Saddam video fallout
Iran-Veiled warnings-videoIraq probes Hussein executionPOSTED: 0651 GMT (1451 HKT), January 3, 2007 Story Highlights
• EW: Aide to al-Maliki: Probe launched into leak of execution video • NEW: Chief prosecutor: Two execution witnesses had cell phones • NEW: Cell phone video shows bitter exchanges between Hussein, guards BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq has launched an investigation into who recorded and distributed images of the execution of Saddam Hussein, as well as the taunting of the former leader just prior to his death, according to a government spokesman. The announcement of the investigation follows reports of U.S. officials who tried to delay Hussein's execution, fearing it would deepen a civil divide in Iraq. There are conflicting reports on who smuggled a cell phone into the execution chamber. Sami al-Askari, an aide to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, attended the execution and told CNN it was one of the four masked guards who recorded the hanging. (Watch how the cell-phone video is causing concern in Iraq ) However, chief prosecutor Munqith Faroon -- who also was among the 14 people inside the chamber -- told Danish television that he knew of two senior officials in the chamber who had cell phones, despite security measures in place to prevent such devices from being brought into the room. "How they took them in, I don't know," Faroon said. "We were searched one by one before going into the room. They had a box to place phones in," he added. Early Saturday morning, Hussein was transported from his holding cell at Camp Cropper to the execution site, a building where Hussein's intelligence officers had hanged so many others. There, he was handed over to Iraqi security. Cell-phone videoOfficial government video of the execution was released without sound and ends when the noose is put around Hussein's neck. But a crude cell-phone video leaked less than 24 hours later goes much further -- showing bitter exchanges between Hussein and his Shiite guards. After Hussein offers prayers, the guards shout praise for Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric whose father is believed to have been murdered by Hussein's regime. They chant, "Muqtada! Muqtada! Muqtada!" Hussein smiles. "Is this how you show your bravery as men?" he asks. "Straight to hell," someone shouts back at him. "Is this the bravery of Arabs?" Hussein asks. A sole voice is heard trying to silence the taunts. "Please, I am begging you not to," the unknown man says. "The man is being executed." Another shout, "Long live Mohammed Baqir Sadr" -- referring to Muqtada al-Sadr's father-in-law and a founder of the Shiite Dawa movement -- who was executed by the Hussein regime. Dawa is al-Maliki's party. The taunts continued, and the trapdoor dropped shortly after 6 a.m. Saturday. Hussein was hanged. (Watch Hussein's last moments ) Immediately after, Shiite witnesses danced around his body, chanting celebratory slogans. On Sunday, the U.S. military transported Hussein's body for burial at his home village of Awja near Tikrit, where Sunnis took to the streets loudly calling the former Iraqi president a hero and a martyr. Official: U.S. wanted to wait two weeks U.S. officials reportedly tried to delay last week's execution of Hussein, fearing it would fuel perceptions the death of the former Iraqi dictator was more about Shiite retribution and less about justice. It was a caution that fell on deaf ears, however, as Prime Minister al-Maliki, a Shiite, was determined to put Hussein to death before the beginning of the Eid al-Adha holiday. The holiday began at sunrise Saturday for Iraqi Sunnis on Sunday for Shiites. Hussein, a Sunni, was executed 6 a.m. Saturday (10 p.m. Friday ET). (Watch how Iraqis react to cell-phone footage ) By midday Friday, amid reports and public denials that the United States had given Iraqis custody of Hussein, American officials were talking privately with al-Maliki, according to a member of the Iraqi parliament close to the prime minister. At one point, al-Askari said, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad suggested a delay of two weeks. But al-Maliki and his aides rejected that, citing security concerns and rumors of possible violence swirling around the capital. (Watch what transpired in the days before the execution ) Meanwhile, the Iraqi official said, the Americans asked for written documentation to make sure the execution was legal under the Iraqi constitution. There was one final hurdle: Would President Jalal Talabani, a Sunni Kurd who opposes the death penalty, object to the execution? A phone call later Friday between al-Maliki and the president ended with a decision that Talabani's signature was not needed. No explanation for the decision was given. Late Friday night, the parliament member told CNN, top U.S. officials met with al-Maliki's deputies to work out when the handover should take place, along with other logistical arrangements. At that point, Iraqi officials told the media that al-Maliki had signed the last crucial document. Pat Robertson: God told me of 'mass killing' in 2007POSTED: 0251 GMT (1051 HKT), January 2, 2007  Story Highlights • NEW: Evangelist Pat Robertson predicts 2007 terror attack • NEW: "700 Club" host says U.S. will experience "mass killing" • NEW: Robertson claims God spoke to him VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia (AP) -- Evangelical broadcaster Pat Robertson said Tuesday that God has told him that a terrorist attack on the United States would cause a "mass killing" late in 2007. "I'm not necessarily saying it's going to be nuclear," he said during his news-and-talk television show "The 700 Club" on the Christian Broadcasting Network. "The Lord didn't say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that." Robertson said God told him about the impending tragedy during a recent prayer retreat. God also said, he claims, that major cities and possibly millions of people will be affected by the attack, which should take place sometime after September. Robertson suggested in January 2006 that God punished then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with a stroke for ceding Israeli-controlled land to the Palestinians. The broadcaster predicted in January 2004 that President Bush would easily win re-election. Bush won 51 percent of the vote that fall, beating Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. In 2005, Robertson predicted that Bush would have victory after victory in his second term. He said Social Security reform proposals would be approved and Bush would nominate conservative judges to federal courts. Lawmakers confirmed Bush's 2005 nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. But the president's Social Security initiative was stalled. "I have a relatively good track record," he said. "Sometimes I miss." In May, Robertson said God told him that storms and possibly a tsunami were to crash into America's coastline in 2006. Even though the U.S. was not hit with a tsunami, Robertson on Tuesday cited last spring's heavy rains and flooding in New England as partly fulfilling the prediction.
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THE LAST MOMENTS OF SADDAM HUISSENS LIFE THE END OF SADDAMS WORLDBiden wants Rice to testify on Iraq policy
CNN.comTue, 26 Dec 2006 2:21 PM PST
Sen. Joseph Biden, the incoming chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said he has invited Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to testify during three weeks of hearings in January about the Iraq war. |
Biden vows to fight any Iraq troop boost
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star TribuneTue, 26 Dec 2006 10:44 AM PST
WASHINGTON - Incoming Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Joseph Biden, a potential Democratic presidential candidate, said Tuesday he would oppose any effort by President Bush to increase U.S troops in Iraq as part of a new war strategy. Biden also announced he has summoned Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to testify before his committee next month to discuss the administration's new plan for ... |
Nicola Nasser: Pre-empting Arab Mediation in Palestinian Divide
The Palestine ChronicleTue, 26 Dec 2006 11:35 AM PST
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is expected in Israel and the PA in January, said she would ask the Congress for $100 million to “strengthen the security forces†of the PA loyal to Abbas; but strengthen these forces against whom? |
Biden vows to fight any Iraq troop boost
AP via Yahoo! NewsTue, 26 Dec 2006 7:20 PM PST
Incoming Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Joseph Biden, a potential Democratic presidential candidate, said Tuesday he would oppose any effort by President Bush to increase U.S troops in Iraq as part of a new war strategy. |
Bush, advisers to huddle at Crawford on new Iraq strategy
USA TodayTue, 26 Dec 2006 6:32 PM PST
President Bush is leaving for a week-long trip to his Texas ranch, where he and his advisers will rethink U.S. involvement in Iraq. The president also will work on an upcoming speech outlining what he says will be a new way forward in the war. |
Tuesday, December 26
CNN.comTue, 26 Dec 2006 9:06 PM PST
(CNN) -- Former President Gerald Ford, who became president in 1974 after the resignation of Richard Nixon, died Tuesday at age 93, his wife, Betty Ford, told The Associated Press. |
Bush in Texas to rethink Iraq course
AP via Yahoo! NewsTue, 26 Dec 2006 7:47 PM PST
President Bush went to his ranch Tuesday to rethink U.S. involvement in Iraq as his spokesman hailed a Baghdad court's decision upholding the death sentence for former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. |
Biden to Fight Iraq Troop Buildup
Washington PostTue, 26 Dec 2006 6:22 PM PST
Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), the incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said yesterday that he would oppose any plan by President Bush to increase the number of U.S. troops in Iraq. |
Biden vows to fight any Bush decision to send more troops to Iraq
USA TodayTue, 26 Dec 2006 6:32 PM PST
Joe Biden, incoming Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, adamantly rejected sending more U.S. troops to Iraq, a move President Bush is considering as part of a what's expected to be a major strategy shift he will announce early next year. |
Saddam Hussein's Philanthropy of Terror-by Deroy Murdock
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 Iraq braces for bloodshed as Saddam verdict looms
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq has braced itself for a violent backlash from Saddam Hussein's diehard supporters if, as expected, the ousted leader is sentenced to death on Sunday for crimes against humanity. Late Saturday, on the eve of the verdict, police commandos killed more than 50 Al-Qaeda militants in a firefight on the southern outskirts of the capital, in a sign of the ferocity owould be enforced on verdict day in Baghdad and in the flashpoint provinces of Diyala and Salaheddin -- including in the deposed dictator's hometown of Tikrit. "We hope the sentence matches what this man deserves for what he has done against the Iraqi people. The Iraqi people will express happiness in the way they find appropriate," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said. "We call upon the Iraqi people to be calm, to be disciplined and to express themselves in ways that take into consideration the security challenge and the need to protect the lives of the citizens," he added. Maliki's aide Bassam Ridha said: "We have to ensure the safety of Iraqi people from loyalists of Saddam, as Sunday is a historic day. "We have ordered an indefinite curfew starting 6:00 am (0300 GMT) tomorrow. It will be a total curfew... for pedestrians as well as vehicles," he added. Officials said Baghdad international airport would be barred to all civilian flights and that all military leave was cancelled in expectation of an angry response to the verdict from hardline Saddam supporters. "The prime minister hopes the dictator gets what he deserves," Maliki's political adviser Hussein al-Senaid said, while insisting on the independence of a tribunal much criticized for its closeness to government. "Of course as part of the Iraqi government, we hope that he gets the maximum penalty for the crimes committed by him on the people of Iraq. We are looking forward to this historic moment. Iraq deserves justice," Ridha said. Saddam and seven former regime officials have been accused of ordering the village of Dujail destroyed and 148 of its inhabitants executed in revenge for a failed attempt on the Iraqi leader's life in 1982. Members of Maliki's Dawa Party, a Shiite group, had attempted to kill the Sunni president, who then unleashed his fury on the community. Now, more than three and a half years since Saddam was overthrown by a US-led invasion force, Iraq's two main confessional groups are once more at war and scores of Iraqis are being killed every day in vicious sectarian attacks. "All military personnel are on alert. Leave has been cancelled and we are on alert for any possible emergency. Those on leave should report to their units," said defence ministry spokesman Major General Ibrahim Shaker. An interior ministry spokesman said police commandos killed 53 suspected Al-Qaeda militants in a fierce gunbattle on the southern outskirts of Baghdad. "This afternoon we received intelligence reports that gunmen were endangering the security of the region," said Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf, referring to the Baghdad suburb of Tuwaitha. "They are Al-Qaeda. The National Police had a severe fight with them and as a result of these clashes, they killed 53 terrorists, arrested 16, burned 40 cars and seized many weapons," he said. A US military spokeswoman confirmed the report, adding that four members of the Iraqi security services were also killed and nine wounded. Meanwhile, a car bomb exploded in the Sadr City suburb of mainly Shiite east Baghdad, a security official said, as violence in and around the Iraqi capital killed at least eight people in a other gun and bomb attacks Saturday. Five members of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's security detail were killed in a roadside bomb attack Friday in northern Iraq, a source from his party said. Talabani was out of the country at the time. Shiite militiamen -- long-term enemies of Saddam -- were the main suspects in a rocket attack Saturday which wounded four Russians and killed an Iraqi colleague working for the Basra Electricity Company. The four "received light wounds as the result of a mortar shell explosion," the foreign ministry in Moscow said. Police said one Iraqi worker was killed.
        
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Shaken Saddam sentenced to hang
         
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Iraqi court sentenced a shaken but defiant Saddam Hussein to hang on Sunday for crimes against humanity, sparking joy for Shi'ites he oppressed and resentment among his fellow Sunnis across Iraq's violent sectarian divide.
