidal despot ended three years ago, and his career as a ranting defendant in the dock is now over.”
—Wizbang’s Jay Tea: “Saddam Hussein: tyrant, megalomaniac, mass murderer, supporter of terrorism, advocate of genocide, torturer, thug, sociopath, all-around scumbag, worm-feeder. Anyone wanna bet on how long it takes the video to end up on YouTube?”
–Some interesting photos and graphics at Theodore’s World.
—Red State’s Academic Elephant:
In a way, the justice represented by this execution may have a cauterizing effect that the prolonged disintegration of a Fidel Castro or a the truly farcical trial of a Slobodan Milosevic could not achieve. I think Iraq is facing its demons now, something that may turn out to be a strength for the country down the line, and Saddam is one of its primary demons. As simple–or simplistic–as it may seem, I think Saddam was one of the bad guys. I think the Americans who toppled him and captured him and the Iraqis who tried him, found him guilty and will execute him in a few hours are the good guys. I think for the first time in decades, Iraq has potential for a decent future ahead of it.
—The Jawa Report: “Yes, Kos Kidz, the execution of Saddam was nothing more than a ploy to cover up the news of the next Grim Milestone. Morons.”
–Thought Theater says George Bush was playing THIS GAME today.
—Gina Cobb: “You can feel sad, if you lament the death penalty, and if you lament the loss of this man’s soul. But feel the peace, too. There has been a small measure of justice for the hundreds of thousands of victims of Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime. Men, women, children. They died in the most unimaginably cruel ways. Do I need to spell it out for you?” (And she offers some searing photos..)
I will not bother to repeat my anti-death penalty arguments today (already did that yesterday), nor will I celebrate the death of this disgusting bastard. At this moment, his twisted brain is rapidly liquifying, and it will never again scheme against large groups of fellow members of the human race.
He’s dead and I cannot shed a tear. Saddam has posed one of the greatest challenges I have ever been tasked with by Jesus Christ to “love the sinner, hate the sin“. He has also proven the Biblical warning to those who chose to live by the sword that they shall one day DIE by the sword.
Within days of taking power, Saddam Hussein summoned about 400 top officials and announced he had uncovered a plot against the ruling party. The conspirators, he said, were in that very room. As the 42-year-old Saddam coolly puffed on a cigar, names of the supposed plotters were read out. As each name was called, secret police led them away. Twenty-two people were executed. To make sure Iraqis got the word, Saddam videotaped the entire proceeding and distributed copies across the country.
The plot claim was a lie. But in a few terrifying minutes on July 22, 1979, Saddam eliminated his potential rivals, consolidating the power he wielded until the Americans and their allies drove him from office a generation later. However, all did not end well for the aspiring dictator. On Saturday, Saddam was executed.
Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons attack on Halabja was not an isolated incident. It was part of a systematic campaign ordered by Saddam Hussein and led by his lieutenant, Ali Hassan al-Majid, the infamous “Chemical Ali,” against Iraqi Kurdish civilians. International observers estimate Iraqi forces killed 50,000 to 100,000 people during the 1988 campaign known as “Anfal” which means “the spoils.” Further, the Iraqi regime also killed thousands of Iranians with chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq War from 1983 to 1988.
Is he guilty? It certainly appears so. For all of those families who have been destroyed by Saddam’s evil actions, I can only pray that they find a way to heal. It was a very terrible reign that the Iraqis lived through … and with the US selling Saddam weapons, it is a very shameful thing to look at for Americans.
—Right Voices has a round up and a list of great links to weblogs.
—Don Surber:”.. Bob Woodward does the interview. I can see the headline now: “Saddam Hussein opposed the war in Iraq.”…I have a feeling, plenty more will be said. And should. The violence in India in 1947 pretty much disappeared following Mahatma Gandhi’s death. Maybe this will sober everyone up.”
—Middle Earth Journal:”So the Bush’s and Blair’s of the world have changed the subject for a short while with the execution of Saddam but who will history remember as the war criminals?”
