Saddam Hussein Execution Watch--The Dictator Is Dead

The post has been continuously updated several times between the time that Saddam Hussein's execution date was set and the aftermath of his execution.  Scroll down to the bottom for the final updates.  But first a few quick bits of information to bring you up to the minute:

Update 1/15/07:  Two of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants have been hanged.  Details here.  An official video was made and has been shown to reporters but reportedly will not be released.

Update 1/8/07:  Now some are complaining that Saddam Hussein's corpse had a gaping neck wound.  They are implying that this means Hussein was mistreated after his hanging.

If you want to see the wound for yourself, go to Jawa Report (warning: graphic image).

I doubt that Hussein's neck injury was a result of mistreatment of the corpse.  Without going into details, hanging can do dramatic and unpleasant things to the neck, which bears the force of the fall.  Hanging sometimes results in decapitation.  And as the news snippet quoted below indicates, Hussein's tribe noticed no "unnatural signs" on his body.

As CNN points out, the facial bruising may simply mean that the gallows trap door was not large enough, causing Hussein to hit his face as he dropped through the door.  The trap door was reportedly enlarged before the execution, but perhaps it still was not quite large enough.

Saddam Hussein's body was buried in a religious compound in the village of Ouja, a few miles south of Tikrit. His burial place is about two miles from the graves of his sons, Odai and Qusai, in the main town cemetery. Both sons and a grandson were killed in a gunbattle with the American forces in Mosul in July 2003.

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

Videos of Saddam's execution and a video of his body in a shroud are available at CNN.

The Revver website has what appears to be a very jumpy cell phone video of the entire execution. Warning: graphic.

Original post with series of updates through the execution and aftermath:

The tug of war over Saddam Hussein's execution continues.  The latest rabbit pulled out of a hat by forces attempting to keep the tyrant alive is a claim by Hussein's lawyer that it is illegal for Saddam Hussein to be handed over to Iraq for execution:   

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer implored world leaders on Thursday to prevent the United States from handing over the ousted leader to Iraqi authorities for execution, saying he should enjoy protection from his enemies as a "prisoner of war."

Iraq's highest court on Tuesday rejected Saddam's appeal against his conviction and death sentence for the killing of 148 Shiites in the northern city of Dujail in 1982. The court said the former president should be hanged within 30 days.

"According to the international conventions, it is forbidden to hand a prisoner of war to his adversary," Saddam's lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi said.

"I urge all the international and legal organizations, the United Nations secretary-general, the Arab League and all the leaders of the world to rapidly prevent the American administration from handing the president to the Iraqi authorities," he told The Associated Press.

So after being tried by an Iraqi court in a lengthy proceeding and sentenced to death, and after having the death sentence affirmed on appeal, Hussein's legal maneuver is to declare all of Iraq an "enemy" and to demand that Hussein not be handed over into Iraqi custody.

What are the odds that "the international and legal organizations, the United Nations secretary-general, the Arab League and all the leaders of the world," who stood by during Hussein's tyranny and open defiance of the U.N., and who stood by again when the U.S. invaded Iraq and deposed Hussein, will suddenly shake off their lethargy and intervene to save Saddam Hussein's life?

The forces trying to keep Hussein alive are certainly determined.  So far we've had:

• A public appeal to save Hussein (from Human Rights Watch)
• A threat of violence against America from the Baath party
• Publication of a so-called "farewell letter" from Hussein
• An AP report claiming that U.S. soldiers are split on whether Hussein should be executed

We're not finished yet.  As long as the dictator still breathes, there will be more feverish efforts to prevent his execution.

Update:  There are conflicting reports about how soon Saddam will be executed.  One report today claimed that it may be a full 30 days or more before the execution, possibly stretching into February. 

But a breaking AFP report says that the execution could happen as early as Saturday:

The White House expects ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to be executed perhaps as early as Saturday, a senior official said on condition of anonymity.

The official cited information from US authorities in Baghdad that "it's not going to be tonight our time, or tomorrow their time, it's going to be maybe another day."

"It's the government of Iraq's decision," the official said, as US President George W. Bush and top national security aides mulled an overhaul of his Iraq war-fighting strategy.

Asked whether the execution could spark violence by lingering Saddam loyalists, the official replied that "they start violence for any reason they can come up with."

