Report: U.S. Tried To Delay Saddam Hanging
American Ambassador Concerned Execution Was Being Carried Out Too Quickly
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Play CBS Video
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Peace in the MidEast
Nihad Awad, Executive Director of CAIR, discusses the differences between Sunnis and Shia and what the U.S. needs to do to bring about peace in the Middle East.
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U.S. Sought Execution Delay
As Sunni anger grows over Saddam Hussein's execution, it appears the U.S. wanted to delay the former Iraqi dictator's hanging for at least two weeks. Randall Pinkston reports.
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Saddam's Body Returns Home
Saddam Hussein's body is returned to his home village for burial. CBS News' Randall Pinkston reports on the burial after the Iraqi's execution.
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Iraqis beside the grave of the former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in Ouja, 80 miles north of Baghdad, Iraq, Dec. 31, 2006. Hussein was buried inside a compound for religious ceremonies in the center of the town of Hussein's birth. (AP Photo/Bassim Daham)
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This image from television shows Saddam's coffin ready for transportation to his burial site, Dec. 30, 2006. (AP)
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A Palestinian youth walks past posters of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein at a memorial in the West Bank city of Hebron, Dec. 31, 2006. (AP)
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Iraqi state television showed footage of Saddam Hussein's guards wearing ski masks and placing a noose around the deposed leader's neck moments before his execution in Baghdad, Dec. 30, 2006. (AP/Iraqi TV)
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Iraqis carry portraits of Saddam during a demonstration against his hanging in his hometown of Tikrit, Dec. 30, 2006. (AFP/Getty)
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Photo Essay
World Without Saddam
Around the globe, nations both vilify and mourn the former Iraqi leader in the wake of his execution.
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Photo Essay
Saddam's Final Moments
Saddam Hussein went to the gallows Dec. 30, 2006. Contains photos some may find disturbing.
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Photo Essay
Saddam Verdict
Saddam Hussein sentenced to hang after conviction for crimes against humanity.
A Reuters report, quoting Iraqi officials familiar with the discussions, says ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad insisted that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki provide certain documents, including a signature from Iraq's president.
Iraq's national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie confirmed to CBS News that the U.S. "brought to the attention of the government of Iraq to be careful with ... documentation" and that Iraq provided the required paperwork including "a consent document from President Jalal Talabani."
The U.S. had leverage. From the moment of his capture, to his trial and sentencing, Saddam was in U.S. military custody, reports Pinkston. After the flurry of negotiations, Saddam wasn't handed over until a few hours before his execution.
After Hussein's burial Monday, rage over the hanging spilled into the streets in many parts of the Sunni Muslim hartland Monday, especially in Samarra where a mob of angry protesters broke the locks off the badly damaged Shiite Golden Dome mosque and marched through carrying a mock coffin and photo of the executed former leader.
Sunni extremists had blown apart the glistening dome on the Shiite holy place 10 months earlier, setting in motion the sectarian slaughter that now grips the troubled land.
The Samarra protest was particularly significant because it signaled a widening expression of defiance among Sunnis, the minority Muslim sect in Iraq that had enjoyed special status and power under Saddam and had oppressed the now-ascendant Shiite majority for centuries.
But what exactly is the difference between Sunnis and Shia? Nihad Awad, Executive Director of CAIR, says, "The difference between the two is not necessarily a religious one. It is administrative, it is a political one. And in fact, it is less of a difference than between Catholics and Protestants."
Until Saddam was executed, excluding a few days of protests after his death sentence was handed down Nov. 5, the broader Sunni population had sought a low profile in the sectarian conflict that had seen thousands of them killed or driven from their homes by Shiite militia forces since the Samarra bombing Feb. 22.
"Saddam Hussein's execution is not likely to bring the hoped-for reconciliation although it brought closure to some of his victims," said CBS News Foreign Affairs Analyst Pamela Falk, "and the continued sectarian violence will be key to the Administration's reevaluation of Iraq policy, expected later this week."
Sunni insurgents and foreign fighters of al-Qaida in Iraq had been conducting a bloody insurgency with attacks on U.S. forces and brutal bombings against Shiite civilians since the summer of 2003, shortly after Saddam was ousted in the American-led invasion.
While many Sunnis were known to be sympathetic to the insurgency, its active membership had not reached broadly into the Sunni population. The angry Sunni protests that now are building in the country could presage deeper involvement by what until now had been a largely quiescent group.
