Saddam Hussein Executed

Former Iraqi Dictator Hanged; U.S. Forces On High Alert For Surge In Violence

(CBS/AP)  The governments of Yemen and Libya also made eleventh hour appeals that Saddam's life be spared. Yemeni Prime Minister Abdul-Kader Bajammal wrote to the U.S. and Iraqi presidents, warning in his letter to President Bush that Saddam's execution would "increase the sectarian violence" in Iraq, according to the official Yemeni news agency Saba.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi made an indirect appeal to save Saddam, telling Al-Jazeera television that his trial was illegal and that he should be retried by an international court.

Al-Maliki said opposing Saddam's execution was an insult to his victims. His office said he made the remarks in a meeting with families of people who died during Saddam's rule.

"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 said.

Dozens of Iraqi-Americans gathered late Friday at a Detroit-area mosque to celebrate reports that Saddam Hussein had been executed, cheering and crying as drivers honked horns in jubilation. Dave Alwatan wore an Iraqi flag around his shoulders and flashed a peace sign to everyone he passed at the Karbalaa Islamic Educational Center in this suburb of Detroit, a city that has one of the nation's largest concentrations of people with roots in the Middle East. "Peace," he said, grinning and laughing. "Now there will be peace for my family."

About 10 people registered to attend the hanging gathered in the Green Zone before they were to go to the execution site, the Iraqi official said.

Those who were cleared to attend the execution included a Muslim cleric, lawmakers, senior officials and relatives of victims of Saddam's brutal rule, the official said. He did not disclose the location of the gallows.

An Iraqi appeals court upheld Saddam's death sentence Tuesday for the killing of 148 people who were detained after an attempt to assassinate him in the northern Iraqi city of Dujail in 1982. The court said the hanging should take place within 30 days.

Saddam was born in 1937 in a village near Tikrit. As a teenager he was fashionably anti-British and anti-Western. He joined the Baath party but fled when his part in a plot to kill the prime minister, Abdel Karim Qassem, was discovered.

The ruthless Saddam gained a position on the ruling Revolutionary Command Council and for years he was the power behind the president, Ahmed Hassan Bakr.

During the 1970s oil boom, Saddam's Baath Party envisioned a country ruled by Arab socialism.

As deputy chairman of the ruling Revolutionary Command Council, Saddam headed an economic planning council that oversaw the building of vast industrial plants, huge housing projects, eight-lane highways, bridges, airports, universities and communication systems.

By 1979 Saddam had achieved his ambition. He became president and set the tone of his rule immediately by putting to death dozens of his rivals. Even outsiders who met him were quickly aware of the "Saddam fear factor" and its effects, CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey reports.

"I think its fair to say that the intimidation, the fear that he caused reached into the inner circle of his regime and that deprived him of contradictory points of view," said former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Murphy.

Under Saddam, imprisonment or summary execution of political foes was common. Political parties, unions and civic groups not controlled by Baathists were banned. Traditional bonds were reshaped to support a one-party state.

Millions of Iraqis, though, were able for the first time in their lives to wear designer clothes and vacation in London, Madrid or Paris. Others started tasting imported foods and driving Japanese, German or French cars — all at government subsidized prices.

Within a year he made the first of several major miscalculations: A lightning attack to seize a waterway turned into the Iran-Iraq war, an 8-year bloodbath.

His 1980 invasion of Iran, portrayed as a fight against the Persians on behalf of all Arabs, set off an eight-year war that drained Iraq's economy and killed hundreds of thousands on both sides.

In 1990 Iraq's invasion of Kuwait would turn out to be another miscalculation, but in the months before the Gulf War of 1991, Saddam's stock in the Arab world rose considerably. Many Arabs saw Saddam as a man willing to stand up to the U.S., Israel and the West.