No truer words were ever spoken!

NBC News is also reporting that the execution is expected to happen before Sunday.

Update 12/29/06:  Saddam Hussein could hang within hours.

Saddam's lawyers also asked a U.S. court to block the execution today, on grounds that Hussein is a defendant in a civil lawsuit.  It would have been overreaching in the extreme for a U.S. court to block a sentence imposed on an Iraqi defendant by an Iraqi court and affirmed by Iraq's highest court.  Indeed, any such move by America would have been condemned as imperialistic.  But apparently Hussein's backers now think imperialism is a good thing.

Further update 12/29/06:  The execution will occur at any time within the next few hours:

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

The time was agreed upon during a meeting Friday between U.S. and Iraqi officials, said the adviser, who declined to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

"Saddam will be handed over shortly before the execution," the official said. The physical transfer of Saddam from U.S. to Iraqi authorities was believed to be one of the last steps before he was to be hanged. Saddam has been in U.S. custody since he was captured in December 2003.

Al-Nueimi said U.S. authorities were maintaining physical custody of Saddam to prevent him from being humiliated before his execution. He said the Americans also want to prevent the mutilation of his corpse, as has happened to other deposed Iraqi leaders.

"The Americans want him to be hanged respectfully," al-Nueimi said. If Saddam is humiliated publicly or his corpse ill-treated "that could cause an uprising and the Americans would be blamed," he said.

Munir Haddad, a judge on the appeals court that upheld Saddam's death sentence, said he was ready to attend the hanging and that all the paperwork was in order, including the red card.

"All the measures have been done," Haddad said. "There is no reason for delays."

As American and Iraqi officials met in Baghdad to set the hour of his death, Saddam's lawyers asked a U.S. judge for a stay of execution.

Saddam's lawyers issued a statement Friday calling on "everybody to do everything to stop this unfair execution." The statement also said the former president had been transferred from U.S. custody, though American and Iraqi officials later denied that.

Al-Maliki said opposing Saddam's execution was an insult to his victims. His office said he made the remarks in a meeting with families of people who died during Saddam's rule.

"Our respect for human rights requires us to execute him, and there will be no review or delay in carrying out the sentence," al-Maliki said.

State television ran footage of the Saddam era's atrocities, including images of uniformed men placing a bomb next to a youth's chest and blowing him up in what looked like a desert, and handcuffed men being thrown from a high building.

Do you suppose we'll see images of the ways Saddam Hussein's victims were killed on televisions in America, Europe, and the rest of the civilized world? 

Or will tears be shed only for the dictator?

The New York Times couldn't resist getting in one last dig on the tyrant's behalf: 

The important question was never really about whether Saddam Hussein was guilty of crimes against humanity. The public record is bulging with the lengthy litany of his vile and unforgivable atrocities: genocidal assaults against the Kurds; aggressive wars against Iran and Kuwait; use of internationally banned weapons like nerve gas; systematic torture of countless thousands of political prisoners.

What really mattered was whether an Iraq freed from his death grip could hold him accountable in a way that nurtured hope for a better future. A carefully conducted, scrupulously fair trial could have helped undo some of the damage inflicted by his rule. It could have set a precedent for the rule of law in a country scarred by decades of arbitrary vindictiveness. It could have fostered a new national unity in an Iraq long manipulated through its religious and ethnic divisions.

It could have, but it didn’t. After a flawed, politicized and divisive trial, Mr. Hussein was handed his sentence: death by hanging. This week, in a cursory 15-minute proceeding, an appeals court upheld that sentence and ordered that it be carried out posthaste. Most Iraqis are now so preoccupied with shielding their families from looming civil war that they seem to have little emotion left to spend on Mr. Hussein or, more important, on their own fading dreams of a new and better Iraq.

In some hypothetical bubble-gum cloud world in which the editorial board of the New York Times resides, every trial would be perfect, and the trial of Saddam Hussein would have be so scrupulously refined, so deeply profound, so beautiful, so deeply moving, as to "foster a new national unity" in Iraq.

Ri-i-i-i-ight. 

That's a tall order for even the best Hollywood director -- and a trial is a different animal entirely.