     
As mortar rounds crashed on warring Baghdad neighbourhoods and police reported sporadic clashes despite a curfew on the capital, Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called for unity after the ousted leader was handed "the punishment he deserves". The United States, which set up the court after its invasion toppled Saddam in 2003, called it "a good day for the Iraqi people". U.S. officials again dismissed charges the verdict was timed to aid President George W. Bush's Republicans at elections on Tuesday that have been dominated by dismay at Iraq's turmoil. Defence lawyers, who said they saw little hope from an appeal in the coming months, dismissed it as "victor's justice". Saddam, 69, initially refused to stand when brought in to hear the verdict from Kurdish chief judge Raouf Abdul Rahman, at a quickfire, 45-minute hearing. When he did, shakily, with clear emotion, he yelled the defiant Arab battle cry "Allahu Akbar!" (God is Greatest) and "Long live Iraq" as the judgement was read. CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY "The court has decided to sentence Saddam Hussein al-Majid to be hanged until he is dead for crimes against humanity," Abdul Rahman said, ignoring Saddam's earlier bombastic plea that he should face a military firing squad, not the hangman's noose. The judge, who earlier ejected former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark from the defence panel after he called the court a "mockery of justice", threw out a court guard for chewing gum and laughing as he stood by the fallen strongman in the dock. Bearded and tieless in a black suit, and clutching a Koran, Saddam called for "forgiveness" for "aggressors" and "traitors". A lengthy written verdict is expected later in the week. The former leader has been sentenced to death before, in absentia for trying to assassinate Iraq's then leader in 1959. He has been held by U.S. troops at Baghdad airport for three years and any execution, possibly next year, is likely to happen behind prison walls, like those of other criminals this year. Before then, however, he will continue to stand trial for genocide against the Kurds. He is due back in court on Tuesday. His half-brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, and former judge Awad al-Bander were also sentenced to death for killing, torturing and deporting hundreds of people from the Shi'ite town of Dujail after Shi'ite gunmen tried to kill Saddam there in 1982. Former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan received a life term. Three Baath party officials were jailed for 15 years and an eighth, minor defendant was acquitted for lack of evidence. Saddam admitted ordering the execution of 148 men, calling it justified in wartime against allies of Shi'ite Iran. International human rights groups, which had called for the case to be heard abroad, said the killing of three defence lawyers, the resignation of a judge over political interference and flaws in evidence meant that it fell short of a fair trial. But U.S. and Iraqi officials hailed the year-long process as proof of the independence of Iraq's judiciary and a new landmark in the development of international war crimes law since Nazi leaders were tried, and some hanged, at Nuremberg 60 years ago. The European Union urged Iraq not to execute Saddam. DANCING FOR JOY In Shi'ite towns and in parts of Baghdad, people poured into the streets after the televised hearing, dancing and yelling for joy at the fate of the man who oppressed them for three decades. "The court has delivered justice for my son, who was killed by Saddam," housewife Um Hussain said in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf as crowds chanted "Death to Saddam! Die you Baathists!" In Saddam's Sunni home town of Tikrit, dozens of men and boys waved his portrait and chanted the old Baath party slogan "Saddam, Saddam! I give my life and blood for you, Saddam!" But hundreds of killings a week have left many distracted and indifferent to the leader who long boasted he kept sectarian passions in check -- celebratory gunfire in Baghdad was minimal compared to that heard when Saddam's sons were killed in 2003. In the northern city of Mosul, where Arabs and Kurds are vying for control, 30-year-old Bahjat, who declined to give his full name out of fear, said: "They have condemned Saddam for the killings that happened when he was president. But who will judge the leaders for the killings that happen every day now?" The U.S. ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, said "closing the book on Saddam and his regime" was a chance for Iraqis to unite. In an interview with Reuters, he also urged Iraqi leaders to abandon sectarian hostilities and take tough decisions if they wanted to maintain U.S. support. | | Loot
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TIME.com Saddam is Sentenced to Death, and Iraq Shrugs - Page 1 11/05/2006 [-]
Flashback Saddam accepted UAE exile plan to avert Iraq war 11/05/2006 [-]
Flashback Saddam Key in Early CIA Plot 11/05/2006 [-]
Saddam sentenced to death in Dujail crimes against humanity case 11/05/2006 [-]
Snow Denies Saddam Trial 'Scheming' 11/05/2006 [-]
Iraq tense waiting for Saddam verdict 11/05/2006 [-]
Saddam gets death sentence in Dujail massacre case 11/05/2006 [-] Amnesty International flays death verdict against Saddam 11/05/2006 [-] Court Finds Saddam Hussein Guilty, He Will Be Hanged 11/05/2006 [-] Court rules Saddam to be hanged 11/05/2006 [-]
Iraq Shi'ites Celebrate Saddam Death Sentence 11/05/2006 [-]
Mideast Reaction in Saddam Verdict 11/05/2006 [-]
Saddam Hussein found guilty sentenced to death 11/05/2006 [-]
White House praises Iraqis for handling of Saddam's trial 11/05/2006 [-] Iraq Jittery over Saddam Verdict Dozens of Sunnis...
On December 13, 2003, at 8 p.m. local Iraq time in a remote farm house near Tikrit, the U.S. 4th Infantry Division apprehended World Public Enemy #1: former dictator and tyrant Saddam Hussein. The capture marks an end to three decades of iron-fisted rule over Iraq, and opens the door for a freer, more democratic nation.
Operation Red Dawn:
Saddam's Capture Operation “Red Dawn” was launched after intelligence identified two likely locations near the town of Ad Dwar where Saddam was hiding. The First Brigade Combat team of the 4th ID was assigned the mission to capture or kill Saddam Hussein.
This DoD slide indicates the general area where the capture took place: Ad Dawr, 15 km south of Tikrit. "Wolverine 1" and "Wolverine 2" indicate the two positions that intelligence suggests Saddam is hiding.
A closer look at the objective area. At 1900 hours on December 13, the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division, in coordination with Special Ops forces, attacks location HVT #1 in order to occupy it for operations. The attack force includes 600 soldiers, 30 HMMWVs, a cavalry troop, an AH-64D Longbow helicopter company, and Paladin artillery.
At about 2000 hours Coalition forces assault the Wolverine #1 and #2 objectives, but initially do not find the target. The 1st Brigade Combat Team elects to cordon the area and begin an intensive search. Coalition forces subsequently find a suspicious location to the northwest of Wolverine 2. The map above details this location. Saddam Hussein is eventually discovered in the hole in the farm house (marked in red).
A closer look at the "spider hole" where Saddam is found hiding. The spider hole is about six to eight feet deep, and allows enough space for a person to lie down inside of it. Saddam is captured without resistance, and at about 2115 hours he is moved to a secure area. A further search of the hole and surrounding area is conducted. Results from the raid include confiscation of two AK-47s, a pistol, 750,000 U.S. dollars in 100-dollar denominations, and a white and orange taxi. Two other Iraqis affiliated with Saddam Hussein are also detained. Saddam Hussein is currently under Coalition custody and at an undisclosed location.  " With the capture of the former dictator, the enemies of a free Iraq have lost their leader and they've lost any hope of regaining power. The nightmare of the Baathist tyranny is finally over." -- President George W. Bush
"The intimidation and fear this man generated for over 30 years are now gone. Many will rest much better tonight knowing Iraq is moving forward to a more secure environment." -- Maj. Gen Raymond T. Odierno, commander of the Army's 4th Infantry Division
Pentagon: Saddam's sons killed in raid
U.S. military might release photographs of bodies
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The sons of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein were killed by U.S. troops in the northern city of Mosul after a tipster betrayed their hideout, the commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq said Tuesday. The bodies of Uday and Qusay Hussein were identified from "multiple sources," Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez told reporters in Baghdad. "The bodies are in a condition where you could identify them. "They resisted the detention and the efforts of the coalition forces to go in there and apprehend them, and they were killed in the ensuing gunfight and the attacks that we conducted on the residence." A U.S. official told CNN that Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, Saddam's personal secretary, who was captured last month, helped identify the bodies. In addition, this official said, other visual evidence helped identify the remains, including wounds on Uday's body from previous assassination attempts. The U.S. military is considering releasing pictures of the bodies in an effort to convince any skeptical Iraqis that Uday, 39, and Qusay, 37, are really dead, a senior Pentagon official told CNN late Tuesday. Still photos of the bodies were taken in the aftermath of Tuesday's raid. According to Pentagon officials, the pictures show that the bodies -- though badly shot up -- are clearly recognizable. DNA tests are still planned. Four coalition troops were wounded in the six-hour operation at a residence on the northern edge of Mosul, Sanchez said. (Map) TV cameramen who witnessed some of the fighting said U.S. forces attacked from all sides after being refused admission to the house, and charged into the villa, encountering fierce resistance. When asked whether the $15 million U.S. bounties on both Uday and Qusay would be paid, Sanchez said, "I would expect that it probably will happen." (Profiles: Qusay Hussein, Uday Hussein) The White House issued a statement hailing U.S. forces for eliminating two men "responsible for countless atrocities committed against the Iraqi people and they can no long cast a shadow of hate on Iraq." (Full statement) Sanchez and Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi said the deaths of Saddam's sons could undermine resistance to the occupation of Iraq, where almost daily attacks have killed 37 U.S. troops since May 1. Speaking at the United Nations, Chalabi called the deaths of Saddam's sons "a death blow to his prestige. "People will perceive him to be much more vulnerable now," Chalabi said. L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civil administrator in Iraq who was briefing lawmakers in Washington on Tuesday, told reporters, "I've said all along it's only a matter of time before we find Saddam Hussein. And I hope that day is a day earlier now.' Bodies of teen, older man also found A senior Pentagon official said one of the other two bodies at the battle site appeared to be that of a teenage boy. U.S. officials noted that Qusay has a teenage son. The other body recovered appeared to be that of a bodyguard. An Iraqi witness told the Arabic-language news network Al-Jazeera, "The Americans came to this house and started shooting. They were saying that Saddam's sons, Uday and Qusay, and his grandson, Mustapha, were there, and that one of his bodyguards was there, too." Sanchez said U.S. military officials are still trying to identify those remains. He said military officials would offer more details in a briefing Wednesday. Saddam and his sons have been fugitives since their government collapsed ahead of a U.S.-led invasion in March. Sanchez said U.S. forces learned the brothers' whereabouts from a walk-in Iraqi tipster Monday night. Pentagon sources told CNN that U.S. forces entered the villa on the first floor, discovered the occupants barricaded on the second floor and then took small-arms fire. It was then that the U.S. troops called in air support, and an Apache helicopter fired an antitank TOW missile that shredded a large portion of the complex, the sources said. Task Force 20 -- a military unit formed to hunt for Saddam and his top supporters -- led the raid Tuesday morning, U.S. officials said. That unit was backed by 200 troops from the Army's 101st Airborne Division, along with other Special Forces and air cover, officials said. (Gallery: The firefight scene) Troops who were involved described the fighting as intense, with moments that seemed "like all hell had broken loose," according to CNN correspondent Nic Robertson. In the hours after the raid, members of Task Force 20, the CIA and other U.S. personnel searched the complex for documents and any other information that could locate Saddam. Master Sgt. Kelly Tyler, a spokeswoman for the 101st Airborne at its headquarters in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, said soldiers at the post were "absolutely proud" and "absolutely giddy." "The 101st kicks ass," she said. "The 101st has a proud history of military tradition, and this just adds to that tradition." Mosul is a Kurd-controlled city about 110 miles [176 kilometers] from both Syria and Iran. Intelligence officials said they are investigating whether Uday and Qusay were attempting to find a way out of Iraq. Neighbors said the man who owned the residence where the battle took place had claimed to have been a cousin of Saddam's. They said they doubted the claim because the man's brother had been imprisoned for a decade by the regime. But the neighbors said that the night before the battle, the man told them that Uday and Qusay had come to his home. Reaction to deaths of Uday, Qusay Gunfire erupted in central Baghdad on Tuesday night, forcing journalists to take cover in the Palestine Hotel. It was unclear whether it represented a new attack on U.S. troops or a celebratory response to the news -- "Probably a combination," Sanchez said. "Given that the Iraqi people have watched CNN, it's probably very appropriate that they would be celebrating about now," he said. "This will prove to the Iraqi people that at least these two members of the regime will not be coming back into power," Sanchez said. He said U.S. troops "remain totally committed to the same regime never returning to power and tormenting the Iraqis." Chalabi -- a member of the Iraqi governing council appointed last week -- said Qusay was in charge of a network that was mounting attacks on U.S. troops. He said their deaths "will contribute considerably" to restoring order. "Uday is notorious, but Qusay is an emulation of his father," he said. The hunt for Saddam in Iraq is led by a U.S. Special Operations team -- code-named Task Force 20 -- with support from the CIA. The task force, which also took part in the rescue of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, includes covert special operations forces from the various U.S. military services. (Lynch homecoming) Qusay and Uday were the second- and third-most-wanted Iraqi leaders, and both are in the card deck of most-wanted Iraqis issued to U.S. troops in Iraq. Uday was the ace of hearts and Qusay the ace of clubs. (Flash interactive: Iraq's most-wanted) Qusay has been the son widely perceived as most likely to have succeeded Saddam. With Iraq preparing its defenses in the run-up to the war, Qusay was put in charge of four key areas, including Baghdad and Tikrit -- his family's tribal home. When the war began, he was in charge of the country's intelligence network, the 80,000-strong Republican Guard and 15,000-member Special Republican Guard, which was responsible for protecting Saddam and his family. Uday has a reputation for violence that included torturing Iraqi athletes who did not meet expectations. He ran the dreaded Saddam Fedayeen security force. He was also in charge of the nation's Olympic committee, edited a leading newspaper, Babel, and was head of Youth TV, the country's most popular channel. Just before the war, Uday warned that Iraqi troops would make the mothers of U.S. soldiers "weep blood instead of tears."
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was sworn in for a second term on January 20, 2005.
