February 11, 2009 5:34 PM
- Text
Saddam To Iraqis: Don't Hate The Invaders
(CBS/AP)
Saddam Hussein urged Iraqis to embrace "brotherly coexistence" and not to hate U.S.-led foreign troops in a goodbye letter posted on a Web site the day after Iraq's highest court upheld his death sentence and ordered him hanged within 30 days.
A top government official, meanwhile, said Saddam's execution could proceed without the approval of Iraq's president, meaning there were no more legal obstacles to sending the deposed dictator to the gallows.
One of Saddam's attorneys, Issam Ghazzawi, confirmed to The Associated Press in Jordan that the Internet letter posted on Wednesday was authentic, saying it was written by Saddam on Nov. 5 – the day he was convicted by an Iraqi tribunal for ordering the 1982 killings of 148 Shiite Muslims in Dujail.
"I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking," said the letter, which was written in Arabic and translated by the AP.
"I also call on you not to hate the people of the other countries that attacked us," it added, referring to the invasion that toppled his regime nearly four years ago.
Against the backdrop of sectarian killings that have dragged Sunni Arabs and Shiite Muslims into civil warfare over the past year, Saddam urged his countrymen to "remember that God has enabled you to become an example of love, forgiveness and brotherly coexistence."
But he also voiced support for the Sunni Arab-dominated insurgency, saying: "Long live jihad and the mujahedeen." He urged Iraqis to be patient and rely on God's help in fighting "against the unjust nations."
Saddam said he was giving his life for his country as part of that struggle. "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.
Despite his calls for conciliation among Iraqis, Saddam's legacy is brutal. He put suspected foes to death without trial, oppressed Kurds and Shiites, waged war on Iran and twice fought U.S.-led armies. He left an impoverished nation now gripped by sectarian bloodshed and an insurgency against the U.S. presence.
In other developments:
Two soldiers and a Marine died in separate incidents across Iraq, the U.S. military said Wednesday. The Marine, assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5, died Wednesday from wounds sustained from combat in Iraq's western Anbar province. One of the soldiers, part of the 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), died Dec. 23 from a non-combat injury. The other died from injuries sustained in a vehicle rollover on Tuesday.
CBS News correspondent Cami McCormick reports the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq gave a gloomy assessment of the war on Wednesday. "There are still significant shortcomings in the ISF. Iraqi forces suffer from deficiencies in logistics, leadership, and in some cases, loyalty," said Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, according to a transcript provided by the military. "Significant challenges remain, and violence is likely to remain at unacceptably high levels in the near term."
President Bush meets Thursday about Iraq with his National Security Council. They'll be joined at the president's ranch by Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and others, reports CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller.
The Pentagon announced that the 2nd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division will be deployed from Fort Bragg to Kuwait to serve support U.S. forces in Iraq. Roughly 3,500 troops from the brigade will be deployed in "early January 2007," according to a Pentagon statement.
A top aide to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was killed in a raid by U.S. troops Wednesday in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, an Iraqi lawmaker said. The U.S. military, however, said American troops participated in a raid led by Iraqi forces that led to the death of a man with the same name as the aide, Sahib al-Amiri. The military described al-Amiri as a criminal involved in the use of roadside bombs.
A car bomb killed eight people near an Iraqi army checkpoint in eastern Baghdad on Wednesday, police said. They said all of the dead were civilians. Ten people were wounded.
A top government official, meanwhile, said Saddam's execution could proceed without the approval of Iraq's president, meaning there were no more legal obstacles to sending the deposed dictator to the gallows.
One of Saddam's attorneys, Issam Ghazzawi, confirmed to The Associated Press in Jordan that the Internet letter posted on Wednesday was authentic, saying it was written by Saddam on Nov. 5 – the day he was convicted by an Iraqi tribunal for ordering the 1982 killings of 148 Shiite Muslims in Dujail.
"I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking," said the letter, which was written in Arabic and translated by the AP.
"I also call on you not to hate the people of the other countries that attacked us," it added, referring to the invasion that toppled his regime nearly four years ago.
Against the backdrop of sectarian killings that have dragged Sunni Arabs and Shiite Muslims into civil warfare over the past year, Saddam urged his countrymen to "remember that God has enabled you to become an example of love, forgiveness and brotherly coexistence."
But he also voiced support for the Sunni Arab-dominated insurgency, saying: "Long live jihad and the mujahedeen." He urged Iraqis to be patient and rely on God's help in fighting "against the unjust nations."
Saddam said he was giving his life for his country as part of that struggle. "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.
Despite his calls for conciliation among Iraqis, Saddam's legacy is brutal. He put suspected foes to death without trial, oppressed Kurds and Shiites, waged war on Iran and twice fought U.S.-led armies. He left an impoverished nation now gripped by sectarian bloodshed and an insurgency against the U.S. presence.
In other developments:
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