Saddam Hussein Executed
In this photo taken Wednesday, May, 23, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI delivers his blessing as he arrives at St.Peter's square at the Vatican for a general audience. The Vatican has confirmed Saturday, May 26, 2012, that the pope's butler Paolo Gabriele, bottom, was arrested in an embarrassing leaks scandal. Spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said Paolo Gabriele was arrested in his home inside Vatican City with secret documents in his possession. Gabriele, a layman, was being held. Vatican documents leaked to the press in recent months have pointed to power struggles and accusations of corruption touching senior Vatican cardinals. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) / Andrew Medichini
Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging after three years in U.S. custody, CBS News has confirmed. He died before dawn Saturday in Iraq, which was just before 10 p.m. Friday EST.
Saddam was convicted of murder in the killings of 148 Shiite Muslims from an Iraqi town where assassins tried to kill Saddam in 1982.
Clutching a Quran and refusing a hood, Saddam Hussein went to the gallows before sunrise, 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.
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.
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.
CBS News correspondent Randall Pinskton confirmed Saddam's death from his defense attorney. It had been reported by Arab television stations in Iraq.
On his last night alive, Saddam sat alone on death row with his Koran, the Muslim holy book, 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.
The execution took place during the year's deadliest month for U.S. troops, with the toll reaching 108.
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.
The Pentagon said that U.S. fighting forces in Iraq are ready for any escalation of violence there.
"U.S. forces in Iraq are obviously at a high state of alert anytime because of the environment that they operate in and because of the current security situation," said spokesman Bryan Whitman.
A statement from President Bush issued by the White House Friday night acknowledged Saddam's execution, calling it "the kind of justice he denied the victims of his brutal regime."
"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, and be an ally in the War on Terror," the statement said.
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.
The Iraqi government had readied all the necessary documents, including a "red card" — an execution order introduced during Saddam's dictatorship.
Saddam had been in U.S. custody since he was captured in December 2003.
A member of Saddam's legal team said U.S. authorities were maintaining physical custody of Saddam to prevent him from being humiliated before his execution. He said the Americans also want to prevent the mutilation of his corpse, something that has happened to other deposed Iraqi leaders.
"The Americans want him to be hanged respectfully," al-Nueimi said. "If Saddam is humiliated publicly or his corpse ill-treated," it could cause an uprising and the Americans would be blamed, he said.
Mariam al-Rayes, a legal expert and a former member of the Shiite bloc in parliament, told Iraqiya television that the execution "was filmed and God willing it will be shown. There was one camera present, and a doctor was also present there."
Al-Rayes, an ally of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, did not attend the execution. She said Al-Maliki did not attend but was represented by an aide.
Najeeb al-Nueimi, a member of Saddam's legal team in Qatar said he had 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.
Leading up to the execution, there was a religious issue that complicated the timing. The Muslim holy period of Eid begins this weekend, and there is some question whether Iraqi law permits a Muslim to be executed on a holy day. Martin reports that the Iraqi government reportedly consulted Muslim clerics.
Munir Haddad, a judge on the appeals court that upheld Saddam's death sentence, said he was ready to attend the hanging and that all the paperwork was in order, including the red card.
"All the measures have been done," Haddad said.
In the United States, just more than an hour before Saddam was executed, a judge rejected a request by his lawyers to delay the Iraqi leader's execution.
The attorneys had sought an emergency restraining order from a federal court in Washington to block Saddam's handover to Iraqi control. Earlier, a similar request made on behalf of Saddam's former chief justice was rejected by an appeals court. An appeal of the latest ruling is possible, but it's unclear if that will happen.
Saddam's lawyers issued a statement Friday calling on "everybody to do everything to stop this unfair execution." The statement also said the former president had been at the time transferred from U.S. custody, though American and Iraqi officials later denied that.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Saddam was convicted of murder in the killings of 148 Shiite Muslims from an Iraqi town where assassins tried to kill Saddam in 1982.