Biography of President George W. Bush
George W. Bush is the 43rd President of the United States. He was sworn into office on January 20, 2001, re-elected on November 2, 2004, and sworn in for a second term on January 20, 2005. Prior to his Presidency, President Bush served for 6 years as the 46th Governor of the State of Texas, where he earned a reputation for bipartisanship and as a compassionate conservative who shaped public policy based on the principles of limited government, personal responsibility, strong families, and local control. President Bush was born on July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut, and grew up in Midland and Houston, Texas. He received a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University in 1968, and then served as an F-102 fighter pilot in the Texas Air National Guard. President Bush received a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School in 1975. Following graduation, he moved back to Midland and began a career in the energy business. After working on his father’s successful 1988 Presidential campaign, President Bush assembled the group of partners who purchased the Texas Rangers baseball franchise in 1989. On November 8, 1994, President Bush was elected Governor of Texas. He became the first Governor in Texas history to be elected to consecutive 4-year terms when he was re-elected on November 3, 1998. Since becoming President of the United States in 2001, President Bush has worked with the Congress to create an ownership society and build a future of security, prosperity, and opportunity for all Americans. He signed into law tax relief that helps workers keep more of their hard-earned money, as well as the most comprehensive education reforms in a generation, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. This legislation is ushering in a new era of accountability, flexibility, local control, and more choices for parents, affirming our Nation’s fundamental belief in the promise of every child. President Bush has also worked to improve healthcare and modernize Medicare, providing the first-ever prescription drug benefit for seniors; increase homeownership, especially among minorities; conserve our environment; and increase military strength, pay, and benefits. Because President Bush believes the strength of America lies in the hearts and souls of our citizens, he has supported programs that encourage individuals to help their neighbors in need. On the morning of September 11, 2001, terrorists attacked our Nation. Since then, President Bush has taken unprecedented steps to protect our homeland and create a world free from terror. He is grateful for the service and sacrifice of our brave men and women in uniform and their families. The President is confident that by helping build free and prosperous societies, our Nation and our friends and allies will succeed in making America more secure and the world more peaceful. President Bush is married to Laura Welch Bush, a former teacher and librarian, and they have twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna. The Bush family also includes two dogs, Barney and Miss Beazley, and a cat, Willie.  Iraq war backers desert campaigning Bush
GREELEY, United States (AFP) - President George W. Bush, facing bitter criticism from some of the Iraq war's chief backers just days before key US elections, vowed that the United States is "not going to run" from the fighting. Bush's defiant message came in the middle of a frantic 10-state blitz aimed at energizing members of his Republican Party ahead of the November 7 congressional elections that will shape the rest of his presidency. "A lot of our fellow citizens are justifiably concernedabout Iraq. But what the enemy doesn't understand about this administration and millions of Americans is, we're not going to run," he told cheering supporters. "Iraq is vital to our security. Iraq is the central front in this war on terror. But I've been listening for the Democrats' plan for success. There's national silence. They have no plan for victory," Bush charged. As Bush mocked opposition Democrats for seeking US troop withdrawals from Iraq, one heckler shouted "Get out of Iraq!" before being led out of the rally. Protesters outside brandished signs saying "Bush lied!" and "You Can't Go to College in a Bodybag." A new poll provided the latest sign that the unpopular war, which has claimed the lives of more than 2,800 US soldiers, could cost his party control of the US Congress. The Newsweek magazine survey found that 54 percent of likely voters would choose their local Democratic candidate, versus 38 percent who would vote for the Republican candidate. It also showed Bush's approval rating slipping to 35 percent. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 33 seats in the Senate are up for grabs. Democrats need to post a net gain of 15 House seats and six Senate seats to capture the US Congress. With Iraq topping US voter concerns, Bush faced brutal new criticisms of his handling of the war from former supporters along with fresh calls for him to fire Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Vanity Fair magazine reported that some of the top public supporters of the March 2003 invasion of Iraq were now sharply critical of the way the war was waged, even branding the Bush administration "incompetent." Former top Pentagon adviser Richard Perle told the magazine that "the decisions did not get made that should have been. They didn't get made in a timely fashion, and the differences were argued out endlessly." Former White House speech writer David Frum -- credited with creating the "Axis of Evil" phrase Bush used in the 2002 state of the union speech -- also ripped the handling of the war. "The insurgency has proven it can kill anyone who cooperates," Frum told the magazine, "and the United States and its friends have failed to prove that it can protect them." Former Pentagon insider Kenneth Adelman, who argued in 2002 that liberating Iraq would be a "cakewalk," told Vanity Fair that the Bush national security team "turned out to be among the most incompetent teams in the post-war era." "Not only did each of them, individually, have enormous flaws, but together they were deadly, dysfunctional," Adelman told the magazine. Separately, four independent US newspapers covering the US Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines were to publish an editorial on the eve of the election calling for Rumsfeld's resignation. "Regardless of which party wins November 7, the time has come, Mr. President, to face the hard, bruising truth: Donald Rumsfeld must go," read the editorial, posted on the Army Times website. The same editorial is to run in the Air Force Times, the Navy Times and the Marine Corps Times. The Democrats, buoyed by the polls, muted predictions of victory and worked to keep their supporters energized and attract swing voters. "You do not make predictions about this kind of stuff. My prediction is, however, that the American people want real change in this country. They want a new direction. My prediction is we'll give them one," Democratic National Committee chief Howard Dean told CNN television. The Rothenberg Political Report, an analytical firm in Washington, predicted Friday that Democrats will most likely win from five to seven Senate seats and gain 34 to 40 seats in the House of Representatives. Bush took a short break from campaigning late Saturday to celebrate first lady Laura Bush's 60th birthday at the couple's ranch in Crawford, Texas.
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  GREELEY, Colo. (Reuters) - President George W. Bush vowed on Saturday to stick with the war in Iraq and Democrats said they would fight for a new course in the conflict in the final weekend of campaigning before Tuesday elections in which control of the U.S. Congress is at stake. "I understand the consequences of retreat," Bush told thousands of Republican loyalists at a rally. "That's why we'll support our troops, that's why we'll fight in Iraq, and that's why we'll win in Iraq."
He was unfazed by a heckler at the rally for Colorado Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave's re-election bid. "Get out of Iraq," the heckler shouted from a perch on a tractor before he was hustled out. Democrats, feeling good about their chances of seizing the Republican-led House of Representatives and possibly the Senate as well, said it was time for a change. "We will fight for a new direction in Iraq to change the president's failed course so that our troops can finally come home," said House Democratic candidate Lois Murphy of Pennsylvania in her party's weekly radio address. The unpopular Iraq war has been the leading factor in the election campaign and there are alarm bells ringing for Republican candidates. A Newsweek poll released on Saturday said 54 percent of likely voters would vote for Democratic candidates and 38 percent for the Republicans. Bush's approval rating was 35 percent in the poll, which was taken on Thursday and Friday and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report said Republicans would be lucky to limit their losses in the House to 20 to 25 seats and four or five seats in the Senate. Democrats need 15 seats to command the House and six in the Senate.
"But the chances of this thing going bigger -- far bigger -- still exist, and there are quite a few veteran Republican strategists ... who are bracing themselves for that distinct possibility," report author Charlie Cook said on his Web site. PAPERS SAY RUMSFELD MUST GO Bush has sought to boost Republican turnout by defending the Iraq war and accusing Democrats of lacking a plan to win it. Making the war a central theme is a political gamble given deep American unease about it. He has had the sprawling U.S. military community largely behind him in the war. But several newspapers widely read by U.S. military personnel called for the resignation of U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over Iraq, rejecting Bush's stated plan to retain Rumsfeld for the remaining two years of his presidency. "Rumsfeld has lost credibility with the uniformed leadership, with the troops, with Congress and with the public at large. His strategy has failed, and his ability to lead is compromised," the Army Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times and Marine Corps Times said in an editorial to be published on Monday. The newspapers are published by the Military Times Media Group, a subsidiary of Gannett Co. Inc., which also publishes USA Today. White House spokesman Tony Snow called the editorial "a shabby piece of work," and said Bush's reaction "was just to shrug it off." Snow said the editorial gave a "false impression" it was the sentiment of military personnel rather than of editorial writers for the Gannett newspaper chain. Democrats quickly seized on the editorial.
"The American people deserve a new direction from a secretary of defence who won't listen to his generals on the ground and a White House that won't listen to reason," said Illinois Democratic Rep. Rahm Emanuel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney told a campaign rally in Laramie, Wyoming, on Saturday that a Democratic congressional majority would mean higher taxes. "If the Democrats take control, American families would face an immense tax increase, and the economy would sustain a major hit," he said.   
Iraq's leader: I hope Saddam gets what he deserves
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq is bracing for judges to give their verdict -- and a possible death sentence -- to Saddam Hussein at the end of his war crimes trial on Sunday. Stiff curfews will be imposed on Baghdad and two provinces from 6 a.m. as officials try to prevent any violent reaction to the trial. All people and vehicles will be banned from the streets of the capital and Salaheddin and Diyala provinces, and Baghdad International Airport will also be shut down until further notice, the Iraqi prime minister's office told CNN. (Watch as Baghdad residents stock up, get ready -- 3:20) Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he wanted the trial to deliver justice to the former president. "I hope the verdict will be what this man deserves for what he committed against the Iraqi people," he said during a meeting with tribal leaders Saturday. "Therefore the Iraqi people will express their joy in the way they see appropriate; we will call on them in an address tomorrow to remain calm and show constraint and express this joy in an appropriate manner that suit this nations' challenges." Hussein and seven other defendants will file into the courtroom in Baghdad on Sunday to receive their sentences from a five-judge panel. Hussein's verdict and sentence -- which could be death by hanging for crimes against humanity -- is expected to be announced last. The defendants are on trial for crimes stemming from a brutal crackdown against citizens in the town of Dujail after an attempt on Hussein's life in 1982. People were jailed and tortured, and the government is suspected of ordering the execution of 148 people. On Friday, attorneys for Hussein and other defendants sent a letter to the presiding judge asking that the verdicts and sentencing be postponed 60 days. The letter accuses the court of trying to politicize the proceedings by announcing a verdict before Tuesday's U.S. midterm elections. More violence in Baghdad In the hours before the curfew came into effect, continued violence hit in and around the capital. Eleven civilians and an Iraqi reporter were killed on Saturday, and 27 bodies were found in Baghdad, police told CNN. Six people were killed and 20 wounded when two mortar rounds landed on a crowded area near Abu Hanifa mosque in the Adhamiya Sunni neighborhood in northern Baghdad, police said. Two people died and five were wounded when gunmen opened fire on civilians in the Hiteen neighborhood of western Baghdad, and two civilians died and five were wounded in a car bomb near Sadr City. South of Baghdad, in the Babil province town of Mahmoudiya, a civilian was killed and three others were wounded in a car bombing. Also, police said they found 27 bullet-riddled bodies in various Baghdad neighborhoods over the past 24 hours or so. Gunmen shot and killed a reporter in a Sunni neighborhood in northern Baghdad, sources told CNN. Ahmed al-Rasheed, a reporter with al-Sharqiya, an Iraqi satellite TV channel, was killed in Adhamiya around 6:30 p.m. Friday, according to an official with the Iraqi Journalistic Freedoms Observatory and a station spokesman. The al-Sharqiya official said the reporter was in his car when he was killed. Al-Rasheed, 29, started working at the station in September. He previously worked with al-Diyar TV. Rocket fired at military base A rocket launched by "rogue elements of militias" missed a coalition military base in the southern Iraqi city of Basra Saturday, British military spokesman, Maj. Charlie Burbridge said, quoting Iraqi policemen on the scene. Four Russian specialists were reportedly wounded in the attack and are scheduled to return to Moscow Sunday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said, according to Russia's Interfax news agency. In an earlier report, Burbridge said two Russians and an Iraqi colleague working for an electricity company were killed as a result of indirect fire that was intended to hit the base in northern Basra. Interfax did not mention the Iraqi colleague in their report. Coalition forces have experienced a gradual increase in the number of rocket attacks -- up from 12 per month to 16, Burbridge said. Sadr City raided U.S. and Iraqi forces raided Baghdad's Sadr City and arrested three suspected members of an illegal armed group blamed for murdering and kidnapping Iraqi citizens and security forces Saturday, the U.S. military said. The raid sparked a gun battle involving rocket-propelled grenades from "hostile elements" as the troops were leaving the area with the cell's leader and two of its members. "Iraqi forces returned fire at clearly identified targets to neutralize the threat and continued their return to base," the military said. There were no reports of Iraqi forces of coalition casualties, but the military did not say if any militants or civilians had been wounded. The raid comes shortly after U.S. forces cordoned off the city and launched a massive hunt for a missing U.S. soldier believed to be held captive there. The Iraq government later ordered the removal of the military checkpoints around the densely populated Shiite area, a stronghold of the Mehdi Army loyal to Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The recent hostilities in Sadr City and the surrounding areas involving the militia are thought to be due to sectarian strife. U.S. and Iraqi forces raided western Baghdad's Jihad district and arrested nine suspected members of an illegal armed group blamed for building car and roadside bombs used in attacks on Iraqi citizens and security forces Friday, the U.S. military said Saturday. The military said two of the suspects also helped train other militants to build car and roadside bombs. There were no reports of Iraqi or coalition casualties, but the military did not say whether any militants or civilians had been killed or wounded.
Saddam Hussein: Biography
    
President of Iraq since 1979 (Vice President from 1968-79), Saddam Hussein was born in 1937, and raised near Tikrit, north of Baghdad. At a young age he became an enforcer for the Baath (renaissance) Party, and gained political influence using a combination of intimidation, fear, nepotism, and murder. The Baath party came to political power in Iraq in the 1960s, and by 1969 Saddam had been installed as Chief of Iraq's security services, where he earned the reputation of being a ruthless executioner of opponents and suspected potential rivals. By 1977 the party bureaus, the intelligence mechanisms, and even ministers who should have reported to Iraqi President Ahmad Hasan al Bakr, were reporting to Saddam Hussein. On July 16, 1979, President Bakr resigned, and Saddam Hussein officially replaced him as president of the republic, secretary general of the Baath Party Regional Command, chairman of the RCC, and commander in chief of the armed forces. On July 17, 1979, he was promoted to the rank Field Marshal. During his tenure, Saddam Hussein's more notorious actions include: The 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, which left 150,000 to 340,000 Iraqis and 450,000 to 730,000 Iranians dead Ordering the use of chemical weapons against Iranian forces in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, and against Iraq's Kurdish population in 1988 The invasion and destruction of Kuwait in 1990-91, with 1,000 Kuwaitis killed; this action led to the Gulf War The 1991 bloody suppression of Kurdish and Shi'a insurgencies in northern and southern Iraq, with at least 30,000 to 60,000 killed Saddam has been married to the same woman, former schoolteacher Sajida, since 1958. They have five children, three daughters and two sons (both sons deceased).
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| Saddam Hussein refuses to sell out Iraq. .http://www.albasrah.net/maqalat_mukhtara/arabic/0505/sadam_lqa_020505.htm(Translated from Arabic by Muhammad Abu Nasr)
The Egyptian magazine al-Usbu‘ on Monday, 2 May 2005, published what it said was the text of a con-versation between Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on his latest trip to Baghdad during which he visited the imprisoned Iraqi leader. Al-Usbu‘ reports that informed political sources had disclosed the details of the meeting.Al-Usbu‘ reports that the meeting took place after an escalation of Iraqi Resistance attacks against US occupation forces and their allies and stooges in Iraq. The sources indicated that the US had lost more than 1,600 men killed and wounded in the last three months, only a fraction of which they officially admitted. The available information indicates that US President George W. Bush held a meeting with his staff in which they discussed ways to stop the Resistance violence in Iraq in order to save US lives and stop the continued deterioration of relations between the US and its allies and other countries that sent forces to occupied Iraq. The US leadership arrived at a decision to offer to release the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and take him to his preferred place of exile outside Iraq in return for his appearing on television to demand that the Iraqi Resistance halt its armed operations and form a political party to take part in the political process set up by the US occupation forces in Iraq. Bush entrusted his Secretary of State, Donald Rumsfeld, with the task of going to Iraq immediately to urge the quick formation of a new Iraqi puppet “government” and to meet with the Iraqi “leaders” who have emerged from the 30 January “election” results held under the threat of US weapons in occupied Iraq. At the same time, however, Rumsfeld was to meet with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in his American prison near Saddam International Airport west of Baghdad. The Saddam Hussein-Rumsfeld meeting reportedly lasted nearly an hour and took place in the presence of the commander of US occupation forces in Iraq. Rumsfeld followed up on his meeting by sending a report to President Bush in which he enclosed minutes of his meeting with the Iraqi President and offered outlines for how the US should deal with future developments in Iraq. He is said to have stressed the need for pursuing various ways to hold political dialogue with the Resistance and with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. In his report, al-Usbu‘ said, Rumsfeld emphasized that the situation in Iraq was increasingly dangerous. He said that the Arab Resistance looked like an organized army in the making and that it was training well and had been provided with important support in weapons and other material back up. Rumsfeld said that the number of Resistance fighters in Iraq had now reached 400,000 active fighters and that around them were more than five million people providing the Resistance with support.