The Sunnis were not only angered by Saddam's hurried execution, just four days after an appeals court upheld his conviction and sentence, but were increasingly incensed by the unruly and undignified manner in which the hanging was carried out.
A clandestine video of the hanging showed Saddam was taunted by some present at the execution with chants of "Muqtada, Muqtada, Muqtada" in the last moments of his life. The chants were a reference to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who runs one of the deadliest religious militias in Iraq and is a major power behind the government of al-Maliki, who had pushed for Saddam to be hanged before the year was out.
Saddam was put to death on the eve of the Shiite celebration of the Eid al-Ahda, the major Muslim festival marking the end of the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca and a remembrance Abraham's willingness to sacrifice of his son, now symbolized by the slaughtering of sheep.
The first judge in the so-called Dujail trial, Rizgar Mohammed Amin, said Saddam's execution in the during the eid was illegal according to Iraqi law. Sunni Muslim festivities marking the holiday began on the same day that Saddam was hanged. Rizgar, a Kurd, was removed as chief judge in the case after Shiite complaints that he was too lenient. He was replaced in January 2006 by Raouf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman.
"The implementation of Saddam's execution during Eid al-adha is illegal according to chapter 9 of the tribunal law. Article 27 states that nobody, even the president (Jalal Talabani), may change rulings by the tribunal and the implementation of the sentence should not happen until 30 days after publication that the appeals court has upheld the tribunal verdict.
The hanging during the Eid al-Adha period (also) contradicts Iraqi and Islamic custom. "Article 290 of the criminal code of 1971 (which was largely used in the Saddam trial) states that no verdict should implemented during the official holidays or religious festivals," he said.
In northern Baghdad, hundreds of Sunnis conducted a demonstration to mourn Saddam in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood.
"The Baath party and Baathists still exist in Iraq, and nobody can marginalize it," said Samir al-Obaidi, 48, who attended a Saddam memorial in the Azamiyah neighborhood.
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Saddam ruled rough and hard. Perhaps, that is the only way to rule Iraq. The Shia present showed their childish behavior in chanting Muqtada al-Sadr%u2019s name. Why was Al Sadr%u2019s crew at the hanging? It is a message. The Shia sects rule Iraq now. It is a childish move and Saddam called them on it with 15 seconds to live. Saddam responds %u201Cis this how you show you are brave men?%u201D
I am a white guy from the mid-west and don%u2019t care much for Islam; however, Saddam's courage and dignity in this instance command my respect.
An Arab man can take pride in Saddam: strong, un-repentant, stalwart and dignified to the end. He went down in a magnanimous way and history recorded. it. My president would have been a shaking, crying mess.
In fact, it is shameful thatUS forces only minutes earlier turned the former president of a sovereign country over to an un-dignified and politically aligned mob.
Blaming Bush. Its your fault, its my fault, "We the people" remember?
If not we're all ******
The Social Compact, The Iraqi Soverei (Saddam) had with his people was one based on force, because that is what many Iraqi people accept for their government.
We cam in, destroyed that, and replaced it with a timid democracy that maybe millions of Iraqis have little or zero respect for.
The type of government the Iraqis like is one based on natural freedom--freedom of choice determined by force which will, perhaps, determine who gets the power. Many Iraqis dont care about freedom based on democracy or "will o f the people" like in the U.S.
If we aint in this fight to win that power by force--mayeb we should get out? That's what they seem to understand there.
Anyone who thinks that Iraq can only be governed by a barbaric despot dictator like Saddam is a fascist at heart.
The only people on earth hoping for civil war in Iraq are American liberals - that way they can blame Bush for yet another thing gone wrong.
Grow up liberals, before your kids do.
Who cares, he's DEAD now- a retroactive late term abortion.
If enough of one side kills the other and enough car bombs go off two things will happen;
1) They will all kill themselves off soon enough
2) There won't be any cars left in Iraq
Memorial, protests and grief over a despot who tortured and murdered tens of thousands of people, who even sent the body of a woman's husband back to her in PIECES wrapped up in butcher paper. This guy almost made Hitler look mild.
I think American Democracy is another word for letus move in using our "Shock and Awe" ammo and we'll kill so many--it ought to make a difference.
