Hundreds Mourn At Saddam's Burial

Thousands More Turned Away From Pre-Dawn Interment In Hussein's Hometown

(CBS/AP)  Hundreds of Iraqis went to the site where Saddam Hussein was buried Sunday in the town of his birth to pay their respects to the executed leader who was hanged a day earlier for crimes against humanity.

Thousands, however, were turned away.

Dozens of relatives and others, some of them crying and moaning, attended the interment shortly before dawn in Ouja. A few knelt before his flag-draped grave. A large framed photograph of Saddam was propped up on a chair nearby.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon on Sunday announced the death of a Texas soldier, raising the number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq to at least 3,000 since the war began, according to an Associated Press count. Spc. Dustin R. Donica, 18, of Spring, Texas, was killed by small arms fire in Baghdad late last week.

Local officials who had assisted in Saddam's rise to power attended the burial, reports CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston. His closest surviving relatives, his two daughters, are in exile in Jordan.

"I condemn the way he was executed and I consider it a crime," said 45-year-old Salam Hassan al-Nasseri, one of Saddam's clansmen who attended the interment in the village just outside Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad. Some 2,000 Iraqis traveled to the village as well.

Mohammed Natiq, a 24-year-old college student, said "the path of Arab nationalism must inevitably be paved with blood."

"God has decided that Saddam Hussein should have such an end, but his march and the course which he followed will not end," Natiq said.

Saddam's followers won't be allowed to view his grave, reports Pinkston (audio). Thousands who converged on Ouja Sunday, near Tikrit, were turned back at police checkpoints. Police are not permitting anyone to leave or enter the city for four days.

Despite the security precaution, gunmen took to the streets, carrying pictures of Saddam, shooting into the air and calling for vengeance.

His burial place is about two miles from the graves of his sons, Odai and Qusai, in the main town cemetery. The sons and a grandson were killed in a gun battle with the American forces in Mosul in July 2003.

It's also near the hole in the ground where U.S. forces found the dictator on Dec. 13, 2003, eight months after he fled Baghdad ahead of advancing American troops, reports Pinkston.

The head of Saddam's Albu-Nassir's clan said the body showed no signs of mistreatment.

"We received the body of Saddam Hussein without any complications. There was cooperation by the prime minister and his office's director," the clan chief, Sheik al-Nidaa, told state-run Al-Iraqiya television. "We opened the coffin of Saddam. He was cleaned and wrapped according to Islamic teachings. We didn't see any unnatural signs on his body."

On Saturday, Iraqis watched television images of a noose being slipped over Saddam's neck and his white-shrouded body, the pre-dawn work of black-hooded hangmen. They went to bed as new video emerged showing Saddam exchanging taunts with onlookers before the gallows floor dropped away and the former dictator swung from the rope.

In Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City on Saturday, victims of his three decades of autocratic rule took to the streets to celebrate, dancing, beating drums and hanging Saddam in effigy. Celebratory gunfire erupted across other Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad and other predominantly Shiite regions of the country.

There was no sign of a feared Sunni uprising in retaliation for the execution, and the bloodshed from civil warfare on Saturday was not far off the daily average — 92 from bombings and death squads.

Outside the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, west of the capital, loyalists marched with Saddam pictures and waved Iraqi flags. Defying curfews, hundreds took to the streets vowing revenge in Samarra, north of Baghdad.

Still, authorities imposed curfews sparingly in contrast to the several-day lockdown put in place after Saddam was sentenced to death Nov. 5.

By several accounts, Saddam was calm but scornful of his captors, engaging in a give-and-take with the crowd gathered to watch him die and insisting he was Iraq's savior, not its tyrant and scourge.

"He said we are going to heaven and our enemies will rot in hell and he also called for forgiveness and love among Iraqis but also stressed that the Iraqis should fight the Americans and the Persians," Munir Haddad, an appeals court judge who witnessed the hanging, told the British Broadcasting Corp.

Another witness, national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie, told The New York Times that one of the guards shouted at Saddam: "You have destroyed us. You have killed us. You have made us live in destitution."

"I have saved you from destitution and misery and destroyed your enemies, the Persian and Americans," Saddam responded, al-Rubaie told the Times.

"God damn you," the guard said.

"God damn you," responded Saddam.

New video, first broadcast by Al-Jazeera satellite television early Sunday, had sound of someone in the group praising the founder of the Shiite Dawa Party, who was executed in 1980 along with his sister by Saddam.

Saddam appeared to smile at those taunting him from below the gallows. He said they were not showing manhood.

Then Saddam began reciting the "Shahada," a Muslim prayer that says there is no god but God and Muhammad is his messenger, according to an unabridged copy of the same tape, apparently shot with a camera phone and posted on a Web site.

Saddam made it to midway through his second recitation of the verse. His last word was Muhammad.

The floor dropped out of the gallows.

"The tyrant has fallen," someone in the group of onlookers shouted. The video showed a close-up of Saddam's face as he swung from the rope.