Rumsfeld said that what took place in al-Fallujah had a negative impact on the security situation and that the Resistance had succeeded in reaping the fruits of the “war on terror” being waged by the United States to use them for its benefit. He said that Iraqi youths were now vying with one another in volunteering to fight in the ranks of the Resistance. |
Rumsfeld confirmed that the names of many of the Resistance organizations that declare themselves here and there are nothing but fronts for organizations of the Arab Baath Party under the leadership currently of Izzat Ibrahim ad-Duri, the Vice President of Iraq.
Rumsfeld expressed the expectation that the situation would become much more difficult in the coming period since the pace of armed operations against the US forces had greatly accelerated, and now stands at more than 200 attacks every day, making dozens of casualties in the “coalition”and puppet “national guard” ranks likely. Rumsfeld said that he had reviewed numerous American and Iraqi reports that reveal a deterioration in the security situation in Iraq and a fall in the morale level of the troops as casualties and material losses increase.
Rumsfeld indicated that there have also been serious material losses in US ranks, and that the Americans are now loosing an average of at least 30 military vehicles every week, something that is continually depleting American power.
Rumsfeld also disclosed that the Resistance had just recently seized stockpiles of advanced American weaponry including artillery and rocket launchers as well as anti-aircraft launchers and that the US command expressed the fear that these arms would soon have their effect in escalating the movements of violence and Resistance operations. At the end of his report, al-Usbu‘ reports, Rumsfeld urged the continuation of the dialogue with Saddam Hussein and his supporters until they can arrive at a formula for bringing about a temporary truce to facilitate a discussion of both sides’ proposals. Al-Usbu‘ obtained the minutes of the conversation between Saddam Hussein and Donald Rumsfeld from a reliable American source. The following are the minutes of the meeting: Minutes of the meeting between President Saddam Hussein and US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. At the beginning of the meeting President Saddam appeared extremely calm, perhaps he was surprised that his visitor was Rumsfeld, but he did not show any nervous tension. Rumsfeld began the discussion: Rumsfeld: I have come to meet you to talk with you about the situation in Iraq. We have been in communication with some of your supporters inside and outside Iraq and they advised us to listen to you. Saddam Hussein: And what is it that you want? Your forces have occupied the territory of noble Iraq; you brought down the ruling regime without any legal basis; you attacked the sovereignty of an independent, free, sovereign country; and you committed crimes that history will record as testimony against your bloodstained civilization. So what more do you want after all that? Rumsfeld (trying to conceal his anger): there is no call for going into the past. I’ve come specially to present you a clear and specific offer and I want to hear from you a clear and specific answer. Saddam Hussein (mockingly): I suppose you’ve come to apologize and return authority to the Iraqis. Rumsfeld: We have nothing to apologize for. You were a danger to your neighbors. You were trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction, and you practiced dictatorship over your people. So it was natural for us to extend our hands to help the people of Iraq to rid themselves of the perils they faced for more than thirty years. Saddam Hussein: I know that you’re ignorant of history and I know that your president is no less ignorant. But it seems that you’ve been telling lies for so long that you have come to believe them yourselves. If you mean by “our neighbors” the Zionist Entity, then, yes, we really were posing a danger to it and preparing to liberate our plundered land in Palestine. This is the trust of every Arab person, not just Iraqis, for that land is Arab and its people are Arab and the Zionists have done nothing but occupy the land. They came to us from every corner of the world with your help and that of the old colonial powers. But if you mean Kuwait, I would like to ask you: Have you withdrawn from Kuwait or not? Rumsfeld: These are security issues. Besides, between us and Kuwait and the other Gulf States there are security agreements. We came in based on their request to defend them from your threats. Saddam Hussein: Isn’t it funny to entrust the wolf to guard the sheep? The Kuwaiti people are an Arab people, and Kuwait is Iraqi territory. So I would ask you to go and read up on history well, except that I am sure that you will never be able to grasp it. Rumsfeld: Enough of this chatter. I am offering you . . . Saddam Hussein (cuts him off): Before you offer me your rotten goods, I want to ask you: did you find any weapons of mass destruction or not? Rumsfeld (confused): we haven’t found any so far. But we definitely will find them one day. Do you deny that you had the intention of making a nuclear bomb? Saddam Hussein: We had no weapons of mass destruction since 1991. We were truthful when we spoke to the International Inspection Team and we were truthful in our letters to Kofi Annan. And you knew those facts, but you were looking for any false excuse to occupy Iraq and overthrow the legal authorities. Rumsfeld: The Iraqis greeted us happily and welcomed us and the reason was the bloody practices of your regime for all the years in which you ruled Iraq. Saddam Hussein: I ask you, Mr. Rumsfeld . . . Enough lying. You are the ones who opened up cascades of blood on the land of Iraq. You plotted against us and you came with some traitors to take over rule of the great land of Iraq. Rumsfeld: The ones you call traitors were chosen as their leaders by the Iraqi people by democratic means and clean elections, such as never took place while you ruled the country. Saddam Hussein: I knew that you came with a band of traitors with [Jalal] at-Talibani in their front ranks (laughs mockingly). Great Iraq being ruled by at-Talibani and al-Ja‘fari, isn’t that ridiculous? And what kind of elections are you talking about? Is it possible to hold free elections, as you call them, when our country is occupied? Mr. Rumsfeld, we have learned from history that occupiers come only with their lackeys and agents, then you want after all that to convince me that the people of Iraq are enjoying freedom and democracy? You must really be delirious. Rumsfeld (trying very hard to control his anger): You are in isolation and don’t know the facts of what is going on outside. The Iraqi people have been freed from your oppression. If they saw you or any of you men in the street, they would destroy you !! Saddam Hussein: And I bet you that if you were able to announce where you are in Iraq, if the Iraqi Resistance learned where you were, you wouldn’t be able to get out alive. I want to pass on some advice that you must convey to your stupid president: you must tell him to save what remains of his troops. Death is stalking them in every place and history will not forgive him. Rumsfeld: I came to talk with you about the ‘terrorist’ operations that your men are inciting and carrying out. Your men recently carried out a foul attack against Abu Ghurayb prison where more than 50 Americans were killed or wounded, and they killed a number of those in custody on various charges as well. Your men are getting help ‘terrorists’ from every corner of the world and they are threatening the democratic experiment in Iraq. Saddam Hussein: What exactly is it that you want? Rumsfeld: I’m making you one offer and that is that you will be released and can chose for yourself a place of exile freely, in any country you like, on condition that you go on television and issue a condemnation of ‘terrorism’ and order your men to stop these acts. Saddam Hussein: Have you obtained the agreement of your president to this offer? Rumsfeld: Yes, this offer has been agreed on in a meeting in which the President, Vice President, Secretary of State, and Chief of Intelligence took part. And I have been authorized to inform you of this offer. Saddam Hussein: It’s a trifling offer. Rumsfeld (with a sigh): We’re also ready to bring elements close to you into the government. Saddam Hussein: And what else? Rumsfeld: You will be given generous financial assistance and security protection for you and your family in the country of your choice. Saddam Hussein: Do you want to hear my conditions? Rumsfeld: I would love to. Saddam Hussein (with an air of superciliousness and superiority) I want first from you that you set a time table for your withdrawal from Iraq and that your government commit itself to it before the world and that you begin the withdrawal immediately. Secondly, I ask you to release immediately all the Iraqi and Arab prisoners in the prisons you have set up or in which you have taken the freedom of tens of thousands of honorable people of Iraq. Thirdly, I ask from you to pledge to grant full compensation for the material losses that afflicted the Iraqi people as a result of your aggression against our country since the Mother of Battles in 1991 and until today. And I accept the assistance of an Arab and International Committee in estimating the extent of those losses. Fourth, I ask that you return the money that you and your men plundered from the treasuries of Iraq, and its oil, in particular that criminal [L. Paul] Bremer and his gang of traitors and renegades. Fifth, the return of the artifacts that you stole and gave to the archaeological artifact mafia. These are treasures that are beyond all the monetary value in the world, because they carry the history of Iraq and its civilization. It’s true that you don’t have any civilization or history and that the lifespan of your country is no more than a few hundred years, but all that must not serve to justify your theft and your hatred for the civilization of Iraq and the wealth of Iraq. And sixth, you must hand over the weapons of mass destruction if you have found any and return to us the lives of all the martyrs whose lives you took and to return the honor of the noble women of Iraq whom you dishonored. Rumsfeld: Is this some kind of joke? Saddam Hussein: No! This is the bitter reality. . . which you know, Mr. Rumsfeld. You have committed the greatest crime in history against a peaceful Arab country. We met together in the 1980s. Do you remember your offers? Rumsfeld: Enough of the past. We are reassessing our positions towards you and towards a number of powers that have been hostile to us in the past. We have decided to hold dialogue with moderate Islamicists and we have no objection to their coming to power through the ballot box. More important than that we have decided to open channels for dialogue with ‘terrorist’ organizations like Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and Hizb Allah, which is pro-Iranian, and also with other fundamentalist organizations in the whole world. We even have a plan for contacting the Taliban movement in Afghanistan to study the possibility of their participation in power, in exchange for their giving up arms. Saddam Hussein: So you have begun to rethink your erroneous course? Rumsfeld: It is a natural development of events. We are striving to spread democracy in all countries and movements subject to tyranny. Saddam Hussein: May you prosper if you are truthful. I know your real aim, though. If you were really truthful, then you and your allies must begin immediately by withdrawing from Iraq. And you would also have to depart from your position of support for ‘Israel’. But I know that your president is stubborn and arrogant and is not telling the truth. Rumsfeld: He is a democratically elected president, not a bloody ruler like you. Saddam Hussein: Terror is your product and lying is your method. Rumsfeld: This offer is a historic opportunity for you. You will be released and we will consult with you in everything related to the running of Iraq. If you refuse this offer, the opportunity will not be fulfilled. Saddam Hussein: I am not looking for opportunities. I am not looking for a way to save my neck from the gallows that you have set up for all of Iraq. If I wanted that, I would have accepted the Russian offer and saved my sons and grandson from martyrdom. I don’t know what has become of my family and my daughters and grandchildren. But believe me: I am concerned with every Iraqi citizen and with the future of great Iraq more than I am concerned with myself and my family. Through your men, you previously made an offer that if I declare that weapons of mass destruction were muggled to Syria, you said that in return you would release me. I rejected that then and I reject it again now. Rumsfeld: I don’t want a rejection from you. I want you to think about it. We are continuing our reassessment of our stances at the present time. We want to stop the bloodshed on both sides. And therefore we have made this offer out of the logic of power and not the logic of weakness. We asked Jalal at-Talibani to make a statement denying any intention of executing you as a sign of good intentions on our part. We are ready to reassess our whole position on the political arrangement in Iraq as a whole and to discuss this matter with you and with your men. Saddam Hussein: Are you ready to withdraw or not? Rumsfeld: We can possibly discuss redeployment. Our forces have prepared bases for a long stay. We can possibly withdraw from streets and cities, but we will remain in the bases for some time. Saddam Hussein: then you want a new stooge to add to that line of stooges. No Mr. Rumsfeld. Don’t forget that you are talking with Saddam Hussein, the President of the Republic of Iraq. Rumsfeld: But you lost power. Saddam Hussein: I have nothing left but honor and honor cannot be bought and sold. Rumsfeld: But life is priceless. Saddam Hussein: There is no value to life without honor. You robbed Iraq of its honor when you trampled on its land and we will regain our honor whether Saddam Hussein remains or dies a martyr. Rumsfeld: Your supporters with whom we have been discussing told us that you were the first and last decision maker. Were they expecting this reaction from you? Saddam Hussein: Definitely; they know that Saddam Hussein cannot back away at the expense of his homeland and honor. Rumsfeld: History will hold you responsible for the blood that is being shed in Iraq. Saddam Hussein: Rather history will judge you for your crimes. I warned you before, saying that you would commit suicide on the walls of Baghdad. And here you are paying the price. I want you to go to London and read the records of the British Foreign Office and learn something about the struggle of the Iraqi people against your British friends who are now repeating their mistakes and fighting with you. The Iraqi people are a stubborn people who do not fear death. The Resistance is stronger than you imagine. So I promise you that you will have even more. Sources: http://www.albasrah.net/maqalat_mukhtara/arabic/0505/sadam_lqa_020505.htm http://www.elosboa.com/elosboa/issues/423/0401.asp  
Left:Saddam Hussein argues with Chief Judge Raouf Rashid Abdel-Rahman, not pictured, while reporters watch from a gallery behind. (AP Photo) Mar 15, 2006
Shaking Hands with Saddam Hussein:
Right: Shaking Hands: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein greets Donald Rumsfeld, then special envoy of President Ronald Reagan, in Baghdad on December 20, 1983.
The U.S. Tilts toward Iraq, 1980-1984 National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 82
Edited by Joyce Battle February 25, 2003
    
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Saddam Captured Without A Shot Fired - MSNBC
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"We Got Him" - Time Magazine
 
  
We call it 9/11 now, the day that changed the world and the day that brought the future crashing into us. Suddenly we are facing a new kind of warfare — a hidden enemy willing to strike anywhere, targeting civilians, using terror as its greatest weapon. The U.S. has the most powerful war machine the world has ever seen, but it was created to combat conventional forces. Now, the military is rapidly shifting to face a new kind of danger that once seemed unimaginable. Whether it is in Iraq or against the shifting cloud of terrorism — American troops are now being challenged as never before." MSNBC Reports 'The Next War'
   
    
   
 
Left: Iraqi Judge Raouf Abdul Rahman addresses former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein after sentencing him to death during his trial in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone November 5, 2006. A visibly shaken Saddam Hussein was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to hang on Sunday at a lightning session of the U.S.-backed court trying him in Baghdad.