—Tennessee Guerilla Women:
God, I hope next year is better, but with this one going out with a lynching, or the human race at its vilest, it doesn’t exactly look promising. The sight of all those humans doing the jubilant dance of revenge was just one more depressing sign from the universe that we are a sick species….This is what we’re reduced to, what the president has reduced us to. This is the best we can do. Hang Saddam Hussein because there’s nothing else this president can get right.
—Tammy Bruce:”As I noted earlier, this is a key step to reforming Iraq. To say nothing of the justice the one million plus victims of Saddam Hussein deserve. With all the mistakes we’ve made in the MIddle east in the past, including our history of proppoing up brutal dictators, President Bush’s commitment to liberate Afghanistan and Iraq, and now the execution of Saddam, helps, in a small way, to right those wrongs.”
–Blogs of War has a GREAT PAGE of reaction from Iraqi bloggers.
—News Hog:”I am, though, sad that he became an excuse for a war of choice in pursuit of goals that had little or nothing to do with toppling a brutal dictator. He was a bad man but there are worse who go un-toppled or even aided by America. I am sad that his death will change nothing for Iraqis. None of the factions were or are fighting because of him. I am sad that the witch-hunt for Saddam was a distraction from the real hunt. Saddam, at the end of the day, was not Osama.”
—The Talking Dog (one of TMV’s FAVORITES due to his originality in both analysis and original reporting) thinks it’s ironic that President George Bush was asleep when Sadaam was executed:
After all the years of telling us about what a bogeyman and monster Saddam was (Hitler meets Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Darth Vader and the Grinch)… to then just sleep through his execution? This is a man that the President kept telling us tried to kill his Dad! The evil tyrant responsible for most if not all of the evil in the universe! The tyrant, now finally facing justice.
And at the very moment of “justice” being meted out… the President is asleep, with orders not to wake him. What an amazing personality and conscience the President has. Or at least, what an amazing pharmacologist.
News Stories And Editorials:
The Detroit Free Press:
The dictator is dead but the war is far from over.
The execution Friday night (Detroit time) of Saddam Hussein — carried out with remarkable swiftness by the standards of capital punishment in America — will not, unfortunately, bring a swift resolution to the bloody fighting engulfing Iraq. Indeed, U.S. military forces will need extra fortitude to deal with a possible upsurge in trouble in reaction to the hanging….
….Bush has tried to shore up support for the war with the canard of “fighting them there so we don’t have to fight them here.” Yet the impending execution of Hussein brought new warnings of terrorism risks at home. Some may have been dancing in the Iraqi streets over Hussein’s death, but the feeling on Main Street USA was a little uneasy.
—Saddam Hussein’s Record of Infamy Ends
—Times Online‘s Obituary of Hussein
—Dictator Who Ruled Iraq With Violence Is Hanged for Crimes Against Humanity
—Expatriate Iraqis celebrate execution
—Hussein legacy: Megalomaniac, nationalist leader
—Speculation grows over timing of Saddam’s hanging
—Saddam’s execution removes thorn for US, Bush
The rapid confirmation of the death sentence against Saddam Hussein is a long step backwards for Iraq. It is a brutal, if inevitable, display of victor’s justice that offends the principles that the US said it sought to uphold in toppling Iraq’s dictator. It will deepen the rifts between Shias and Sunnis, perhaps already fatal to Iraq’s unity.
The loud welcome that the US gave yesterday to the Iraqi court’s ruling was ugly. It sounded like an attempt to extract some proof of success, for want of any other. But if Iraq achieves stability, it may well now be under a Shia “strongman�, not quite the contrast to Saddam that the US intended.
—India condemns Saddam’s execution
—Iraqi-Americans Cheer Reports of Saddam’s Execution
—U.S. Forces Poised For Violence In Iraq
—BBC‘s readers’ reactions to execution
—U.S. Networks In Quandary Over How To Show Execution Footage