Clutching a Quran and refusing a hood, Saddam Hussein went to the gallows before sunrise, 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.
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.
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.
CBS News correspondent Randall Pinskton confirmed Saddam's death from his defense attorney. It had been reported by Arab television stations in Iraq.
On his last night alive, Saddam sat alone on death row with his Koran, the Muslim holy book, 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.
The execution took place during the year's deadliest month for U.S. troops, with the toll reaching 108.
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.
The Pentagon said that U.S. fighting forces in Iraq are ready for any escalation of violence there.
"U.S. forces in Iraq are obviously at a high state of alert anytime because of the environment that they operate in and because of the current security situation," said spokesman Bryan Whitman.
A statement from President Bush issued by the White House Friday night acknowledged Saddam's execution, calling it "the kind of justice he denied the victims of his brutal regime."
"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, and be an ally in the War on Terror," the statement said.
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.
Anticipation built around Saddam's hanging after an advisor to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said it would happen some time before 6:00 a.m. Baghdad time. Official witnesses to the execution gathered in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone in final preparation for his hanging, as state television broadcast footage of his regime's atrocities.
The downfall of a dictator
Lara Logan reports on Saddam's legacyThe Iraqi government had readied all the necessary documents, including a "red card" — an execution order introduced during Saddam's dictatorship.
Saddam had been in U.S. custody since he was captured in December 2003.
A member of Saddam's legal team said U.S. authorities were maintaining physical custody of Saddam to prevent him from being humiliated before his execution. He said the Americans also want to prevent the mutilation of his corpse, something that has happened to other deposed Iraqi leaders.
"The Americans want him to be hanged respectfully," al-Nueimi said. "If Saddam is humiliated publicly or his corpse ill-treated," it could cause an uprising and the Americans would be blamed, he said.
Mariam al-Rayes, a legal expert and a former member of the Shiite bloc in parliament, told Iraqiya television that the execution "was filmed and God willing it will be shown. There was one camera present, and a doctor was also present there."
Al-Rayes, an ally of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, did not attend the execution. She said Al-Maliki did not attend but was represented by an aide.
Najeeb al-Nueimi, a member of Saddam's legal team in Qatar said he had 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.
Leading up to the execution, there was a religious issue that complicated the timing. The Muslim holy period of Eid begins this weekend, and there is some question whether Iraqi law permits a Muslim to be executed on a holy day. Martin reports that the Iraqi government reportedly consulted Muslim clerics.
Munir Haddad, a judge on the appeals court that upheld Saddam's death sentence, said he was ready to attend the hanging and that all the paperwork was in order, including the red card.
"All the measures have been done," Haddad said.
In the United States, just more than an hour before Saddam was executed, a judge rejected a request by his lawyers to delay the Iraqi leader's execution.
The attorneys had sought an emergency restraining order from a federal court in Washington to block Saddam's handover to Iraqi control. Earlier, a similar request made on behalf of Saddam's former chief justice was rejected by an appeals court. An appeal of the latest ruling is possible, but it's unclear if that will happen.
Saddam's lawyers issued a statement Friday calling on "everybody to do everything to stop this unfair execution." The statement also said the former president had been at the time transferred from U.S. custody, though American and Iraqi officials later denied that.
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Military Considers Recruiting Foreigners
The armed forces, already struggling to meet recruiting goals, are considering expanding the number of noncitizens in the ranks -- including disputed proposals to open recruiting stations overseas and putting more immigrants on a faster track to US citizenship if they volunteer -- according to Pentagon officials.
Foreign citizens serving in the US military is a highly charged issue,it is essentially using mercenaries to defend the country.
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"In the 19th century, when the foreign-born population of the United States was much higher, so was the percentage of foreigners serving in the military," Boot wrote in 2005.