Right: Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein yells in court as he receives his verdict, as a bailiff attempts to silence him, during his trial held under tight security in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone November 5, 2006. A visibly shaken Saddam Hussein was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to hang on Sunday at a lightning session of the U.S.-backed court trying him in Baghdad.
 
Left: Former U.S. Attorney General and Saddam Hussein defence attorney Ramsey Clark (L) is ejected from the trial of Saddam in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone November 5, 2006. A visibly shaken Saddam was found guilty of crimes against humanity on Sunday and sentenced to hang at a lightning session of the U.S.-sponsored court that has been trying him in Baghdad for the past year.
Right: U.S. President George W. Bush walks to Air Force One after making remarks to the media about the Saddam Hussein trial verdict at Waco TSTC airport in Texas November 5, 2006.
 
Left: Members of a special police commando hold up their weapons in reaction to the verdict against former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in Najaf, 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, November 5, 2006. A U.S.-backed Iraqi court on Sunday sentenced toppled leader Saddam Hussein to death by hanging for crimes against humanity.
Right: Soldiers stand guard at a checkpoint in Baghdad November 5, 2006. With Saddam Hussein hours from learning whether he will hang, Iraq's government imposed curfews on Sunday and has cancelled army leave, fearing the historic trial verdict might trigger fresh sectarian bloodletting.
 
Left: Supporters of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein chant anti-U.S. and Iraqi government slogans in Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, November 5, 2006. A visibly shaken Saddam Hussein was found guilty of crimes against humanity on Sunday and sentenced to hang by the U.S.-sponsored court that has been trying him in Baghdad for the past year.
Right: Supporters of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein set ablaze tires in reaction to the verdict against Saddam in Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad Baghdad, November 5, 2006. A visibly shaken Saddam Hussein was found guilty of crimes against humanity on Sunday and sentenced to hang by the U.S.-sponsored court that has been trying him in Baghdad for the past year.
 
Left: A Shi'ite resident hits a banknote used during the regime of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein with the sole of his sandal, in Baghdad's Sadr city, November 5, 2006. Saddam was found guilty on Sunday of crimes against humanity and sentenced to hang in a case involving the deaths of more than 148 Shi'ite men from the town of Dujail.
Right: An elderly man holds a sword as residents celebrate in reaction to the verdict against former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in Baghdad's Sadr city, November 5, 2006. A shaken but defiant Saddam was sentenced to hang on Sunday for crimes against humanity, sparking joy for Shi'ites he oppressed and resentment among his fellow Sunnis across Iraq's violent sectarian divide.
 
Left: 5 of 12 A Palestinian worker prepares food near a poster of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in the West Bank city of Jenin November 5, 2006. A visibly shaken Saddam Hussein was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to hang on Sunday at a lightning session of the U.S.-backed court trying him in Baghdad.
Right: A woman weeps in reaction to the verdict against former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, in Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, November 5, 2006. A visibly shaken Saddam Hussein was found guilty of crimes against humanity on Sunday and sentenced to hang by the U.S.-sponsored court that has been trying him in Baghdad for the past year.
    
LINKS
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You may have noticed that most Web sites offer links (or hyperlinks, as they are sometimes called) which take you directly from one site to another. Many times, Web sites will link to other places on the Internet that offer related information.
By clicking on these links, you can move quickly through the Web.
Hyperlinks are usually underlined and colored differently from the regular text.
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Couple beat family court secrecy An unprecedented ruling has exposed a forced adoption case to public scrutiny
Iraq's appeals court was expected to rule on Saddam Hussein's guilty verdict and death sentence by the middle of January
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's appeals court was expected to rule on Saddam Hussein's guilty verdict and death sentence by the middle of January, the chief prosecutor said on Monday. Additionally, the Associated Press has learned, Iraq's three-man presidential council agreed at least six months ago not to block the death penalty for Saddam, should it be upheld on appeal. Jubilant Shiites marched by the hundreds Monday, celebrating Saddam Hussein's conviction and death sentence as Sunnis held defiant counter-demonstrations. The surge in violence expected after the Sunday verdict on Saddam's trial for crimes against humanity still did not materialize. An Interior Ministry spokesman credited a round-the-clock curfew in Baghdad, which has a mixed Shiite-Sunni population, and two restive Sunni provinces. Checkpoints were closed along Iraq's border with Jordan and Syria, a standard precaution taken during domestic emergencies. Officials said the clampdown, which brought additional patrols and checkpoints in the capital, would likely be lifted by Tuesday morning. On Monday, Baghdad was largely quiet, with offices and the international airport closed and few cars or pedestrians on the streets. "We need to keep on guard over any kind of response from Saddam supporters," Brig. Abdel-Karim Khalaf said. In mainly Shiite Hillah, 60 miles south of Baghdad, around 500 people marched carrying placards and shouting slogans denouncing the former dictator, who is accused of killing tens of thousands of Shiites following a 1991 uprising. "Yes, yes for the verdict, which we have long been waiting for!" chanted the crowd, largely made up of students and government workers. At least three people were wounded after gunfire broke out at a Shiite rally in the southwestern Baghdad neighborhood of Amil, a mixed Shiite-Sunni area, police Lt. Maithem Abdel-Razaq said. Ethnic Kurds, who like Iraq's majority Shiites suffered brutal persecution under Saddam, abandoned plans for a celebration rally in the northern city of Mosul over security concerns, said Ghayath al-Sorchi, an official with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which is led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. Al-Sorchi said PUK activists instead distributed gifts to families who lost relatives in crackdowns under Saddam. Saddam is scheduled to appear in court again on Tuesday, when proceedings resume against him and six co-defendants in a separate trial over a crackdown against Iraqi Kurds in the late 1980s — the so-called Anfal case. Underscoring the widening divide between Shiite and Sunni, about 250 pro-Saddam demonstrators took to the streets in the Sunni city of Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. They were dispersed by Iraqi soldiers for breaking the curfew. Another 400 pro-Saddam protesters marched through Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad. The curfew was temporarily lifted in Tikrit to give allow residents to shop and run errands. Angry crowds had gathered in the city on Sunday, holding aloft Saddam portraits, firing guns and chanting slogans vowing to avenge his execution. Saddam was sentenced by the Iraqi High Tribunal for ordering the execution of nearly 150 Shiites from the city of Dujail following a 1982 attempt on his life. Iraq's president, whose office must ratify the death penalty sentence against Saddam if it is upheld on appeal, said from Paris Sunday that the trial of the ousted Iraqi leader was fair. Jalal Talabani would not comment on the guilty verdict or death sentence for fear it could inflame tensions in his volatile nation. If the appeals court upholds the sentences, they must be ratified by Talabani, a Sunni Kurd, and his two vice presidents, one a Sunni Arab. Talabani has opposed the death penalty in the past, but found a way around it by deputizing a vice president to sign an execution order on his behalf — a substituCourt may rule on Saddam appeal in Jan. te that has been legally accepted. Saddam was found hiding with an unfired pistol in a hole in the ground near his home village north of Baghdad in December 2003, eight months after he fled the capital ahead of advancing American troops. Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam's half brother and intelligence chief during the Dujail killings, was sentenced to join him on the gallows, as was Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, which issued the death sentences against the Dujail residents. Former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan was convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison, while three other defendants were given up to 15 years in prison for torture and premeditated murder. A local Baath Party official was acquitted for lack of evidence. A nine-judge appeals panel has unlimited time to review the case. If the verdicts and sentences are upheld, the executions must be carried out within 30 days. A court official told The Associated Press that the appeals process was likely to take three to four weeks once the formal paperwork was submitted. If the verdicts are upheld, those sentenced to death would be hanged despite Saddam's second, ongoing trial on charges of murdering thousands of Iraq's Kurdish minority. President Bush called the verdict "a milestone in the Iraqi people's efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law." But symbolic of the split between the United States and many of its traditional allies over the Iraq war, many European nations voiced opposition to the death sentences in the case, including Britain — America's closest ally. Prime Minister Tony Blair said Monday he opposed the death penalty "whether it's Saddam or anyone else." But he said the trial "gives us a chance to see again what the past in Iraq was, the brutality, the tyranny, the hundreds of thousands of people he killed, the wars."
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Churchill would be so proud of his countrymen today as they lament over the death sentence of a monster who rivaled old uncle adolf. Consider Saddam's favorite past-time; His son purchased an insustrial plastics grinder used to break down plastics for recycling. When the Hussein boys grew tired of dropping political prisoners in head-first (to quick), they graduated to a feet-first method that proved much more fun. When they grew tired of that, dropping wives and children in as the prisoner watched proved to be the greatest jolly of them all. Your leftist press has done a real job on you. So go ahead and wring your hands over this pile of dung while your brave lads (God bless them) fight this war against islamist facists that wish for the heads of your children. Shame on you. Stand up and show the spine your fathers and grandfathers proved to posses. Dino, Bella Vista, Arkansas So Saddam is to hang. Big deal. One man amongst the thousands. The much quoted (or mis-quoted) 600 - 665,000. The questionis who killed them? The Americans? The British? Or were the majority killed by other Iraqis? No matter, it's a convenient stick with which to beat the former two with. The verdict has been handed down and the usual suspects are lining up to cite all and any reason why it wasn't done right. In short nothing will ever satisfy the hand wringing left. Yes it was an illegal war, yes both leaders of the major coalition partners lied. Yes we now have 20:20 hindsight. No it was no surprise that Saddam got the death penalty. Instead of defaulting to the blame game from the sickening 'I told you so' brigade, how about sorting the mess out one way or another and once that job is done decide about whether impeachments are in order. Instead of trying to change the wheels on the car while it is still moving. Iraqi law is different to our law. Accept that. Steve Ipswich, , Saddam is getting the only justice fitting for a man who would have people tortured and killed just for cussing his name. Hundreds of thousands of people died under his reign, yet just because these weren't well publicised in the west some seem to think this is ok. As for the comments made by several people here about bringing the UK or US governments to justice for the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi's, sorry but you seem to be confused, 99% of these killings were Iraqi killing Iraqi. For sure there has been incompetence at the highest levels, especially in the US running of the aftermath of the war, but let us maintain a true and balanced picture of what is actually happening in Iraq. If we were to cut and run now the bloodshed would only get worse and the death toll would spiral in to the millions. But then again it seems some people don't care about this as long as they can get their antiwar sentiments across and have a dig at Bush and Blair.
J W Randall, Edinburgh,Judge Rauf Adbel Rahman addresses Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi President, after sentencing him to death yesterday (Scott Nelson/David Furst)
Tyrant's in his pants Gotcha ... Saddam is nicked in 2003 FULL NEWS INDEX ››
By TOM NEWTON DUNN Defence Editor HE WAS once the world’s most feared despot with the blood of innocent thousands on his murderous hands. Now Saddam Hussein is reduced to shuffling around his prison compound in his underpants and washing his OWN dirty socks in a simple bowl. The Sun newspaper's world exclusive shots give a first fascinating insight into his pathetic life behind bars.How dictator fell Defiant ...