Sorry, New York Times.  A trial is not a movie!  You can't script the lines, cue the music, adjust the lighting, or choose the plot elements.  There are certain requirements of proof.  Evidence must be admissible.  Each side must be heard.  Witnesses must often be taken out of order.  Unruly defendants -- like enraged ex-dictators who don't have a legal leg to stand on -- can throw the proceedings into chaos at any time on a moment's notice.

And there is no movie, or trial, on God's green earth that would have placated those who are fighting savagely to keep Saddam alive and destroy Iraq's new democracy.

Captain's Quarters does a beautiful job of responding to the foolish arrogance of the New York Times:

So let's get this straight. What is really important isn't the hundreds of thousands of people that Saddam had killed on his whim. It isn't lengthy public record of his "vile atrocities". It isn't the long string of living victims that had to bear witness under difficult circumstances to those who could not appear in court. What really matters, the Times insists, is that the process did not "nurture hope".

Well, the purpose of trials is not to nurture hope -- it's to determine the truth regarding guilt or innocence of the accused. In this, the tribunal succeeded, although as the Times notes, the issue was not in much doubt. The trial also succeeded in giving voice to many of Saddam's victims, something the Times must have missed in its zeal to find hope-nurturing elements in a genocide trial. The tribunal also established solid legal precedents for a fledgeling judiciary that has to establish itself mostly from scratch.

The reluctance of the Times to support Saddam's conviction is puzzling, given that they concede all available evidence paints him as one of the worst monsters in the past few decades. It seems to spring from an objection to his sentence rather than his conviction, as they end with a warning that Saddam's execution will not create a "new and better Iraq," but that's not the purpose of criminal sentencing, either. Sentences serve dual purposes: to protect society and to serve as a deterrent to others, neither of which has anything to do with creating a new and better anything.

As I am opposed to the death penalty in civilian courts, Saddam's execution presents an interesting challenge. Michael Stickings says he cannot support the death penalty under any circumstances, but I think there is a large distinction between civil death sentences and those under wartime and genocidal conditions. The execution of spies and saboteurs, for instance, offers a deterrence to those who would commit those acts during wartime, and the elimination of that as an assured result of capture would create a flood of saboteurs and spies, especially if they received the same treatment as POWs. Similarly, genocidal tyrants tried by their own people and executed for their crimes serve as an example for other tyrants to fear -- and it removes the jailed tyrant as a focus for restoration, a situation that history has proven to be dangerous to recovering societies.

In any case, the Times proves itself laughable once again by proclaiming a three-year process towards Saddam's execution as a "rush" and complaining about a verdict and sentence that even they admit were completely justified by the evidence at hand. Perhaps next time, the editorial board should not be in such a "rush" to opine.

The Washington Post, in stark contrast with the New York Times, and to its eternal credit, got it right today when it comes to Saddam Hussein:

For those who oppose the death penalty, as we do, any execution is regrettable -- and this one, should it come to pass, will follow highly imperfect judicial proceedings and may in the short term inflame sectarian divisions. But it's hard to imagine the death penalty existing anywhere for any crime and not for Saddam Hussein -- a man who, with the possible exception of Kim Jong Il, has more blood on his hands than anyone else alive. Should the world see his end in the coming days, the justice will be imperfect. But it will still be justice.

To be sure, this was not the accountability that one would hope for Saddam Hussein. For one thing, the crime for which he has been condemned -- the killing of 148 men and boys from the town of Dujail after an assassination attempt against him there in 1982 -- will be but a footnote in the volume detailing his atrocities. And his execution will cut short his trial for the crimes that would fill out that volume: the so-called Anfal campaign, in which tens of thousands of Kurds were murdered.

What's more, his trial was in no sense the model of civilized justice that would have showcased a new, democratic Iraq -- in large measure because that new Iraq has yet to materialize. Several defense lawyers were murdered; judges had to be replaced. Political interference was evident. Even this week, the appeals tribunal sent back one life sentence as insufficiently tough, in effect demanding death for one of the co-defendants.

Still, there is something unreal about the cries of foul from human rights groups demanding perfect procedural justice from a country struggling with civil war, daily bombings and death-squad killings. The reality is that by the trial's end, there was no significant factual dispute between prosecution and defense: Saddam Hussein acknowledged on national television that he had signed the death warrants after only the most cursory look at the evidence against his victims. That, he testified proudly, "is the right of the head of state." Exactly what would a perfect trial be capable of discovering?