Then came another voice: "Let him swing for three minutes."

The responses within Iraq to Saddam's death echoed the larger reaction across the Middle East, with his enemies rejoicing and his defenders proclaiming him a martyr.

While Iranians and Kuwaitis welcomed the death of the leader who led wars against each of their countries, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the execution prevented exposure of the secrets and crimes the former dictator committed during his brutal rule.

Hundreds of Palestinians marched in the West Bank to protest the execution of Saddam, shouting "death to President Bush," reports CBS News correspondent Robert Berger. Palestinians also set up condolence tents for Saddam. He was seen as a hero because he paid the families of Palestinian suicide bombers and fired missiles at Israel during the first Gulf War in 1991.

Some Arab governments denounced the timing of the 69-year-old former president's hanging just before the start of the most important holiday of the Islamic calendar, Eid al-Adha. Libya announced a three-day official mourning period and canceled all celebrations for Eid.

Haider Hamed, a 34-year-old candy store owner in east Baghdad, wondered what would really change after Saddam's execution.

"He's gone, but our problems continue," said the Shiite Muslim, whose uncle was killed in one of Saddam's many brutal purges. "We brought problems on ourselves after Saddam because we began fighting Shiite on Sunni and Sunni on Shiite."

The execution took place on the penultimate day of the year's deadliest month for U.S. troops, with the toll reaching 109. At least 2,998 members of the U.S. military have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003, according to an AP count.

Among minority Sunnis there was deep anger, born not only of Saddam's execution but of the loss of their decades-long political and economic dominance that began with Saddam's ouster in the U.S. invasion nearly four years ago.

There were cheers at the cafeteria of a U.S. outpost in Baghdad as soldiers having breakfast learned Saddam had been hanged.

But members of the Army's 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment, on patrol in an overwhelmingly Shiite neighborhood in eastern Baghdad, said the execution wouldn't get them home any faster — and therefore didn't make much difference.

"Nothing really changes," said Capt. Dave Eastburn, 30. "The militias run everything now, not Saddam."

[rihan156]

The first justice principle is that, no matter the gravity of the crime committed, trial is conducted by an impartial third party thus preventing a wronged party from being simultaneously judge and party. When Saddam was captured, he should have been handed over to The Hague tribunal as neither the US, nor the Iraqis can be viewed as neutral parties.

The second principle in peace negotiation is to never initiate actions that could antagonize the other party further and jeopardize the peace process. Instead, while supposedly trying to negotiate peace, the dictator is killed without due process that would include the horrendous Halabja gazing of the Kurds and ensuring that the trial was fair, on a day on which the Iraqi Constitution forbids executions, and within the US troops compound as well. That indicates his intention not to seek peace.

Therefore, we cannot deny that this parody of justice reveals a well planned revenge killing. Although it remains crucial that the Iraqi administration be given the latitude to prove itself, that does not mean that we are allowed to hand over the criminal to those he wronged, which amounts to complicity in allowing the summary and shameful execution to happen.

Now, the question is not to investigate who took the pictures during the execution; it is a matter of asking why the dictator was handed over to those he wronged instead of sending him to The Hague, and why was he executed on the US troops compound.

[exusmcsgt]

If you would like to learn one of the reasons behind the express appeal that Hussein received, take a look:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article2114403.ece

[missamerica4]

BlondMadison

No question about the blond bit, you proved that.

My question is are you one of damnsad Saddamn's offspring?
If not I sure wish you had lived in Iraq, then you could give us the real scoop....if you still had a tongue.

[specimenfred]

BUSHBOTS CHEERING EXECUTIONS & GOD IN SAME BREATH

[blondmadison]

The trial of Saddam Hussein was not legitimate. He was entitled to an appeal process and he was entitled for his entire defense to be heard.

It was not Saddam who committed all the murderous acts. It was the Iraqi people committing torture and murder to Iraqi people. Saddam could have given any order to do anything---it was up to the people to know right from wrong.

And here they are at this late date expounding on the horrors of Saddam Hussein, one lone man.

THEY are the horrors, the Iraqi peoples. THEY do horrific violence to their own. THEY use fear as an excuse--and a host of other reasons for excuses for their disgusting cowardly violence and then hiding behind big Saddam to get away with it.

This country is full of Saddams and peoples who behave like the Iraqi's. If you doubt this, interview the Dixie Chicks. Do the statistics for murder in america. Murder of innocent civilians and children---do the statistics and compare those stats with the stats of Iraq on a normal day. We would rate far worse.

This corrupt administration has no business telling anyone in any country how to do anything. Holier Than Thou is a real mental illness. A Psychosis.

[jn122736]

I find it curious, almost amusing that Christians, regardless of denomination always seem to choose that part of the bible which agrees with their opinion-belief to prove any point in a debate and ignore or redefine the meaning of any part which tends to contradict them.

Which is the reason for my often used quote %u201Creligion and logic are mortal enemies%u201D.