Saddam before his fall
By ALEX PEAKE THE pictures in today's paper of humbled Saddam Hussein in his cell come two years after the first US air strikes on Baghdad began his downfall. On MARCH 20, 2003 the bombs fell — and Saddam went on TV vowing to “resist the invaders”. On JULY 13 Iraq’s new ruling council announced that April 9 would become a national holiday to mark the overthrow of Saddam. Nine days later, on JULY 22, Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusay were killed by US troops in the city of Mosul. Their deaths were confirmed by pictures from the Pentagon on JULY 24. Defiant ... he appears in court It was revealed on JULY 30 that US intelligence sources thought Saddam was hiding in his home town of Tikrit. They said he had grown a long beard and shaved his moustache. Despite being in hiding, on NOVEMBER 16 Arabic television station Arabiya aired an audiotape in which Saddam gloated at the difficulties US and coalition forces were facing in Iraq. But his time was nearly up. On DECEMBER 13 the Iraqi dictator was captured by US troops trying to hide in a 6ft by 8ft spider hole on a farm near al-Dawr, ten miles southeast of Tikrit. On JANUARY 8, 2004 the Bush administration earmarked $75million to pay for Saddam’s trial. The figure would cover investigating his crimes and setting up a special tribunal in Iraq. On JUNE 16, the commission investigating the 9/11 attacks declared there was “no credible evidence” Saddam helped al-Qaeda. But on JULY 1 the fallen tyrant was taken before an Iraqi judge and charged with waging war on his people and his country’s neighbours. His trial is next year. Iraqis hold up images of Saddam Hussein as they protest his death sentence verdict, in his hometown of Tikrit,130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2006. Iraq's High Tribunal on Sunday found Saddam Hussein
'God is great, death to our enemies,' declares Saddam but the hangman beckons
From Ned Parker, Mohaned al-Kubacy and Haider Azzawi in Baghdad
SADDAM HUSSEIN, the man who terrorised millions, was sentenced to death by hanging yesterday for crimes against humanity. Baghdad’s Shia population deafened the city with celebratory gunfire at the demise of their nemesis. Saddam’s Sunni followers vowed revenge, while Shia militiamen threatened to hunt down Baathists. Inside Baghdad’s heavily protected green zone, Saddam, 69, and his seven co-defendants were led one by one into the austere courtroom for a rapid-fire 45-minute session. The man whose regime ruled Iraq with an iron fist for 35 years glared at the courtroom as he waited to learn his fate in the trial over the execution of 148 Shia villagers from the town of Dujail after a failed assassination attempt in 1982. When he refused to rise, Judge Rauf Abdel Rahman ordered his courtroom guards: “Make him stand.” Saddam picked himself up and snapped: “You’re stupid. There’s no need to twist my arms. I’ll stand.” Saddam harangued the tribunal’s chief justice as the judgment was read out. The furious judge and the man blamed for killing hundreds of thousands of his fellow citizens drowned each other out. “You can’t decide. You are slaves. God is great. Life is for us and death for our enemies. Life for the nation, death for the enemies of our nation,” a bearded Saddam barked, as guards pinned down his arms. Mr Rahman shouted over Saddam: “The court has decided to sentence Saddam Hussein al-Majid to death by hanging until he is dead.” The judge continued to read off his convictions as Saddam bellowed: “To hell with you!” With his arms pinned, Saddam was escorted from the room. Next, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Saddam’s half-brother and Iraq’s intelligence chief at the time of Dujail, entered and boasted: “Long live Iraq. Long live the Baath. Long live the Kurds. Long live the Arabs. Long live the great Baath.” But he turned quiet as the judge informed him that he would die. The other defendant to be sentenced to death, Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Saddam’s Revolutionary Court, who ordered the killings of the Dujailis, went down fighting. Dressed in tribal robes, al-Bandar demanded that the judge let him speak before the verdict and Mr Rahman snapped. “Everything is over. Listen to the decision.” Upon being told that he would be executed, al-Bandar screamed: “God is greater than the unjust. God is greater than the coloniser. God is greater than the agents. God is greater than the occupiers.” The judge flicked his wrist and ordered the guards to haul him back to his cell. Saddam’s former Vice-President, Taha Yassin Ramadan, received a life sentence; three Baath party officials from Dujail received up to 15 years each and a more junior official was cleared. During the unruly court session, Ramsey Clarke, Saddam’s defence lawyer and a former US Attorney-General, was ejected by Mr Rahman after submitting a statement calling the tribunal a mockery of justice. “He’s a laughing stock. Get him out of the court,” Mr Rahman said. “The bad arrow is back at the chest of its owner. Get him out. He’s coming from America to insult the Iraqi people and the court.” Even before the verdict was announced, Iraqiya, the state’s official television channel, broadcast children singing: “Judge, you must execute Saddam Hussein, the persecutor”. Yesterday’s session only fed the impression among rights groups that the trial was marred by procedural problems and governmental pressure. Amnesty International called it a “shabby affair”. Over the past year, in the course of 40 court sessions, Saddam and his henchmen waged a battle against the legitimacy of the US-backed Iraqi government. They shouted and jeered at Mr Rahman. The former dictator’s co-defendants would shout: “Long live Saddam Hussein.” Al-Tikriti often attended court dressed in his underwear and turned his back to Mr Rahman to register his disgust. Saddam himself used the courtroom as his stage, insulting President Bush and the tribunal. He declared himself “president of the republic and commander in chief of the armed force”, while Mr Rahman, a small Kurdish man, snapped back: “Your rule has ended. Now you are a defendant in a criminal case.” Sometimes Saddam made political pronouncements. On March 15 he said: “I call on the people to start resisting the invaders instead of killing each other.” The sessions proved a stunning reminder of the horrors of Saddam’s regime, as Dujail’s victims recounted the punishments they received after the 1982 assassination attempt on Saddam’s life. Some spoke of electric shock treatment, having forced enemas and watching their friends being taken away only to see their corpses later, soaked in blood. They recounted how bulldozers razed their town’s precious orange groves. Some said that they watched al-Tikriti preside over the atrocities. Yesterday, after the verdicts were announced, Nouri al- Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, who had rooted publicly for Saddam to get the death penalty, urged calm and called for reconciliation among Sunnis and Shias. “I say to all deluded remnants of the previous regime: the period of Saddam and his party is gone as did other dictators, like Mussolini and Hitler,” said Mr al-Maliki, whose Dawa party was responsible for the failed assassination attempt in Dujail. Sunni leaders were bleak. “The Iraqi judiciary should be independent from political desires, but this did not happen in this trial,” Salim Abdelullah, a member of the main Sunni bloc in parliament, said. On the street, reactions reflected the fact that many Iraqis believed that the country had already plunged into a Sunni-Shia civil war. In the Shia slum of Sadr City, fighters from the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia, blamed for much of the sectarian violence in Baghdad, cruised a victory lap in seven cars and pick-up trucks. One fighter, lugging a rocket-propelled grenade, said: “Today the big head is finished. And today we will kill all the Sunni Baathists.” In Saddam’s home town of Tikrit and in the Sunni Arab town of Hawija, protesters rallied in solidarity with Saddam and vowed revenge. “Yes, yes Saddam, our heart, our blood, our soul,” they chanted. DEFENDANTS, CHARGES, VERDICTS Saddam Hussein, former Iraqi president Guilty of murder, sentenced to death. Guilty of forced deportation, sentenced to ten years in prison. Guilty of torture, sentenced to ten years in prison. Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam’s half-brother and former intelligence chief Guilty of murder, sentenced to death. Guilty of forced deportation, sentenced to ten years in prison. Guilty of torture, sentenced to ten years in prison. Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former head of the Revolutionary Court Guilty of murder, sentenced to death. Taha Yassin Ramadan, former Iraqi vice-president Guilty of murder, sentenced to life in prison. Guilty of forced deportation, sentenced to ten years in prison. Guilty of torture, sentenced to seven years in prison. Guilty of inhumane acts, sentenced to seven years in prison. Abdullah Kazim Ruwayyid, former Baath Party official Guilty of murder, sentenced to 15 years in prison. Guilty of torture, sentenced to 7 years in prison. (Sentences run concurrently, so he will serve 15 years.) Mizhar Abdullah Ruwayyid, former Baath official Guilty of murder, sentenced to 15 years in prison. Guilty of torture, sentenced to seven years in prison. (Sentences run concurrently, so he will serve 15 years.) Ali Dayih Ali, former Baath official Guilty of murder, sentenced to 15 years in prison. Guilty of torture, sentenced to seven years in prison. (Sentences run concurrently so he will serve 15 years.) Mohammed Azawi Ali, former Baath official Acquitted of all charges. Ordered to be released from custody immediately. "You can't decide," Saddam bellowed as the judgment was read out. "You are slaves. God is great. Life is for us and death for our enemies" (Scott Nelson/David Furst) If his appeal fails, they will send him to the gallows within 30 days By Ned Parker SADDAM HUSSEIN will be hanged within 30 days if he loses his appeal, Bassam Ridha, an adviser to Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, said yesterday. The appeal, due to start within a month, will be heard before a chamber of nine judges and could take several months to reach a conclusion. Mr Ridha said that if the panel did not overturn the death sentence, the decision would be ratified by the three-man presidency council and transferred to the Justice Ministry to carry out the execution. The ministry can execute Saddam even if the council decides not to approve it — an outcome considered highly unlikely. Saddam had expressed a preference to be executed by firing squad, but this will not be granted. Mr Ridha said that the ministry often requested additional security from the Prime Minister’s office for the event. The identities of the hangmen were kept secret. Executions were suspended during the occupation of Iraq in 2003, but started again when the country regained its sovereignty the following year. Until now, hangings have taken place in secrecy at Iraqi prisons. The last execution was on September 6, when 27 prisoners were put to death in Baghdad. It is not yet clear whether the execution of Saddam would be open to the public, or whether it would be televised. “I don’t know what is going to happen,” Mr Ridha said, adding that he was sure that it would not be hard to find a hangman. “For Saddam, it will be easy because so many people want to kill him.” The Americans poured millions of dollars into the tribunal, hoping that it would be a modern-day Nuremberg trial. But at times, the proceedings resembled a circus. Saddam bolted from the courtroom or boycotted sessions. He even went on an 18-day hunger strike. His outbursts weathered the assassination of three of his lawyers and the replacement of the original judge. The trial began stormily when he denounced the court’s legitimacy. The next day the lawyer of one of his co-defendants was abducted in Baghdad and murdered by suspected Shia militiamen. A few days later, another member of the defence team was killed by unidentified gunmen. In June, the No 2 on the defence team was also murdered. As the defendants’ legal team boycotted the proceedings in protest, the court appointed its own lawyers to argue their case. At one point Saddam called a quaking defence lawyer an “enemy of the State”, which was seen as an order to his henchmen to target the man. Legal experts differ greatly on what will be the trial’s legacy. Its record was tarnished when its first judge stepped down and his successor removed his name after coming under investigation over whether he had belonged to the Baath party. The defence was not allowed to question some prosecution witnesses, whose testimony was presented in statements. Judge Rahman also terminated Saddam’s defence without warning. Some argue that the documentary evidence is overwhelmingly against Saddam, despite the court’s erratic performance. Others say that the trial was a missed opportunity for holding a tyrant accountable. Nehal Buhta, the international legal expert at Human Rights Watch, said the prosecution was woefully unprepared. He said that they failed to document whether Saddam’s revolutionary court, which sentenced the Dujail victims to death, was in fact a summary court. “It’s a tragedy that we are having to debate the fairness of the trial of Saddam Hussein,” he told The Times. VPolicemen in Basra celebrate after the guilty verdict was announced yesterday. In Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit, his followers vowed to take revenge (Essam Al-Sudani/AFP/Getty Images) Far from healing Iraqi divisions, this trial has deepened them World Briefingby Bronwen Maddox THIS is victor’s justice. There is a tiny chance that it will calm Iraq’s turmoil, but much more likely, it will have the opposite effect. The verdict is no surprise. One hundred per cent of Iraqis anticipated it; 80 per cent with a sense of vindication, 20 per cent with fury. The only doubt yesterday was whether the court would consider that the Dujail case was sufficiently strong to warrant the death penalty, or whether it would wait for one of the later charges, where the chain of command from Saddam Hussein to the killings might be more firmly established. But it didn’t. For more than a year, this court has looked like an exercise in vengeance of the Shia majority in Iraq, brutally suppressed by Saddam Hussein. The court and its succession of judges have been overwhelmed by violence, threats, and the sectarian rifts within the country’s politics, to the point where it became impossible to see it as a contribution to the political health of the country. There were high hopes at first that it might help to heal Iraq’s rifts, but it is hard to see now that it will do anything but deepen them. The initial aim behind holding the trial in Iraq, under an Iraqi legal system, was clear and, at first, defensible. The United States wanted the trial to advertise the ability of the new Iraqi administration to run the country, under a nationwide legal system. It did not want the trial to seem American in the eyes of Iraqis, a possible consequence had it been removed to an international court. The capture of Saddam was, at the time, seen as a “turning point” in the country’s recovery after the years of dictatorship. The US hoped that the spectacle of a fair trial would help to unite the country, reassuring even those Sunnis who had prospered under Saddam that the new Iraq would embrace the rule of law. That seems a distant dream, improbable (as many US officials acknowledged) even at the time, and now bitterly farcical. More than two years of sectarian killings have created an unbridgable rift between Sunni and Shia; even in Saddam’s time, it was more blurred. The procedures of the trial came under fierce criticism from the start. Judges struggled to keep control; Saddam was often able to dominate proceedings. Rules for introducing evidence and witnesses appeared to change. Human Rights Watch, the human rights lobby group, has argued that this inexperienced court would have had more access to advisers from other quarters — for example, the European Union — if Iraq had not held on to the death penalty as a punishment. But it is worth remembering that it was Paul Bremer, the much-criticised US administrator who took over the running of the country in the immediate aftermath of the war, who scrapped the death penalty, fearing sectarian persecution; Iraqi administrations reinstated it. Sonya Sceats, of Chatham House, the think-tank, argues that “although this trial was beset by irregularities, it was not the complete train wreck that many critics predicted. In between the dramatic exchanges that made headlines across the world, a proper criminal case was made.” Witnesses did appear, despite threats against them, and delivered hours of testimony, even if some of it was no more than rumour and personal venom. Saddam did keep a defence team together, despite targeted killings of his lawyers. The greater problem, as Sceats and many others argue, lay in the failure of the court to maintain its independence. The chief trial judge resigned earlier this year citing unbearable political interference. Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, and a Shia, who has done little to rein in Shia militias pursuing Sunnis, was confidently predicting a guilty verdict weeks ago. Now that the verdict has been delivered — and if it is upheld on appeal — what will it do for Iraq’s stability? If it has any benefit at all, it will be because it will remove for ever the dreams of some Sunnis that, one day, Saddam might come back and restore them to their dominance of the country. As the turmoil in Iraq has deepened, that Sunni dream has got stronger, however far-fetched it might seem outside the country. While the one man who recently managed to suppress the country’s feuding was still alive, the possibility remained, they hoped, that he would return. But it seems more likely that the verdict will fuel the sectarian rift: by confirming to Sunnis, as they see it, that they cannot rely on the new Government for justice; and by encouraging militant Shia groups to persecute Sunnis, knowing that their supremacy is now unchallenged. It is not surprising that the failings of the trial reflect the deep weaknesses and prejudices of the new Iraqi Government. The verdict is no surprise, but the way in which it was reached is likely to be yet more cause for division rather than, as originally hoped, a cause for reconciliation.