We'll kill civilians and blame it on Saddam. We'll get out own troops killed and we'll blame it on Saddam. Iraqi's will kill each other and torture each other and THEY will blame their own behavior on none other than Saddam.
That man has some very broad shoulders to carry everyone's weight on.
When do people, like the "Patriotic" very useful "soldiers" who raped and killed innocent Iraqi civilians and in Abu Graib prison---tortured, purposely humiliated, murdered and mamed Iraqi prisoners? Was that also Saddam?
You can lie all you want oh great america, but that is all you are, liars and murders after contracts for oil and natural resources, not to mention the kick backs on those contracts.
Lol, maybe an Iraqi car deficiency will boost the American auto industry.
I'm not a fascist, but have tried to get a deepr understanding of why things haven't worked there.And I believe it is because American assumed that enough people in Iraq would want democracy bad enough that they would bust their ***, and be willing to sacrifice their lives if needed.
Enough Iraqis are willing.
Adn whyile we kid ourselves, more US GIs die
i mena tenough Iraqia are not willing to die fro freedom and justice to make it a democracy.
Instead there is anarchy
Yes but Iraqi people colectively tolerated that behavior. How do you explain that away?
Just like our own troops do, just for the asking.
America thinks it's murder and mayhem is "God's" will? It is moral behavior to kill?
America is psychotic from voting on their own way to behave. Like gang members. Sick and sickening.
Atleast we have the balls to kick out tyrants. Wehn you find a free blog to whine about the government , in Iran, then you will have moral authority.
We are just different. Islam seems to honor the virtue of strength highly...Amecans honor the virtue of freedom...
Yes many of us are not strong morally, Yes many in teh Middel East are not free. We see the weaknesses in each other and both think we are superior.
The American attack on Iraq was more disruptive than Katrina and for a longer time. we even intentionally dismantled the existing police and authorities, down to a low level, without replacing them.
Before you go blaming Iraqis for the mess Bush caused, be careful, if the same thing happens in the US I would think it very unfortunate.
Yeah Bush is pretty *** bad at his job yet we continue to give him a paycheck each week, LOL.
Whats your point? Just about everyone knows now that Bush's job performance would have gotten him fired at McDonalds, but the fast-food joint called the USA keeps him on, LOL
But all those dead soldiers arent chuckling
Good post, and so true.
"Grow up liberals, before your kids do."
Better yet...Grow up before your kids don't get a chance to grow up. Those radicals islamics will blow them and their kids up at the first chance.
WAKE UP!!!
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This is a lie. We had custody of Saddam until just a few hours before he was killed. I rarely watch television, and I just saw everything up until the floor fell, and I must say that it appeared more of a LYNCHING than a hanging.
I am NOT defending the murderer(Saddam), but the way it was carried out...
If the United States government WANTED to DELAY Saddam's execution--WE WOULD HAVE DONE IT.
If the United States government WANTED to DELAY Saddam's execution--WE WOULD HAVE DONE IT.
Posted by kstrisha at 06:52 PM : Jan 01, 2007"
Nuff said!
Our dear leader was just too ready to gloat with the rest of the vultures for us to now believe that he wanted any delay in the lynching of this fairly harmless old man. Tsk-tsk
Where ever you look, YOU CAN SEE GW BUSH HAS BEEN READING (?) ABOUT HITLER, TRUMAN -- and deciding HE COULD DO IT ALSO, only not as well!This could go "on & on"...you know most of it anyway...MOST RATIONAL AMERICANS KNOW THAT GW BUSH WANTED SADDAM DEAD! Not tomorrow, TODAY!!
It is not enough to think that America is special & that we could not experience a SADDAM -- don't look now, BUT GW BUSH HAS BEEN ACTING LIKE A KING & Dictator
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Right On Joan!
and do you know what does this means for you americans?...more hatred...more american bodies everywhere...more burnt american flesh in Iraq and Aphghanstan...and more Usama bin Ladin
now Saddam is a great hero and martyr and his pictures are now put in every arabic and muslim house...cause killing Saddam in that day turned him into a great hero and a victim...another american mistake ...now SADDAM WILL CAUSE MORE SERIOUS TROUBLES THAN BEFORE!!!
So now you Muslims are REALLY mad.
Maybe now you will hijack some planes and fly them into buildings, or maybe kidnap some folks and cut their heads off, or maybe use some car bombs to kill innocent men, women, and children.