As years of sanctions ground down his people, Saddam refused to comply with weapons inspectors and remained the arrogant dictator, loved and hated in equal measure, isolated from his people and reality. Even he may not have known that he did not possess the weapons of mass destruction that were the pretext for the U.S.-led invasion, Pizzey reports.

[gaye5]

Can anyone please tell me if this is true???
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.

And since Sept. 11, 2001, the number of immigrants in uniform who have become US citizens has increased from 750 in 2001 to almost 4,600 last year, according to military statistics.

"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.

"During the Civil War, at least 20 percent of Union soldiers were immigrants, and many of them had just stepped off the boat before donning a blue uniform. There were even entire units, like the 15th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry [the Scandinavian Regiment] and General Louis Blenker's German Division, where English was hardly spoken."

Full Article

[gaye5]

Khaled Abu Nijmeh was one of Bethlehem's most-wanted Palestinian militants in the city,
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."

[gaye5]

I am just hoping that this isnt true, please can someone verify if it is???
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

[vian_khafaji]

There are many facts that only the Iraqis who lived all there lives in Iraq know about. Saddam did not commit "some bad things", he committed atrocious crimes against the Iraqis. Let us recall some of them: executing 49 members of the Command council when he overthrown former President Ahmed Hassan Baker in 1979, at the same day. Executing 40 sugar merchants because they raised the sugar price few cents, after a one-day funny trail. Murdering scientists and religious men, like Raji Takriti in throwing him to the hungry dogs, just because the man was opposing him! what about toxic needles, burning in chemical fluids to hide traces, rapes, robbing the country, giving the whole Iraq in gold and diamond plate to USA! How about Invading and robbing Kuwait??? How about that! well i wish he was dragged in the streets and cut to pieces by the Iraqis just like what he and his maniac followers did to the Royal family and other Iraqi prominent figures.

[budarwish]

Even though Saddam may have done some bad things in his life, George Bush has indirectly ordered the killing of many more people. Saddam was the only strong Arab leader in the Gulf, the only one that some people here believe could protect them from the likes George Bush and Tony Blair. Before people judge him and the people in the Middle East they should find out the facts and not just belive what they are told by certain news programmes - most of which don't paint a true picture... Leave Iraq alone George, it doesn't belong to you.

[defirststate]

mick7744 I think you are guilty of the misinterpreting of which you accuse feelfree1. Sometimes the thoughts meant to be conveyed by words are more than the simple face value of those words. You might want to check out satire and irony to get the hang of it.

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.

[mick7744]

feelfree1
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?

[gaye5]

patriotic9, I read your posts and I have come to the conclusion that because of your bad experience and some of the things said on here by religious people, that you are somewhat out on your thinking of Christians, PSYCHOTICS NON BELIEVERS etc...
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

[gaye5]

mcdazz you said... if it weren't for Bush we would clearly be waiting for another terriost attack..
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..

[hermit22]

thgdriver,the new iraqi government must have thought those 148 people were important too!

[gaye5]

emberrayne you said... I can't understand how after 38 years active duty military service, you could not understand that military leaders make war, not citizens. and you are so right, if the leaders had to also go to war, I wonder if they would..I doubt it.. and Hitler himself said,,,%u201CWhat luck for rulers that men do not think.%u201D
- Adolf Hitler

[hermit22]

sorry! for whatever I did that took so much grey space!

[hermit22]

Gaye5, my outside well pump handle has snow parked on it and is frozen shut, so if you want to send some of the "hot down under in Brisbane"
I'll say, Thank you.