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Full Article
suspected of involvement in a string of suicide bombings and shooting
attacks against Israelis. In May 2002, he was one of 13 gunmen escorted from
the Church of the Nativity siege in Bethlehem, flown to Cyprus and then to
exile in Europe. Several of his fellow deportees received their salaries
from the Palestinian Security Service payroll. Nijmeh proudly told Kalman of
his membership in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades alongside his job as first
sergeant in Palestinian General Intelligence. He was very pleased with the
CIA training that helped him learn the trade. "I was not alone. Many
Palestinian security people were trained by the Americans. We hope they will
continue helping us."
It's now out that the American security coordinator in the territories, General Keith Dayton, has been giving secret training to the Palestinian Presidential Guard. It's part of his program to provide "support" to the Palestinian Fatah faction in its internal struggle with Hamas.
The initial training was conducted by American military instructors in a military camp near Jericho, for some 400 men. And now Dayton has asked the Quartet to put in place a program that will have Egyptian, British and perhaps even Jordanian instructors to train the force loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, helping it to grow to some 6,000 men.
In this context, the experience of previous US training efforts is of interest. Journalist Mathew Kalman revealed in the San Francisco Chronicle in early 2005 that as far back as 1998, the CIA spent tens of millions of dollars, contracting secret training for hundreds of Palestinian Security Service personnel, including members of Force 17.
then part two next
I could be wrong, I won't try to speak for him, but my impression is that he was pointing out that with the exception of the *** of the offspring both dumbya and Saddam generally meet the other criteria described. Both are responsible for uncountable murders, unspeakable torture, priviledged brats to whom rules can't apply, permitting the use of dogs for torture and/or humiliation. The specifics vary a bit but the same lack of principles and morals are shared by both the brutal former and the brutal would-be dictator.
re:Re: "How do you put someone to death for uncountable murders...for unspeakable torture...for raising sons who thought it was their devine right to set dogs on married women who turned down their sexual advances?"
Please check your facts. Bush doesn't have any sons. He does deserve a fair trial, along with his handlers and cohorts, in my opinion. Anything less would be un-American.
feelfree1
Please learn to read and to correctly interpret what you have read...or better yet, learn to think (much more difficult%u2026BUT TRY)
WHO THE HELL WAS TALKING ABOUT BUSH?
Just because non believers rape, murder, steal and have also caused many, many wars because of greed, hate and power I am not going to put YOU in the same basket as them... yes there are stupid religious people (and wars caused because of them) as there are stupid people in any club...
I have read the odd intelligent thing of yours so it would be good if you laid off the continuous barrage against what you so obviously hate and start writing the excellent posts as you are so obviously capable of doing.
Name calling is not at all productive.I would never put you down for your beliefs and it would be good if neither did you, it would then make reading your posts something of interest. I don't put all non religious people in the same basket, most are wonderful, as most religious people are too, it is simply humans who let humanity down...
patriotic9 "The secret of a good life is to have the right loyalties and hold them in the right scale of values." and %u201CDwelling on the negatives simply contributes to its power.%u201D
If Bush was protecting America he would read the last three quarters of the Quran, and others of muslim holy books.
Bush should be wondering!! Where is this moderate Islam? Why is "infidels" (Bush/Blair) explaining that global terrorism is a warped misinterpretation of Islam? Shouldn't it be Muslim's speaking for (not to mention protecting) their own religion? Where are the masses of Muslims who are leading or at least joining the war on terror?
Even the Joint Chiefs of Staff planners have produced a 27-page briefing, they have said that just support of 1 percent of the Muslim population would equate to over 12 million 'terrorists.' " thus Islamic extremists may be supported by 12 million Muslims worldwide, but some say that it could be as high as 30%, but even a 10% is horrific. I just wonder where the out rage is from the other 99% of Muslims..hmmmm...?????
1% is the number of Muslims who committ acts of terrorism however there is about 30% who agree with these acts and thus could be easily recruited. Even in the UK 40% of "them" want Sharia law.
So mcdazz, Bush hasnt a clue what he is up against because he and his merry men obviously dont read the source of terrorism..