Oh sorry, I forgot. You have already done all those things. Were you REALLY mad then, or just kinda mad?
You think it's a lie?I don't think so.USA is not in the control of ordering RADICAL ISLAMISTs like MALIKI rather MALIKI is in full control of taking US tax payed money on the name of REBUILDING IRAQ to form an EXTREMIST ISLAMIC EMPIRE from IRAN in the EAST to LEBANON in the WEST to use that as a BASE to plan attacks against the so called "THE GREATEST SATAN"and to take US weapons on the name of ARMING IRAQI SECURITY FORCES to kill our soldiers with those weapons till OSAMA BEEN-FORGOTTEN order NUKE ATTACK against us when we'd be already FINANCIALLY and MILITARILY BANKRUPT.Our troops are dying in IRAQ by our TAX PAYED money and we can't help that.CHRISTIANITY IS PSYCHOSIS and BUSH is a PSYCHOTIC.We have destroyed ourselves to elect a PSYCHOTIC not once but twice and have proven that we are a NATION OF PSYCHOTIC PEOPLE.
Then in a blink of an eye, he does a complete 180 and we're in Iraq chasing windmills, i.e. WMDs. Shrub wanted Iraq to avenge his father -- GHWB.
Shrub, Cheney, and Rummy shot first and asked questions later(I doubt they even bothered to ask). Now look where we are. Osama-Hasbeen-Forgotten, Iraq is in the middle of a civil war, and our guys are fighting for their lives all because the Three Musketeers had an agenda from the get go.
We couldn't see the VietCong in VietNam and we can't see the snipers & IEDs in Iraq. Totally misguided, totally corrupt, and totally scr#%ed up.
This administration is a couple of clowns short of a circus, and we all got caught holding the popcorn!
American Ambassador Concerned Execution Was Being Carried Out Too Quickly
That is an insult to the intelligence of Americans and to other nations'...
I am neither a muslim nor I have any feeling of mercy for MUSLIMS just like I don't have any feeling of mercy for CHRISTIAN,JEWS,HINDUS,etc.But there is no doubt that I don't hate anybody in the whole world like I hate CHRISTIANS.CHRISTIANITY IS PSYCHOSIS and CHRISTIANS are the worst psychotics in the world.
Anybody with a little bit of common sense can realize that an ideology according to which those CHRISTIANS who love JESUS and believe in JESUS as SON OF GOD and MESSIAH,are GOD-NEGLECTED PEOPLE because of not being born in a RACE or FAMILY CHOSEN by a RACIST GOD whereas those who believe that JESUS was an ILLEGITIMATE SON of his mother and his mother MARRY was a FORNICATOR and NON-VIRGIN are GOD CHOSEN,is as PSYCHOTIC as OSAMA BEEN-FORGOTTEN in TORA BORA and BUSH attacked IRAQ,as PSYCHOTIC as SANTA CLAUSE coming on a FLYING DEER to distribute candies.
If EUROPEAN GOD CHOSEN ENEMIES OF THE GOD'S ONLY SON were not brought into PALESTINE to occupy the land of those PALESTINIAN PEOPLE by force who had nothing to do with the CRIMES comited by HITLER because BIBLE said so,ALQAEDA'd not get enough recruits to fly planes into buildings because KORAN says so.
Posted by ghareeb2 at 08:04 PM : Jan 01, 2007
Let's get this straight... WE DON'T GIVE A RAT's @SS IF WE OFFEND YOUR MUSLIM CUSTOMS. Got it?
President Was Already Asleep For Saddam's Hanging
This is an important milestone in the proof that G.Walking-LiarBush and his dwarfs are once-again lying. Walking-Liar was asleep, meaning that in his mind it (hanging) was a done deal. Ambassador Khalilzad wouldn't take a sole responsibility without consulting with Walking-Liar for the delay.
Now our Adventurous Administration is trying to simulate a cleaning of a jumbo-mambo mess that will generate more bloodshed in the American-occupied territory of Iraq. Hope not.
What a bunch of incompetent counsellors we have.
Judging from the half-illiterate ramblings of the backwater liberal rubes replying on this message board, there isn't a whole lot of intelligence going around the democratic ranks for any remarks to be found insulting to their "intelligence".
Hard to even take some whining hick seriously when he can't even spell or write. For starters, you fools, I recommend "Spell Check".....