[gaye5]

emberrayne thank you for that friendly reminder FROM CBS RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, I was just going through the posts and wondering why I bother to read them...There are many who are of worth which I have learnt much from, but so many which makes me wonder if they have a brain... as I have posted here before, there is no need for nastiness, we are all entitled to our opinions and it can turn sensible people off posting for fear of being put down for their thoughts.
I am from Australia and am so appallued at what I read... Like many of you I dont like Bush, however if all had gone according to what they thought, we would all be calling him a hero, and I cant for the life of me see why anyone in their right mind would put their name, and country at risk if they didnt believe what they were doing...
I do have pictures of Russian planes which were dug out of the sand, I hope you can find it on the net with these details....
August 6, 2003 NewsMax.com has obtained exclusive photos of a buried Iraqi jet fighter being recovered by U.S. Air Force troops. The Iraqi jet, an advanced Russian MiG-25 Foxbat, was found buried in he sand after an informant tipped off U.S. troops. The MiG was dug out of a massive sand dune near the Al Taqqadum airfield by U.S. Air Force recovery teams. so why WMD..
The MiG was reportedly one of over two dozen Iraqi jets buried in the sand...
My question is, why would any leader (Bush)warn the enemy (Iraq)that he was coming for 18 months before he did so..???

[gaye5]

bildooreilly, very interesting on the stars etc......
I find it hard to keep up with you guys, as when I am asleep, you guys are awake...and man it is hot down under here in Brisbane....we need some of you rain desperately.. this is our summer and victoria has snow while we have drought.. Well you guys Saddam is finished but I have no doubt that someone else will carry on his murderious example, they seem to be full of people who are like Hitler or worse, could it be their teaching or hot weather...eheheh..

[gaye5]

newster1 you said that.... gaye5, the book has SOME medical and other stuff thrown in by the WRITERS, it was WRITTEN by men-
I am wondering how these people knew that by circumcising their men on the 8 day was the best day that the body clotted in all of its life, that circumcising would help to prevent cancer of the *** and other diseases etc. and unless their wives had, had many sexual partners that the wives of circumcised men were less likely to get cancer of the cervix, this is only a new discovery.... they were told to wash after touching the sick, dead, and going to the toilet, how did these men know then what we have only just discovered about 80 years ago????, that unwashed hands spread disease and can kill, Dr's would go from a dying or dead body to examine a pregnant woman without washing his hands causing her to die. Up until recently they have just thrown their faeces out into the roads or somewhere, the bible says to dig holes and cover your faeces then wash your hands. How did these men know that eating certain things could cause diseases???, as we have only recently discovered that there are reasons for this forbidden food, one of the reasons being that they are scavenges thus carry many flukes, worms and disease etc, etc etc...

[layram]

Saddam Hussein's death will not fix anything. I know he did terrible things, but it was MANY years ago. His death will not bring alive the deaths Saddam produced.I think that sentencing someone to die, is something that should not happen actually, it's inhuman. Would you like to be executed like he was?.. I don't think so. Don't do to the other people anything you don't want they do to you. Think about it.

[thgdriver]

canajun3 I repeat--"The enemy of my enemys is my friend". (I will add "good guy bad guy it don't matter")

Of course it's the oil always was. How could President Bush tell us the truth? Did he lie? Of course he did, but then again, who in our goverment does not? We have a foothold in the Middle East and I don't care who happens to be lying their as@ off to get in office, we are there to stay.

Hey Satan, whats Saddam having for dinner, I'll bet it's a heapen hot plate of smashed dic-tators.

[toshi43]

thgdriver, that's not 'spin' - it's the truth. Your government will support anyone, as long as it's in the American interest, ie, your corporate rulers can make a few bucks, and 'democracy' has nothing to do with it. Just look at the record - do the names Somoza, Batista and Diem, just to name a few, ring any bells? These right-wing, murdering dictators were every bit as bad as Saddam, and there are many more examples scattered through history.

You're right about one thing, though - it IS about the oil. If Saddam had no oil, no one would have given a rat's @#* how many people he gassed or tortured to death. And why do you think Bush hasn't attacked North Korea, which has WMDs and whose 'Great Leader' makes Saddam seem like a kindergarten teacher? Because it has no oil, and it will actually FIGHT BACK!

[missamerica4]

thgdriver

Saddamn is hating life right about now.
I think there is more than one "dictator" quietly reassessing their position.
It could happen to them !