WORLD REACTION
“It’s a good day for the Iraqi people” Tony Snow, White House spokesman “He is facing the punishment he deserves” Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq’s Prime Minister “I welcome that Saddam Hussein and the other defendants have faced justice and have been held to account for their crimes . . . Appalling crimes were committed by Saddam Hussein’s regime. It is right that those accused of such crimes against the Iraqi people should face Iraqi justice” Margaret Beckett, Foreign Secretary “We congratulate the Iraqi courts on reaching a verdict in such difficult circumstances, and the bravery shown by judges and witnesses in the face of severe violence and intimidation. It is important that Saddam Hussein faces justice for his crimes, for the sake of both his many victims and of the future of Iraq and its people” William Hague, Shadow Foreign Secretary “The EU opposes capital punishment in all cases and under all circumstances and it should not be carried out in this case either” A statement by the Finnish Government, which holds the EU presidency “What I have suffered during the war will never be compensated, even if he is hanged 100 times” Ali Farhoudi, 38, a veteran of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war “Things were difficult under Saddam, we understand why. But now what is their excuse? Why can’t we have electricity? Security? Why can’t we have proper schools for our children?” Abu Yasser, 30, in Mosul “Every individual has a right to a fair trial, even people accused of crimes of the magnitude that Saddam Hussein faced, and this has not been a fair trial” Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International “Closing the book on Saddam and his regime is an opportunity to unite and build a better future” Zalmay Khalilzad, US Ambassador to Iraq “This is a mockery of justice and a judgment that comes from a sham and illegal court created by the US occupation that cannot provide a fair trial” Bushra al-Khalil, lawyer in Saddam’s defence team “Although Saddam and his allies carried out those crimes, it should not be forgotten that Saddam’s Western supporters also paved the way for him to carry out those oppressive acts and crimes” Mohammad Ali Hosseini, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wild jubilation and calls for revenge reflect divided nationfrom Ned Parker in Baghdad Guns were fired by both Sunnis and Shias yesterday but not everyone was celebrating SHIA militiamen clad in black mounted the rooftops of Dujail, a small farming town, 65 kilometres (40 miles) north of Baghdad. In 1982, in the town’s orange orchards, 148 of its men were killed after a failed assassination attempt on Saddam Hussein. Yesterday they gripped their guns afraid of reprisals from Saddam’s followers. About 40 people congratulated each other for 15 minutes near the offices of the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. But the atmosphere was sombre and no one fired a gun in celebration. Then people closed the shutters on the windows of their homes, and braced themselves for the worst. A curfew was placed across Baghdad, Dujail’s province of Salahaddin and the neighboring province of Diyala, but it was of little comfort. Residents were counting on Sadr’s Mahdi Army to protect them, and worried that even that wouldn’t be enough. Dujail is surrounded by Sunni communities and the area has gradually become a battleground for Sunni and Shia extremists since Saddam was ousted in April 2003. Seven or eight Dujailis who testified in the trial against Saddam have been attacked in the past year, according to Bassam Ridha, an adviser to Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister. Sheikh Mohammed Khazraji told The Times: “100 families have left the town because they are afraid of revenge attacks.” Last week Sheikh Khazraji said that 20 men from Dujail had been kidnapped on the dangerous roads near the town. He added that pamphlets had been distributed in the community threatening residents. He viewed the Dujail trial as a mixed blessing. Firdus Mohammed, 47, whose brother was killed during Saddam’s 1980s crackdown against the town, said that she was happy about the verdict but afraid of what would come next. “We have received death threats. Saddam’s execution will not end the violence in Iraq,” she said. Other families of the victims were ambivalent. Abu Karaa lost his father during Saddam’s reprisals over Dujail and was savouring justice. But though he smiled, he had paid a steep price. “My son was kidnapped on October 11 near Dujail. Some people accused us of testifying against Saddam, but I didn’t do that. They called us by the phone and said you tes tified in court. I said no, I didn’t.” Abu Karaa said that he had no idea what was in store for his 20-year-old son, or what would befall him after the tribunal’s judgment. Still he said: “This is the happiest day in my life.” In contrast, in Tikrit, Saddam’s home town, about a thousand of his followers fired guns and vowed to seek the blood of Iraqi Shias and US soldiers. Some policemen and many people holding pictures of Saddam aloft marched down main streets chanting: “We will avenge you, Saddam.” The angry crowd had defied a curfew imposed by the Iraqi Government on Tikrit. If the Shia celebrated the prospect of Saddam’s execution, his Sunni brethren were furious and took the verdict as proof of a conspiracy against them. Many vowed to take revenge on Dujailand and those who had testified against Saddam. “He is Iraq’s legal president. We knew this would happen from the moment the court started,” said Sheikh Yahya al-Attar. His mood was matched by others in the crowd, who loath Baghdad’s Shia-dominated government and deny that Saddam had committed any crimes against the Iraqi people. One man, Sheikh Ahmed Jabouri, said: “There will be more than 300 to 400 Americans killed in the next month. It will be the beginning of a civil war if they execute him.” A cousin of Saddam’s on his mother’s side, named Bakr Khatab, started to weep. He demanded that his relative be freed and vowed Sunni insurgents would hold a conference to campaign for his release. Bakr Khatab said: “We admit that we support and fund the Iraqi resistance.” Like the other demonstrators, he issued a warning that Saddam’s execution would only enflame Iraq’s communal strife. “It will open the doors to a big civil war. We will not leave the country in hands of the Shia and Iran.”
Comment:
This verdict is Iraq's business William Rees-Mogg
We have neither the right nor the ability to challenge the death sentence passed on Saddam THE HISTORIC record of tyrannicide is a mixed one. The assassination of Julius Caesar did not save the Roman Republic; on the contrary, it opened the way for further civil wars and the Empire of Augustus. The trial and execution of Charles I was followed by the dictatorship of Oliver Cromwell and the Restoration of Charles II. It was not until 1689, 40 years later, that England reached a stable and liberal constitution. The execution of Louis XVI was followed by the Terror that did much to destabilise and discredit the French Revolution. On the other hand, the Nuremberg trial of the Nazi leaders, which ended in the execution of the leading surviving German war criminals, proved to be the foundation of a new and peaceful Germany. There were similar trials and executions in Japan, followed by a similar successful reconstruction. Obviously, there is a risk that the decision to hang Saddam Hussein will make him stronger in death than he is in life, at least among Sunni and Baathist supporters of his regime. Dead tyrants can become martyrs. Fortunately, the question is not one to be decided by the Allied governments. The decision is one for the courts of Iraq and the Iraqi Government, not for the United States or Britain. Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, thinks that Saddam should be sentenced to life imprisonment; so apparently do the Scottish Nationalists. It is not their decision, any more than it is the decision of Tony Blair or George Bush. Anyone is entitled to take the view that capital punishment is always wrong. However, that is not the view of the majority of Iraqis, nor is it the teaching of the Koran or of Sharia. Nor, of course, has it ever been the view of Saddam himself. The European Union is indeed a zone that is free of capital punishment, but the European nations almost all felt that capital punishment was justified, or inevitable, as a punishment for genocidal crimes in the Second World War. Like many people, I am now opposed to capital punishment, but at the time of the Nuremberg trials I thought it was justified. In the early 1960s I thought the Israelis were right to kidnap, try and execute Adolf Eichmann, the chief bureaucrat of the Holocaust. I suspect I might feel the same about Saddam if I were an Iraqi whose family had suffered under his regime. An individual may be able to forgive, but there are some crimes so terrible that a nation cannot be expected to forgive. Trials for war crimes, or the trials of deposed rulers, are sometimes non-existent and almost always unsatisfactory in some way. So far, the trials of Saddam have not covered most of the worst crimes alleged against him. There are 12 more significant charges. If he were tried on all of them, that would be of great interest to historians, but he might still be shaking his fist at Allah in 2020. It is reasonable that the procedure should reach a decision at this stage. He does have an appeals procedure and there are substantive issues of process to be raised. Nevertheless, Saddam seems to have had a fair trial, by the standards of these trials. The verdict is in conformity with the evidence, and there are vast quantities of further evidence in reserve. The Kurds and the Marsh Arabs know that he is a mass murderer, because he murdered them by thousands or tens of thousands. In terms of public opinion in Iraq, he was already convicted and there is no reason to think that opinion is mistaken. However, this may mark a turning point. It is obvious that the decision to hang Saddam is a very important decision, one of the biggest decisions since the invasion. It is also obvious that this is a decision for the elected Government of Iraq. That may take some time to sink in. I regard Alex Salmond, the leader of the Scottish Nationalists, as one of the brightest people at Westminster. He has an irreverent streak. Yet even he seems not to have understood that the opinions of the Scottish National Party on the sentencing of Saddam are as absurd as the Irish newspaper’s editorial that gave warning to the Tsar of all the Russias that the Skibbereen Eagle had its eye on him. It does not matter what we think. If the Iraqis decide that a man who used mustard and nerve gas to murder 100,000 Kurds ought to be hanged, that is a matter for them. Their Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, is an independent prime minister. His independence must be respected. In fact, the only plausible threat would come not from the SNP, nor I think from the US State Department. There may well be still some prejudice to Iraq’s independence from Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defence, and the Pentagon, who have more than 100,000 men in Baghdad and have become accustomed to taking the big decisions about Iraq’s future. I wish one could be sure that the Pentagon had the humility to respect Iraq’s independence, but it is not likely to intervene on this issue. The decision to invade Iraq in 2003 is now history. Whether it was justified will depend on the emergence of Iraq as an independent democracy. The trial of Saddam has taken place under Iraq law. He has been sentenced to death. The decision to carry out that sentence is in the hands of the Government of Iraq. This is the process most of us originally hoped for. We have no reason to intervene in a decision that depends on the culture of Islam rather than of Britain. A hundred years ago our forebears would have had no doubt that he should hang. Even today his crimes cry out for retribution. There is risk in all this. The Sunni community may regard Saddam as one of their historic defenders against Shia militants. They would be wrong, but that could happen. His execution could be blamed on foreign troops, who have become unpopular after three years of occupation. Yet this will be the independent decision of a sovereign government. As such, we have neither the right nor the ability to change it, but would be wise to respect it. This is a step on the road to Iraq’s full independence. Have Your Say + Post a commentI heard that a catholic Cardinal refered to this as an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth. Yet Saddam has took many lives tens of thousands. He doesn' have enough eyes or teeth. This is worst way we can punish him as he took lives of many innocent, Daniel Powell, West Kilbride, Scotland "The decision to invade Iraq in 2003 is now history. Whether it was justified will depend on the emergence of Iraq as an independent democracy." I disagree. If Iraq emerges as an independent democracy it will just mean some good came of an enormous blunder. The invasion was not justified then and events cannot change that. All you can hope for is that you get lucky. It is questionable whether Iraq will still be unified in 18 months, and whether it (or any of the Regions which now form it) will be democracy/ies. Steve, Baghdad, Iraq
William Rees-Mogg is right. It is none of our business, or anyone's but the Iraqis, that an Iraqi court has, after a proper trial in very difficult circumstances, sentenced Saddam Hussein to death. If the possibility of Saddam's martyrdom (rather than opposition to capital punishment per se) is what motivates politicians here to propose alternatives, such as a life sentence. Presumably none of them thinks he might not be guilty as charged - they might reflect that Sunnis intent on casting the former President of Iraq in the role of a wronged hero will do so even were he allowed to live. In fact, it is not unreasonable to suppose that Saddam as prisoner-for-life (which might be a long time) could well be a greater cause for violent 'retribution' by his adherents than if he were dealt with by execution, as the court has decreed.
Anne, Bournemouth,
England Judgments on the war in Iraq Sir, Lord Hutton(letter, Nov 3) reminds us of his conclusion that the government did not order the case for war in Iraq to be “sexed up”. Anyone listening to Andrew Gilligan’s words in that unforgettable broadcast, but without the luxury of a period of reflection and the benefit of legal analysis, would have reached the conclusion that “sexed up” simply meant exaggerating or embellishing the intelligence available. Lord Hutton was presented with evidence from John Scarlett, then chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, that the WMD believed to be held by Iraq were “battlefield munitions” such as “artillery shells”. They were not strategic but of a defensive nature. The Prime Minister, in his foreword to the assessment of Iraq’s capability presented to Parliament on September 24, 2002, asserted that Iraq’s WMD threatened the “stability of the world”. The clear impression given by the document was that Saddam Hussein’s regime had an offensive capacity greater than the intelligence indicated. The reasonable listener could be forgiven if he concluded that the assertions in the document did amount to an exaggeration or embellishment of the available intelligence. RICHARD OTTAWAY, MP Member, Foreign Affairs Select Committee 2003-05 (C) Sir, Lord Hutton says that he stands by his report (letter, Nov 3). People forget that judges are human, with views shaped by their circumstances and prejudices. As the late Lord Salmon used to say about divorce (in the old days): “Don’t waste time arguing before a dog-hating judge that it is cruelty to kick the dog, or before a dog lover that it isn’t.” Lord Hutton was selected for the task by the Government. As a member of the Northern Irish Protestant ascendancy who had dealt with security cases there (for the Government), his conclusions, and adherence to them, were predictable. Any conclusions tending to undermine the established Government would have been very surprising. Protection against judge partiality has always been the Court of Appeal. There was no right of appeal in this instance. The evidence that Lord Hutton heard is available to be read by all: they can reach their own conclusion. It is the evidence and not his view of it that will be weighed by history. PATRICK PHILLIPS, QC Long Melford, Suffolk Sir, Saddam Hussein is to hang. Arguably, nobody deserves it more. Yet civilisation is always undermined by the passing of every death sentence.
GEORGE BARBOUR London SW7 |
http://www.elosboa.com/elosboa/issues/423/0401.asp
Elesboa.com
| www.albasrah.net
| Saddam Hussein refuses to sell out Iraq. (Translated from Arabic by Muhammad Abu Nasr)
The Egyptian magazine al-Usbu‘ on Monday, 2 May 2005, published what it said was the text of a con-versation between Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on his latest trip to Baghdad during which he visited the imprisoned Iraqi leader. Al-Usbu‘ reports that informed political sources had disclosed the details of the meeting.Al-Usbu‘ reports that the meeting took place after an escalation of Iraqi Resistance attacks against US occupation forces and their allies and stooges in Iraq. The sources indicated that the US had lost more than 1,600 men killed and wounded in the last three months, only a fraction of which they officially admitted. The available information indicates that US President George W. Bush held a meeting with his staff in which they discussed ways to stop the Resistance violence in Iraq in order to save US lives and stop the continued deterioration of relations between the US and its allies and other countries that sent forces to occupied Iraq. The US leadership arrived at a decision to offer to release the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and take him to his preferred place of exile outside Iraq in return for his appearing on television to demand that the Iraqi Resistance halt its armed operations and form a political party to take part in the political process set up by the US occupation forces in Iraq. Bush entrusted his Secretary of State, Donald Rumsfeld, with the task of going to Iraq immediately to urge the quick formation of a new Iraqi puppet “government” and to meet with the Iraqi “leaders” who have emerged from the 30 January “election” results held under the threat of US weapons in occupied Iraq. At the same time, however, Rumsfeld was to meet with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in his American prison near Saddam International Airport west of Baghdad. The Saddam Hussein-Rumsfeld meeting reportedly lasted nearly an hour and took place in the presence of the commander of US occupation forces in Iraq. Rumsfeld followed up on his meeting by sending a report to President Bush in which he enclosed minutes of his meeting with the Iraqi President and offered outlines for how the US should deal with future developments in Iraq. He is said to have stressed the need for pursuing various ways to hold political dialogue with the Resistance and with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. In his report, al-Usbu‘ said, Rumsfeld emphasized that the situation in Iraq was increasingly dangerous. He said that the Arab Resistance looked like an organized army in the making and that it was training well and had been provided with important support in weapons and other material back up. Rumsfeld said that the number of Resistance fighters in Iraq had now reached 400,000 active fighters and that around them were more than five million people providing the Resistance with support.
Rumsfeld said that what took place in al-Fallujah had a negative impact on the security situation and that the Resistance had succeeded in reaping the fruits of the “war on terror” being waged by the United States to use them for its benefit. He said that Iraqi youths were now vying with one another in volunteering to fight in the ranks of the Resistance. |
Rumsfeld confirmed that the names of many of the Resistance organizations that declare themselves here and there are nothing but fronts for organizations of the Arab Baath Party under the leadership currently of Izzat Ibrahim ad-Duri, the Vice President of Iraq.
