Hussein Execution Imminent?

[SWJED]

29 December Washington Post - Speculation on Hussein Grows (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/29/AR2006122900142.html).


American and Iraqi officials said Friday that the execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is imminent and could occur as early as Friday night or Saturday morning in Iraq.

There were conflicting accounts on Friday of whether the U.S. military, which had been detaining Hussein, had handed him over to Iraqi authorities. The Associated Press and Reuters news services quoted Hussein's lawyers as saying that U.S. officials have transferred Hussein to Iraqi custody, but a U.S. official told The Washington Post at 8:45 p.m. Baghdad time (12:45 p.m. EST) that Hussein was still in U.S. custody...

[RTK]

I think they'll wait until daybreak.
It's easier to deal with the storm in the morning. It'll give the iraqi forces enough time to lock areas down and stop the madness before it starts.

And it needs to be Iraqi forces who quell the violence, not Americans, as this will usher in a new beginning for that country, much like we did it with the elections last year.

[SWJED]

Lawyers Work to Stop Saddam's Execution (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/29/AR2006122900919.html) - AP.


Saddam Hussein will be executed no later than Saturday, said an Iraqi judge authorized to attend his hanging. American and Iraqi officials met to set the hour of his death.

Lawyers for Saddam made a last-minute appeal to an American court to avert execution in Iraq, asking a judge to block his transfer from U.S. custody to the hands of Iraqi officials...

[SWJED]

Official: Saddam to Be Executed Tonight (http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/12/29/D8MAPK000.html) - AP.


The official witnesses to Saddam Hussein's impending execution gathered Friday in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone in final preparation for his hanging, as state television broadcast footage of his regime's atrocities.

The Iraqi government readied all the necessary documents, including a "red card" - an execution order introduced during Saddam's dictatorship...

An adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Saddam would be executed before 6 a.m. Saturday, or 10 p.m. Friday EST. Also to be hanged at that time were Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, the adviser said...

[RTK]

Now the remaining question is how long will it take the footage to make it to YouTUBE.

[Strickland]

At the risk of being accused of being a communist, executing Saddam could be an extremely bad move for the US. It may have been better for us to turn him over to the International Criminal Court as was done with Milosevic, Bagasora, Taylor, etc. If we refused to push for Idi Amin's extradition before his death, or the criminal prosecution and extradition of Ta Mok, Pol Pot, or Mengistu, it may appear to Muslims that we only execute Muslim autocrats.

[SWJED]

Saddam Set to Hang at Dawn (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/29/AR2006122900525.html) - Reuters.


Iraq's government plans to hang Saddam Hussein at dawn on Saturday, a key court official told Reuters, although it remained unclear whether a final agreement had been reached with U.S. officials on the details.

"They just called to tell me to be ready to attend the hanging at 5:30 a.m. (9:30 p.m. EST Friday)," said the court official, whose presence is demanded by law. The execution was planned by 6 a.m., he added, although he did not know where it would happen...

[SWJED]

At the risk of being accused of being a communist, executing Saddam could be an extremely bad move for the US. It may have been better for us to turn him over to the International Criminal Court as was done with Milosevic, Bagasora, Taylor, etc. If we refused to push for Idi Amin's extradition before his death, or the criminal prosecution and extradition of Tak Mo, Pol Pot, or Mengistu, it may appear to Muslims that we only execute Muslim autocrats.

He was tried by an Iraqi court and will be executed by the Iraqi Government.

[Jones_RE]

He was arrested by American soldiers and held in an American prison with American guards . . . .

Anyway, facts don't matter here. If the Iraqi government (or the American government) had decided to grant a reprieve, the insurgents would proclaim victory because we were too scared to go through with it. Or that the government was corrupt and thus must be destroyed, etc. What matters to the insurgent is continuing their narrative, whatever it is.

[Culpeper]

Long Live the Queen (http://apnews.myway.com//article/20061230/D8MATSH80.html)


By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA



BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Some Arab media, including Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya and the U.S.-financed Al-Hurra, reported about an hour before daylight Saturday (about 10 p.m. EST Friday) that Saddam had been executed. State-run Iraqiya television cited reports of Saddam's hanging, but like the other television stations did not provide sources.