[dea4him]

I think that all you people who are Christians and are judging others about a comment like "God bless George W." need to relax and chill out. Yes, God is against murder, but he also says in Deuterotomy that those who murder need to be killed themselves. You forget that God is also just. Sadaam was killed because he commited murder, and President Bush allowed the Iraqui people to judge Sadaam themselves. The President was wise enough to let his own people create the punishment. So what if people want to thank God for President Bush? Why is it any of your business? Who are you to judge their relationship to God? I am a Christian, too, and quite frankly your comments don't sound very Christian. I think you all who are judging the rest of us need to take a look at your own relationships to Christ before you judge us for our relationship to Christ. "Pull out the plank in your own eye to see the speck in another's". New Testament. Look it up...Matthew???

Happy New Year! AND GOD BLESS GEORGE W. BUSH!!!!!!!

[missamerica4]

SharnCedar

""It's disturbing to read these blasphemies.""

Then don't. Go stick your head up your b'tt and shut up.

[missamerica4]

SharnCedar:

What happened to :
Judge not, that ye be not judged?

OR

Who are you to judge another mans servant?

OR

If you hate your brother, you are guilty of murder.?

I guess you are tell me that David, who God made King, was wrong when he killed the giant?

God was wrong when he destroyed the whole city over s3xual sin ?
When God sent His armies in He said kill everything...even the cattle......matter of fact that is why Saul died because he disobeyed God.

Tell me where God ever forbid an army?

You are blasphemous and a hypocrite.

[ceres5]

The execution of Saddam Hussein showed another face of the character of Shiite Muslims. It is easy to notice that most Shiite Muslim are ignorants, lazy, and low class cowards. Sunni people have much more intelligence and principles than Shiites, and it is only a matter of time when Sunnies will dominate again the Shiite monkeys.

[sharncedar]

"God bless the USA and President Bush"

Could you people not commit blasphemy in this manner, George Bush is a killer. It's disturbing to read these blasphemies. I try to be tolerant, but if you people want to worship killers and war and violence, why do you profane the holy and gentle Christian religion? are there no violent religions for you?

all violence towards mankind is expressly forbidden by our Lord. all violence. there are no exceptions.

If you don't like it, did you ever think that maybe you are not a Christian? You don't have to be. We don't need you, actually. There will be no killers in heaven, no war in heaven, so what will you do there?

You don't want to go to heaven, there is no killing there. no wars to fight, no one to hate or to kill. No "***********" for you to blow up with bombs, or "foreigners" for you to torture or shoot.

You people would kill Christ if you found Him today, probably. Just one more body to you folks, one more "sacrifice".

I don't hate you for it, but please don't use the word "Christian" to describe yourselves, its extremely offensive to my religion.

[hermit22]

Was it Saddam who had a couple of son-in-laws who escaped to the USA but were coaxed back with promises of safty, but when they came home were dead in short order?

[sharncedar]

"I praise God for our President George W. Bush & for all of our military wherever they are"

Could you please clarify which god, as it cannot be the Christian God. Would that be Mars, god of war, of Thor, war god of northern Europe, or just the ol' devil.

Could you also please clarify, as some folks may imagine that our Lord was in favor of killing people, when he expressly forbid killing anyone. In fact, he forbids even striking your enemy, even striking your enemy softly on the cheek. I can't believe you would be a Christian in open defiance of our Lord's commands, that seems out of the question. If you praise a murderer like Bush who has killed over 100,000 human beings, you could not by any means be a Christian.

Please clarify that for people, lover of death. If you use the word God, don't capitalize it, it is blasphemous for a man killer to use such words.

[hermit22]

Proverbs 16:25
There is a way that seems right to a man,
but in the end it leads to death.

v. 28 A perverse man stirs up dissension

v. 8 Better a little with righteousness
than much gain with injustice.

The translation in the above story should be "there is no god but Allah" not "there is no god but God".

[thgdriver]

Happy New Year everybody everywhere.

A special happy new year to all our men and women in uniform all around the world!! Thank You!!

God bless the USA and President Bush.

Gotta Go.

Ga nite.

[missamerica4]

God Bless all of our men and women serving...where ever they are...

Happy New Year America....and Americans...
and the World...

[bmsbms29]

I praise God for our President George W. Bush & for all of our military wherever they are.......

We love you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

God Bless The U. S. A.

I am glad & proud to be an American because I know I'm FREE...............

[bmsbms29]

I was thrilled when I heard that he would be executed & receive his "just rewards" for his conduct while dictator. Then today I was sad that he was hanged - that is, until I remembered all those he had tortured & killed.
- Question - did he really die or were we betrayed - I'm pretty sure he's dead but we could also be deceived...

[missamerica4]

Well we are soooooo capitalistic...

BAD BAD,,,,

Heyyy I will put up the cash....lol

[thgdriver]

"Saddam on a stick", could be a great novelty idea.