Selah
Judging from the half-illiterate ramblings of the backwater liberal rubes replying on this message board, there isn't a whole lot of intelligence going around the democratic ranks for any remarks to be found insulting to their "intelligence".
Hard to even take some whining hick seriously when he can't even spell or write. For starters, you fools, I recommend "Spell Check".....
Selah
A war criminal was executed on the orders of even bigger war criminals... and more gas gets poured on the fire.
Bush slept... Jesus wept.
Judging from the half-illiterate ramblings of the backwater liberal rubes replying on this message board, there isn't a whole lot of intelligence going around the democratic ranks for any remarks to be found insulting to their "intelligence".
Hard to even take some whining hick seriously when he can't even spell or write. For starters, you fools, I recommend "Spell Check".....
Selah
http://www.tvnewslies.org/html/cheney_s_secrets.html
http://www.tvnewslies.org/html/criminal_corporate_media.html
http://www.tvnewslies.org/html/impeach_bush.html
I don't have to impress you to make you my GIRL FRIEND or BOY FRIEND.My spelling mistakes give whatever false impression about me won't hurt UNITED STATES at all period but involving PSYCHOTIC CHRISTIANITY into US politics will doom USA very soon and that GOD who was sleeping on 9/11 will keep on sleeping.You can pick up people's spelling mistakes but can't pick up BUSH's and his PSYCHOSIS CHRISTIANITY MISTAKES which had resulted in the deaths of thousands of Americans in WORLD TRADE CENTER,IRAQ and AFGHANISTAN.Which one is more deadly for Americans,spelling mistakes or mistake of making US POLICIES on the basis of PSYCHOSIS?When OSAMA BEEN-FORGOTTEN was planning attack against USA,the RADICAL CONSERVATIVES were wasting times of the entire nation in figuring out how far President Bill Clinton relstionship went with Ms Monica Lewinsky which was none of their buisness.The same RADICAL PSYCHOTIC CHRITIAN CONSERVATIVES have no prblem when their fellow PSYCHOTICs play the game of THE FATHER,THE SON and THE HOLY GHOST in the HOLY CHURHCES,they have no problem when their fellow CHRISTIAN BROTHER FOLEY harass young boys on the INTERNET.Oh I forgot,these CHRISTIAN conservatives have no problem in a man *** a BOY,they have problem in somebody having affair with adults.
Whatever . . . what I find truly troubling is the fact that they've pinned their hopes of establishing a democracy on a president who doesn't seem fazed about breaking the law while he has been entrusted with the task of enforcing the Nation's laws - is it fundamentally possible to establish security when people don't believe in the law enforcement process? Why should people place their faith in the system and trust law enforcement? I just don't see how this is supposed to happen . . .
Impressing. This is a heck of an argument. Just wondering how I'd behave: laugh or cry in front of such simplicity of mind.
How many times did you go to brainwashin' today? Watch out Rusty. Too much brainwashing could be fatal for yet half-rusty brainers.
Actually you could be a good dwarf for Walking-Liar, and most probably U already are. Walking-Liar cannot be a good leader except for half-brainer people such as you
'The whole truth died with Saddam Hussein in the Baghdad execution chamber yesterday. Many in Washington and London must have sighed with relief that the old man had been silenced for ever'
Luckily we have some decent journalists around.
G.Walkin-LiarBush was asleep at 9h00 pm. My Dad sleeps at that time, but hey he is over 85. Walking-Liar dwarfs, this is a poor performance...
That was a good day for him. Republicans won't have to face public opinion and critics once Saddam silenced for ever.
They should have bent him over the gallows rail and f--ked him in the @ss a few dozen times before stringing him up, to add a little insult as well.
Personally I laugh at how he went from being a fat, cruel mass murderer to a dirtbag in a hole and then a stressed-out nervous wreck, gaunt, drawn and reduced in court to alternately yelling at the judge in indignation or kissing the judge's @ss from the fear of what they planned to do to him.
No doubt you bleeding hearts would have preferred a UN tribunal like Milosevic got - with the defendant on a soapbox for years, with no punishment in sight. Unfortunately Milosevic died of natural causes - he should have been hung, too.
But libs and democrats would have whined about that too.
Selah
Illiterate fools need to be seen and dismmissed. Or you could go back to grade five as a mature student.
Selah
yep, I was a specialist in grade 4, and that was fast... Go to sleep now dirty a$$.
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