[SWJED]

Iraq Executes Saddam Hussein by Hanging (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-execute30dec30,0,2497621.story?coll=la-home-headlines) - LA Times.


A defiant Saddam Hussein was hanged at dawn Saturday in a secret concrete death chamber here as the Muslim call to prayer echoed over the capital. Hussein and 14 Iraqi government representatives were flown by helicopter to the site, according to Iraqi High Tribunal Judge Munir Haddad.

Guards escorted Hussein into the room, where he denounced the West and Iran. Hussein then climbed the high ladder to the gallows. As his executioners placed a noose around his neck, Hussein blanched but betrayed no emotion, Haddad said. Hussein refused to wear a hood.

The charged silence that settled over the execution chamber was suddenly shattered by four guards, all apparent followers of militant Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr -- a man whose ruthless ambition and dark charisma rivals Hussein's, many Iraqis say. "Muqtada Sadr!" they cried out triumphantly. "Muqtada Sadr!"

Hussein scoffed. "The last word he said was 'Muqtada,'" said Haddad, who described Hussein's tone as condescendingly sarcastic. "And then he was hanged."...

[SWCAdmin]

How many years from swinging would he still be if this was proceeding through the U.S. criminal courts?

[SWJED]

http://www.smallwarsjournal.com/images/saddamexecution1.jpg

... at today's SWJ Daily News Links (http://www.smallwarsjournal.com/news/061230.htm) - includes a London Daily Telegraph video of Saddam's last moments on the gallows just prior to execution.

[pcmfr]

How many years from swinging would he still be if this was proceeding through the U.S. criminal courts?

Or worse yet, the Hague?

[Strickland]

I find it ironic that Saddam was convicted and executed for crimes against humanity as manifest in his execution of 152 Shi'ites after a failed assasination attempt in 1982. Question - which nation was doing everything possible to financially and militarily support Saddam, his continued hold on power, and his aggressive war against Iran (other Shi'ites) in 1982?

[SWJED]

I find it ironic that Saddam was convicted and executed for crimes against humanity as manifest in his execution of 152 Shi'ites after a failed assasination attempt in 1982. Question - which nation was doing everything possible to financially and militarily support Saddam, his continued hold on power, and his aggressive war against Iran (other Shi'ites) in 1982?


“The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive.”







--Robert A. Heinlein

[RTK]

You can get a rope, just like the one used to execute Saddam, on eBay....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110073937696

Brilliant. I wish I'd thought of that. A replica rope. Current bid is $1,025.00

[slapout9]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfzE-bV0gKY&mode=related&search=

Edited by GV -- this is humor / satire

[Jedburgh]

http://www.smallwarsjournal.com/images/saddamexecution1.jpg

... at today's SWJ Daily News Links (http://www.smallwarsjournal.com/news/061230.htm) - includes a London Daily Telegraph video of Saddam's last moments on the gallows just prior to execution.
I've been waiting to see that for a very long time. Hell with any other context, consequences, blowback, or whining about judicial improprities (http://hrw.org/reports/2006/iraq1106/iraq1106webwcover.pdf) - it gives me incredible emotional satisfaction to see him swing.

[RTK]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/bizarrebazaar/2006/12/saddams_hanging.html#comment-27102907

Read this, especially the part at the end....

[SWJED]

Here is a link to the entire execution (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZJ9mMnfEHk) as reportedly taken by a cell phone video camera.

[Bill Moore]

It is disappointing that the government's executioners chanted long live Al Sadr. I think the Iraqi government did a poor job managing this stage event, and the propaganda they gave the Sunni insurgents is invaluable to them.

[Uboat509]

I have said before that we cannot kill al-Sadr until we isolate him from Maliki, despite the fact that al-Sadr clearly needs to go. Now I wonder if it is even possible to isolate him. This execution seems to me to have tied them even closer together. I didn't think there could possibly be a downside to Saddam's execution but it appears that by using the Mahdi army to perform the execution, Maliki may have handed to Sunni insurgents a huge propaganda gift. There can be no doubt that Saddam's execution was justice but I cannot shake the feeling that to a Sunni, even one who was not a Ba'athist, this looks like vengeance and it looks like the Mahdi army is running things.

