Saddam Execution Thread

[Srirangan]

I don't think he dies an innocent man. In no way am I defending Saddam, but what is the rationale in taping it and releasing it to the world's media?

Releasing the video has only moved sensitive parts of the world ever so closer to anarchy.

[Asim Aquil]

Do we see fear?

Or is it the media's spin to make a murder appear more macabre?

Propadanda and disinformation must have credibility!

The security guard in the morning said he was shouting his usual Palestine Palestine thing...

So Ray what's more of a propaganda tool? A chicken **** Saddam or a defiant Saddam? (which means without remorse) Mix reports of both.

[Asim Aquil]

I don't think he dies an innocent man. In no way am I defending Saddam, but what is the rationale in taping it and releasing it to the world's media?

Releasing the video has only moved sensitive parts of the world ever so closer to anarchy.

Well BBC mentioned something. They said since Maliki is like all his supporters should now unite with the government, so this video is a message to them. Showing them what happens when you stand defiant against them...

Now rewind back to what I said up there? I just happened to give it straight and remove the middle man (the Iraqi government) out of the picture and blame the real guy calling all the shots.

[Srirangan]

http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/Top...howbyline=True

Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein met a grim end Saturday, as he was led to the gallows in handcuffs and hanged for his role in the killings of 148 Shiite Muslims.

Millions of Iraqis are believed to have stayed up all night to watch news of the event on TV. State television aired national songs after the first announcement, and had a crawl on the screen that read: "Saddam's execution marks the end of a dark period of Iraq's history."
Government officials have said that photos of the execution were taken, and will be released soon.
A witness said Saddam was handcuffed before he was brought into an execution chamber and did not resist. He also said there was visible fear on his face before he was hanged, but he refused to wear a head-covering.
Saddam, 69, was convicted for his role in the 1982 killings of 148 people in a primarily Shiite town north of Baghdad. The victims had been detained after an attempt to assassinate him in Dujail, northern Iraq.
Mariam al-Rayes, 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."
Edward Peck, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, said the execution could actually do more harm than good for the country.
"I don't think this is going to advance America's interests in Iraq at all," said Peck, arguing it could spark further sectarian violence.
Late Friday, a U.S. judge dismissed a last-minute court challenge by Saddam's lawyers, who had argued the execution should be stayed because Saddam also faced a civil lawsuit in Washington.
The judge said the U.S. courts could not interfere with another country's judicial system, according to AP.
Saddam had been formally in Iraqi custody since his capture three years ago, but physically held by U.S. military guards at Camp Cropper, a military prison near the Baghdad airport.
The administration of U.S. President George Bush had said the timing of the execution was a matter for the sovereign Iraqi government.
"That is a matter for the Iraqi people; we are observers to that process. They are a sovereign government and they will make their own decisions regarding carrying out justice," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said in Crawford, Texas.
Saddam himself had appeared to be preparing himself for the hanging on Friday. AP reported his half-brothers visited him in his jail cell and he gave them his will.
And in a final farewell letter posted Wednesday on Saddam's former Baath Party website, he urged Iraqis not to retaliate against American citizens.
"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," he wrote in Arabic. The Associated Press translated the letter.
Hussein added: "I also call on you not to hate the people of the other countries that attacked us."
Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, were also reportedly hanged, although their deaths have not been confirmed.
U.S. forces in Iraq are preparing for any attacks following the execution, U.S. Defence Department officials say.
Saddam was also in the middle of another trial, in which he was charged with genocide and other crimes during a 1987-88 military crackdown on Kurds in northern Iraq.
That trial was adjourned until Jan. 8, but experts have said the trial of Saddam's co-defendants is likely to continue despite his execution.
Coalition forces stopped capital punishment in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, arguing the court system was incapable of rendering fair decisions.
But the Iraqi government reinstated the death penalty after the handover in June 2004, partly in order to have the option of executing Saddam if the High Tribunal found him guilty.
The Iraqi government has since released footage of some executions, showing convicts lined up in a row with black hoods covering their faces. Saddam rarely made executions public during his rule.
With files from The Associated Press

Can anyone explain how does televising and broadcasting the execution all around the world help the cause for a stable Iraq?

If anything it would help rest of the world be more Iraq'ed.