Further Update 12/29/06:  Iraqi television is reportedly stating that the execution will occur between 5:30 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. local time (9:30 to 10 p.m. EST).

Further Update 12/29/06:  Pat Dollard is reporting from a confidential military source that Saddam Hussein is dead.

Further Update 12/29/06:  Now it's official.  Iraqi TV is reporting that Saddam Hussein has been hanged.  BBC News has the story.  And here's the report from Reuters, which seems longer but contains few details not known before the execution.  In fact, the first two paragraphs contain the only new information:

U.S.-backed Iraqi television station Al Hurra said Saddam Hussein had been executed by hanging shortly before 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Saturday.

Arabic satellite channel Arabiya also reported the execution had taken place.

Fox News is reporting that Iraqi-Americans are cheering Saddam's execution.

BBC News has a few more details now of how Iraqi TV is reporting the execution and a reminder that two others also took their final fall today:

Criminal Saddam was hanged to death," state-run Iraqiya television announced, as patriotic music and images of national monuments were broadcast.

A scrolling headline read: "Saddam's execution marks the end of a dark period of Iraq's history."

The TV station said Saddam Hussein's half-brother and the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court were also hanged.

The names of the two executed with Hussein are Barzan al-Tikriti and Awad al-Bandar. 

Update:  CNN reports that Barzan al-Tikriti and Awad al-Bandar were not yet executed:

Two other co-defendants -- Barzan Hassan, Hussein's half-brother, and Awwad Bandar, the former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court -- were also found guilty and had been expected to face execution with Hussein, but Rubaie said their executions were postponed.

"We chose to postpone Barzan and Awwad's execution to a later date because we wanted to have this day to have an historic distinction," he said. "We wanted to have one specific date for Saddam so people remember this date to be linked to Saddam's execution and nothing else."

Saddam Hussein's Rein of Terror is Ended

How do you feel about the execution of Saddam Hussein?

You can feel sad, if you lament the death penalty, and if you lament the loss of this man's soul.  But feel the peace, too.

There has been a small measure of justice for the hundreds of thousands of victims of Saddam Hussein's brutal regime.  Men, women, children.  They suffered and died in the most unimaginably cruel ways.  Do I need to spell it out for you? 

Men murdered for no reason other than Saddam's pursuit of raw power.

Others killed in meat grinders. 

Many tortured and maimed for life:

Some crucified:

Many massacred:

Eyes gouged out.  Electric shocks.  The list goes on and on.

Hundreds of thousands more had to stand by and silently swallow their grief, tears and anger -- and praise the very dictator who had just tortured and killed their loved ones, lest they be the next to die.

Today there is a moment of peace.

Saddam Hussein will never torture another soul.

Execution Details

Details about the pre-dawn execution are being revealed.  Hussein had to be forcibly removed from his cell but reportedly was submissive when it was time for the hanging.  About 20 observers were in attendance.  Hussein was handed a red card of the style given to condemned men during Hussein's regine before they were executed.  He carried a Koran and gave it to a witness, apparently after the noose was put around his neck.  He refused to wear a hood.  One witness said he had fear on his face. 

According to an AP report:

Sami al-Askari, the political adviser of Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki, told The Associated Press that Saddam briefly struggled when he was taken from his cell in an American military prison but was composed in his last moments.

He said Saddam was clad completely in black, with a jacket, trousers, hat and shoes, rather than prison garb.

Shortly before the execution, Saddam's hat was removed and Saddam was asked if he wanted to say something, al-Askari said.

"No I don't want to," al-Askari, who was present at the execution, quoted Saddam as saying. Saddam repeated a prayer after a Sunni Muslim cleric who was present.

"Saddam later was taken to the gallows and refused to have his head covered with a hood," al-Askari said. "Before the rope was put around his neck, Saddam shouted: 'God is great. [Ed. Actually, "Allahu Akbar!"]  The nation will be victorious and Palestine is Arab.'"