Rumsfeld expressed the expectation that the situation would become much more difficult in the coming period since the pace of armed operations against the US forces had greatly accelerated, and now stands at more than 200 attacks every day, making dozens of casualties in the “coalition”and puppet “national guard” ranks likely. Rumsfeld said that he had reviewed numerous American and Iraqi reports that reveal a deterioration in the security situation in Iraq and a fall in the morale level of the troops as casualties and material losses increase.
Rumsfeld indicated that there have also been serious material losses in US ranks, and that the Americans are now loosing an average of at least 30 military vehicles every week, something that is continually depleting American power.
Rumsfeld also disclosed that the Resistance had just recently seized stockpiles of advanced American weaponry including artillery and rocket launchers as well as anti-aircraft launchers and that the US command expressed the fear that these arms would soon have their effect in escalating the movements of violence and Resistance operations. At the end of his report, al-Usbu‘ reports, Rumsfeld urged the continuation of the dialogue with Saddam Hussein and his supporters until they can arrive at a formula for bringing about a temporary truce to facilitate a discussion of both sides’ proposals. Al-Usbu‘ obtained the minutes of the conversation between Saddam Hussein and Donald Rumsfeld from a reliable American source. The following are the minutes of the meeting: Minutes of the meeting between President Saddam Hussein and US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. At the beginning of the meeting President Saddam appeared extremely calm, perhaps he was surprised that his visitor was Rumsfeld, but he did not show any nervous tension. Rumsfeld began the discussion: Rumsfeld: I have come to meet you to talk with you about the situation in Iraq. We have been in communication with some of your supporters inside and outside Iraq and they advised us to listen to you. Saddam Hussein: And what is it that you want? Your forces have occupied the territory of noble Iraq; you brought down the ruling regime without any legal basis; you attacked the sovereignty of an independent, free, sovereign country; and you committed crimes that history will record as testimony against your bloodstained civilization. So what more do you want after all that? Rumsfeld (trying to conceal his anger): there is no call for going into the past. I’ve come specially to present you a clear and specific offer and I want to hear from you a clear and specific answer. Saddam Hussein (mockingly): I suppose you’ve come to apologize and return authority to the Iraqis. Rumsfeld: We have nothing to apologize for. You were a danger to your neighbors. You were trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction, and you practiced dictatorship over your people. So it was natural for us to extend our hands to help the people of Iraq to rid themselves of the perils they faced for more than thirty years. Saddam Hussein: I know that you’re ignorant of history and I know that your president is no less ignorant. But it seems that you’ve been telling lies for so long that you have come to believe them yourselves. If you mean by “our neighbors” the Zionist Entity, then, yes, we really were posing a danger to it and preparing to liberate our plundered land in Palestine. This is the trust of every Arab person, not just Iraqis, for that land is Arab and its people are Arab and the Zionists have done nothing but occupy the land. They came to us from every corner of the world with your help and that of the old colonial powers. But if you mean Kuwait, I would like to ask you: Have you withdrawn from Kuwait or not? Rumsfeld: These are security issues. Besides, between us and Kuwait and the other Gulf States there are security agreements. We came in based on their request to defend them from your threats. Saddam Hussein: Isn’t it funny to entrust the wolf to guard the sheep? The Kuwaiti people are an Arab people, and Kuwait is Iraqi territory. So I would ask you to go and read up on history well, except that I am sure that you will never be able to grasp it. Rumsfeld: Enough of this chatter. I am offering you . . . Saddam Hussein (cuts him off): Before you offer me your rotten goods, I want to ask you: did you find any weapons of mass destruction or not? Rumsfeld (confused): we haven’t found any so far. But we definitely will find them one day. Do you deny that you had the intention of making a nuclear bomb? Saddam Hussein: We had no weapons of mass destruction since 1991. We were truthful when we spoke to the International Inspection Team and we were truthful in our letters to Kofi Annan. And you knew those facts, but you were looking for any false excuse to occupy Iraq and overthrow the legal authorities. Rumsfeld: The Iraqis greeted us happily and welcomed us and the reason was the bloody practices of your regime for all the years in which you ruled Iraq. Saddam Hussein: I ask you, Mr. Rumsfeld . . . Enough lying. You are the ones who opened up cascades of blood on the land of Iraq. You plotted against us and you came with some traitors to take over rule of the great land of Iraq. Rumsfeld: The ones you call traitors were chosen as their leaders by the Iraqi people by democratic means and clean elections, such as never took place while you ruled the country. Saddam Hussein: I knew that you came with a band of traitors with [Jalal] at-Talibani in their front ranks (laughs mockingly). Great Iraq being ruled by at-Talibani and al-Ja‘fari, isn’t that ridiculous? And what kind of elections are you talking about? Is it possible to hold free elections, as you call them, when our country is occupied? Mr. Rumsfeld, we have learned from history that occupiers come only with their lackeys and agents, then you want after all that to convince me that the people of Iraq are enjoying freedom and democracy? You must really be delirious. Rumsfeld (trying very hard to control his anger): You are in isolation and don’t know the facts of what is going on outside. The Iraqi people have been freed from your oppression. If they saw you or any of you men in the street, they would destroy you !! Saddam Hussein: And I bet you that if you were able to announce where you are in Iraq, if the Iraqi Resistance learned where you were, you wouldn’t be able to get out alive. I want to pass on some advice that you must convey to your stupid president: you must tell him to save what remains of his troops. Death is stalking them in every place and history will not forgive him. Rumsfeld: I came to talk with you about the ‘terrorist’ operations that your men are inciting and carrying out. Your men recently carried out a foul attack against Abu Ghurayb prison where more than 50 Americans were killed or wounded, and they killed a number of those in custody on various charges as well. Your men are getting help ‘terrorists’ from every corner of the world and they are threatening the democratic experiment in Iraq. Saddam Hussein: What exactly is it that you want? Rumsfeld: I’m making you one offer and that is that you will be released and can chose for yourself a place of exile freely, in any country you like, on condition that you go on television and issue a condemnation of ‘terrorism’ and order your men to stop these acts. Saddam Hussein: Have you obtained the agreement of your president to this offer? Rumsfeld: Yes, this offer has been agreed on in a meeting in which the President, Vice President, Secretary of State, and Chief of Intelligence took part. And I have been authorized to inform you of this offer. Saddam Hussein: It’s a trifling offer. Rumsfeld (with a sigh): We’re also ready to bring elements close to you into the government. Saddam Hussein: And what else? Rumsfeld: You will be given generous financial assistance and security protection for you and your family in the country of your choice. Saddam Hussein: Do you want to hear my conditions? Rumsfeld: I would love to. Saddam Hussein (with an air of superciliousness and superiority) I want first from you that you set a time table for your withdrawal from Iraq and that your government commit itself to it before the world and that you begin the withdrawal immediately. Secondly, I ask you to release immediately all the Iraqi and Arab prisoners in the prisons you have set up or in which you have taken the freedom of tens of thousands of honorable people of Iraq. Thirdly, I ask from you to pledge to grant full compensation for the material losses that afflicted the Iraqi people as a result of your aggression against our country since the Mother of Battles in 1991 and until today. And I accept the assistance of an Arab and International Committee in estimating the extent of those losses. Fourth, I ask that you return the money that you and your men plundered from the treasuries of Iraq, and its oil, in particular that criminal [L. Paul] Bremer and his gang of traitors and renegades. Fifth, the return of the artifacts that you stole and gave to the archaeological artifact mafia. These are treasures that are beyond all the monetary value in the world, because they carry the history of Iraq and its civilization. It’s true that you don’t have any civilization or history and that the lifespan of your country is no more than a few hundred years, but all that must not serve to justify your theft and your hatred for the civilization of Iraq and the wealth of Iraq. And sixth, you must hand over the weapons of mass destruction if you have found any and return to us the lives of all the martyrs whose lives you took and to return the honor of the noble women of Iraq whom you dishonored. Rumsfeld: Is this some kind of joke? Saddam Hussein: No! This is the bitter reality. . . which you know, Mr. Rumsfeld. You have committed the greatest crime in history against a peaceful Arab country. We met together in the 1980s. Do you remember your offers? Rumsfeld: Enough of the past. We are reassessing our positions towards you and towards a number of powers that have been hostile to us in the past. We have decided to hold dialogue with moderate Islamicists and we have no objection to their coming to power through the ballot box. More important than that we have decided to open channels for dialogue with ‘terrorist’ organizations like Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and Hizb Allah, which is pro-Iranian, and also with other fundamentalist organizations in the whole world. We even have a plan for contacting the Taliban movement in Afghanistan to study the possibility of their participation in power, in exchange for their giving up arms. Saddam Hussein: So you have begun to rethink your erroneous course? Rumsfeld: It is a natural development of events. We are striving to spread democracy in all countries and movements subject to tyranny. Saddam Hussein: May you prosper if you are truthful. I know your real aim, though. If you were really truthful, then you and your allies must begin immediately by withdrawing from Iraq. And you would also have to depart from your position of support for ‘Israel’. But I know that your president is stubborn and arrogant and is not telling the truth. Rumsfeld: He is a democratically elected president, not a bloody ruler like you. Saddam Hussein: Terror is your product and lying is your method. Rumsfeld: This offer is a historic opportunity for you. You will be released and we will consult with you in everything related to the running of Iraq. If you refuse this offer, the opportunity will not be fulfilled. Saddam Hussein: I am not looking for opportunities. I am not looking for a way to save my neck from the gallows that you have set up for all of Iraq. If I wanted that, I would have accepted the Russian offer and saved my sons and grandson from martyrdom. I don’t know what has become of my family and my daughters and grandchildren. But believe me: I am concerned with every Iraqi citizen and with the future of great Iraq more than I am concerned with myself and my family. Through your men, you previously made an offer that if I declare that weapons of mass destruction were muggled to Syria, you said that in return you would release me. I rejected that then and I reject it again now. Rumsfeld: I don’t want a rejection from you. I want you to think about it. We are continuing our reassessment of our stances at the present time. We want to stop the bloodshed on both sides. And therefore we have made this offer out of the logic of power and not the logic of weakness. We asked Jalal at-Talibani to make a statement denying any intention of executing you as a sign of good intentions on our part. We are ready to reassess our whole position on the political arrangement in Iraq as a whole and to discuss this matter with you and with your men. Saddam Hussein: Are you ready to withdraw or not? Rumsfeld: We can possibly discuss redeployment. Our forces have prepared bases for a long stay. We can possibly withdraw from streets and cities, but we will remain in the bases for some time. Saddam Hussein: then you want a new stooge to add to that line of stooges. No Mr. Rumsfeld. Don’t forget that you are talking with Saddam Hussein, the President of the Republic of Iraq. Rumsfeld: But you lost power. Saddam Hussein: I have nothing left but honor and honor cannot be bought and sold. Rumsfeld: But life is priceless. Saddam Hussein: There is no value to life without honor. You robbed Iraq of its honor when you trampled on its land and we will regain our honor whether Saddam Hussein remains or dies a martyr. Rumsfeld: Your supporters with whom we have been discussing told us that you were the first and last decision maker. Were they expecting this reaction from you? Saddam Hussein: Definitely; they know that Saddam Hussein cannot back away at the expense of his homeland and honor. Rumsfeld: History will hold you responsible for the blood that is being shed in Iraq. Saddam Hussein: Rather history will judge you for your crimes. I warned you before, saying that you would commit suicide on the walls of Baghdad. And here you are paying the price. I want you to go to London and read the records of the British Foreign Office and learn something about the struggle of the Iraqi people against your British friends who are now repeating their mistakes and fighting with you. The Iraqi people are a stubborn people who do not fear death. The Resistance is stronger than you imagine. So I promise you that you will have even more. Sources: http://www.albasrah.net/maqalat_mukhtara/arabic/0505/sadam_lqa_020505.htm http://www.elosboa.com/elosboa/issues/423/0401.asp Saddam urges Iraqis to pursue peace
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA
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  An Iraqi checks the damage of a car destroyed in a car bomb blast in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday. (AP/Khalid Mohammed ) 
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BAGHDAD (AP) - In a farewell letter to the Iraqi people, Saddam Hussein urged his countrymen not to hate the people of the countries that toppled his regime nearly four years ago and said he was offering "my soul to God as a sacrifice." The letter was posted on a website Wednesday, a day after Iraq's highest court upheld his death sentence and ordered him hanged within 30 days. A top government official, meanwhile, said Saddam's execution could proceed without the approval of Iraq's president, meaning there were no more legal obstacles to sending the deposed dictator to the gallows. One of Saddam's lawyers, Issam Ghazzawi, confirmed to The Associated Press in Jordan that the Internet letter was authentic, saying it was written by Saddam on Nov. 5 - the day he was convicted by an Iraqi tribunal for ordering the 1982 killings of 148 Shiite Muslims in Dujail. "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," said the letter, which was written in Arabic and translated by the AP. "I also call on you not to hate the people of the other countries that attacked us," it added, referring to the invasion that toppled his regime. Despite his calls for conciliation among Iraqis, Saddam's legacy is brutal. He put suspected foes to death without trial, oppressed Kurds and Shiites, waged war on Iran and twice fought U.S.-led armies. He left an impoverished country now gripped by sectarian bloodshed and an insurgency against the U.S. presence. On Thursday, three bombs killed 27 Iraqis in Baghdad, and the U.S. military announced the deaths of three American soldiers. Against the backdrop of sectarian killings that have dragged Sunni Arabs and Shiite Muslims into civil warfare over the past year, Saddam urged his countrymen to "remember that God has enabled you to become an example of love, forgiveness and brotherly coexistence." But he also voiced support for the Sunni Arab-dominated insurgency, saying: "Long live jihad and the mujahedeen." He urged Iraqis to be patient and rely on God's help in fighting "against the unjust nations." Saddam said he was giving his life for his country as part of that struggle. "Here, I offer my soul to God as a sacrifice, and if he wants, he will send it to heaven with the martyrs," he said. An official from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa Party, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said that "the government wants Saddam executed as soon as possible." Another official close to al-Maliki, who also refused to be quoted by name, said the execution would take place before the end of the 30-day period. Ghazzawi, the defence lawyer, said the letter by Saddam was released Tuesday and published Wednesday on the website of Saddam's former Baath Party. Some Saddam loyalists threatened to retaliate if he is executed, warning in a posting on the same website that they would target U.S. interests. "The Baath and the resistance are determined to retaliate, with all means and eve |
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