[Srirangan]

Well BBC mentioned something. They said since Maliki is like all his supporters should now unite with the government, so this video is a message to them. Showing them what happens when you stand defiant against them...

Now rewind back to what I said up there? I just happened to give it straight and remove the middle man (the Iraqi government) out of the picture and blame the real guy calling all the shots.

Was the release of the execution video for the Islamic audience in Iraq & elsewhere?

Local politics over a guys execution video? Are we that barbaric?

[Asim Aquil]

Let's see... More news coming in.

[Ironduke]

Was it wise to broadcast that execution on national television?

There's already been an attack on Kufa.

Let no more blood be spilled on account of this man! Or am I just being optimistic?

I don't think the actual execution as broadcast on television, just the moments leading to it. Please guys, no cartoons about this, despite Saddam's atrocities it's not in good taste.

No punishment can ever be adequate enough to atone for the people he's had brutally tortured and killed. I'd think ever Shi'ite and Kurds in Iraq knows somebody who was a victim of his despotic rule, and making light of it, though human nature, is in poor taste when considering their suffering.

[Srirangan]

If Saddam could direct the Baathists from the prison, either the Iraqis and the Americans were the most incompetent of idiots or it proves that Saddam is popular.

Take your choice.

This type of a theory is as flawed as the WMD in Iraq theory perpetuated by the Bush regime to justify their blatant aggression on a sovereign nation.

Indeed if Saddam is a criminal, so are many tinpot dictators around the world,

Why have they not been brought to justice?

Saddam has been silenced because he would be a threat to all if free!

I agree. Musharraf to the gallows next Eid!

[Khan Sahab]

The execution of Saddam Hussein wasn't a great deed, offcourse he was involved in crimes against humanity but those crimes are overshadowed by recent violence and human right violation in Iraq. Iraq is in a much bitter state then it was in Saddam's regime, so if we really think over it some other great ppl in Global politics should be hanged if judged neutrally.. What do you think, and no response from stubborns plzz

[Srirangan]

The execution of Saddam Hussein wasn't a great deed, offcourse he was involved in crimes against humanity but those crimes are overshadowed by recent violence and human right violation in Iraq. Iraq is in a much bitter state then it was in Saddam's regime, so if we really think over it some other great ppl in Global politics should be hanged if judged neutrally.. What do you think, and no response from stubborns plzz

I think the execution was an eventuality. If and when he lost power, the successor would have him killed. That is the way things happen in the Islamic World.

However, the way things have taken place appear very brutal, especially the televisation of the incident. To see an old man, be hung, is very sad.

Surely I'm not against the hanging, it had to happen, one way or the other. Why on Eid? Why on my television screen? Surely even Saddam was entitled to at least little dignity!

[Khan Sahab]

I agree. Musharraf to the gallows next Eid!

And who will do this gr8 job?

[krishna]

The execution of Saddam Hussein wasn't a great deed, offcourse he was involved in crimes against humanity but those crimes are overshadowed by recent violence and human right violation in Iraq. Iraq is in a much bitter state then it was in Saddam's regime, so if we really think over it some other great ppl in Global politics should be hanged if judged neutrally.. What do you think, and no response from stubborns plzz

You are absolutely right. I too have same views.

[krishna]

And who will do this gr8 job?

Pukthuns or panjabis !!!!!

[Alamgir]

Justice was NOT served here. Saddam was not put on trial for all of the charges made against him. He did not stand on trial for his war crimes against Iran and his massacres and use of gas on the Kurds in northern Iraq. His execution on this day has DENIED his many victims of justice and is a slap in the face of justice and rule of law itself. His trial has been nothing but a circus and his execution on this day is politically motivated and has nothing to do with justice at all. I hope the Americans and Iraqi government will realize that they have made a huge blunder here. Saddam deserved the death penalty but not in such a cheap way like this.

[S2]

Too much gnashing of teeth and unfocused wailing by those terminally opposed to Iraqi national reconciliation. He's dead, if only for a small portion of his crimes against Iraq. Sadly, he can only die once.

Still, his crimes should be sufficient to confirm his permanent residence in hell, where he'll pay the remainder of his debt through eternity.

What more need be done? I'm satisfied. May his soul rot in hell.