SFC W

[SWJED]

... of Saddam's last words:


A witness, Iraqi Judge Munir Haddad, said that one of the executioners told Hussein that the former dictator had destroyed Iraq, which sparked an argument that was joined by several government officials in the room.

As a noose was tightened around Hussein's neck, one of the executioners yelled "long live Muqtada al-Sadr," Haddad said, referring to the powerful anti-American Shiite religious leader.

Hussein, a Sunni, uttered one last phrase before he died, saying "Muqtada al-Sadr" in a mocking tone, according to Haddad's account.

[Jedburgh]

I have said before that we cannot kill al-Sadr until we isolate him from Maliki, despite the fact that al-Sadr clearly needs to go. Now I wonder if it is even possible to isolate him. This execution seems to me to have tied them even closer together. I didn't think there could possibly be a downside to Saddam's execution but it appears that by using the Mahdi army to perform the execution, Maliki may have handed to Sunni insurgents a huge propaganda gift. There can be no doubt that Saddam's execution was justice but I cannot shake the feeling that to a Sunni, even one who was not a Ba'athist, this looks like vengeance and it looks like the Mahdi army is running things.

SFC W
The final sentence of the blog post on the execution that RTK linked to earlier in this thread sums it up nicely: ...it is informative to the extent that it reveals the political baggage that the current government carries on its shoulders. It does not add up to a pretty picture.

[Tc2642]

Hanging him mid-prayer wasn't a good idea either. Too me the whole thing was a fiasco, what were they thinking letting someone in with a camera-phone? It would have been much better if a non partisan executioner had been involved. Just another milestone in the bloody mess that is now Iraq.

[Rob Thornton]

Well here is one we did not catch until too late. For those of you who know a little about the Hajj (I'm learning as I go here) there are certain things you are not supposed to do during it. Killing is one of them. Now - there are exceptions, war is war after all, but here is something I found out yesterday and confirmed today. The Sunni and Shiite have slightly different time schedules for the Hajj. The Sunni'd begin a day early and end a day early. The Maliki govt. did not want to execute Saddam during the holiday, so they executed him a day early then the beginning of the Hajj - by the Shiite Calendar! So Sunni Saddam was hung on the beginning of the Sunni holiday. Guess what the perception by the Iraqi Sunni is, especially when combined with the chanting of Sadr's name? Its not just Iraqis that are torqued either - Sunni Arabs in other Gulf States are not too happy either. One of our better terps commented that this is a great way to start a civil war. One of my IA counterparts told me he'd not be surprised to see some significant Shiite target by Sunnis in Baghdad.

Its hard to imagine that any Shiite living in Iraq would not know that that the Sunni holiday began a day early, and that it would not be perceived as a slap in the face to the Sunni. There has been so little activity in Mosul the last few days, I'm wondering if all the Sunni AIF went South?

[SWJED]

Iraqi Government to Investigate Saddam Execution, Unauthorized Video (http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-01-02-voa58.cfm) - VOA.


Iraqi officials say they have launched an inquiry into the conduct of the execution of Saddam Hussein and how it was secretly recorded. Unlike the official execution videotape, which was silent, a mobile phone camera captured picture and sound of Saddam being taunted and then dropping to his death. One person also can be heard shouting "Moqtada," the name of a radical Shi'ite cleric and opponent of Saddam.

Iraqi Government to Investigate Saddam Hanging, Leak of Video (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/02/AR2007010200421.html)- AP.


The prime minister on Tuesday ordered an investigation into the conduct of Saddam Hussein's execution in a bid to learn who among the witnesses taunted the former Iraqi leader in the last minutes of his life, then leaked a cell phone video. The video contained audio of some witnesses taunting Saddam with chants of "Muqtada" and of the former leader responding that his tormentors were being unmanly. It surfaced on Al-Jazeera television and the Internet late Saturday, the day Saddam was hanged.