Hussein was defiant to the end.  According to the videographer:

"He was saying things about injustice, about resistance, about how these guys are terrorists," he says. On the way to the gallows, according to Ali, "Saddam said, ‘Iraq without me is nothing.’"

According to the same videographer, who filmed from close quarters, "He died absolutely, he died instantly." Ali said Saddam's body twitched, "shaking, very shaking," but "no blood," he said, and "no spit."

After the execution, some in attendance danced, or at least cheered, near Hussein's body.  People danced in the streets in Sadr City too, and in many places in Iraq and around the world.

Here is President George Bush's statement on the execution of Saddam Hussein.

Update 12/30/06:  Here is a Saddam Hussein Post Mortem

The AP has more details of the execution and aftermath today:

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

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

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

Outside the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, west of the capital, loyalists marched with Saddam pictures and waved Iraqi flags. Defying curfews, hundreds took to the streets vowing revenge in Samarra, north of Baghdad, and gunmen paraded and fired into the air in support of Saddam in Tikrit, his hometown.

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

Saddam went to his execution dressed in a black overcoat, dark trousers and a hat. It was unclear if he had been told in advance that he would be hanged just before dawn Saturday. He looked baffled and uncomprehending as one of the hangmen explained the procedure.

He refused to put on a hood that was offered before a black cloth was wound around his neck and the noose draped over his head and tightened.

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

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

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

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

The floor dropped out of the gallows.

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

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

The responses within Iraq to Saddam's death echoed the larger reaction across the Middle East, with his enemies rejoicing and his defenders proclaiming him a martyr. While Iranians and Kuwaitis welcomed the death of the leader who led wars against each of their countries, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the execution prevented exposure of the secrets and crimes the former dictator committed during his brutal rule.

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

Within Iraq and across the world, the airwaves were alive with pictures of Saddam in death, a bruise on his cheek, his neck elongated and twisted impossibly to the right — grisly proof that the man who had tormented and killed so many during a bloody quarter-century rule was truly dead.

The American Thinker has some valuable historical perspective:

Most of the great butchers of the 20th century died of old age, in their own beds, some of them honored by millions. Not a single one met justice in the sense accepted in free states across the world. The handful who died otherwise are aberrations, victims of strange events that act as models for nothing.

There is one single exception - the hanging of Saddam Hussein on December 30, 2006 after a careful, lengthy trial carried out under extremely difficult circumstances according to internationally recognized judicial norms. The state of Iraq has succeeded where the rest of the civilized world has failed. It is a singular achievement, and it will stand.   

Another video link that shows the execution itself (recorded with a jittery cell phone and with audio) is here at Google.  (Warning: graphic)

CNN now has merged some of the official execution videotape with clips from the jumpy cellphone tape and has added translation of some of the final comments from the guards and Saddam Hussein.

Timely and stirring words from Mohammed at Iraq the Model, in Celebrating Justice:

Saddam lost his humanity the day he committed his first crime, so the one I saw walking to the rope this morning was no man to me.

It was him who rejected humanity to become the monster that the weak feared and prayed to see him dead for years to be safe from his crimes.

Outside Iraq people will divide over his hanging, just like they divided over his life and rule but here in Iraq most of us feel that today justice has been served. Those who mourn him are a few and are still living in the past that has no future in Iraq.

To those who didn’t like justice I say that his death means life to many.

Executing the dictator renews the hopes of not only Iraqis but also of other oppressed peoples in the world in having a better future where they enjoy freedom. It's time for other tyrants to learn from this lesson and realize that a similar fate is on the way if they refuse to change.

Yes, it was the people though their elected government who put Saddam on trial and who says otherwise should go back and learn about how Saddam humiliated, murdered and tortured Iraqis and plundered their fortunes in his stupid adventures.

He deserved to die—our people are still suffering from his crimes till this moment, maybe not in person anymore but through the murderous terrorist machine he built and expanded over years; his orphans are still murdering our people in cold blood trying to deny us the right to build a model of life away from the culture of death the dictator created.

Executing Saddam is an execution to a dark era in Iraq's history and it's a message to all those who followed his ways that there is no turning back; yes, the people will never kneel to a tyrant again and will never give up.

The future is in the hands of the people and they will choose their way no matter how big the sacrifice is.

We have suffered too much for too long and we deserve a better life and that we will keep pursuing.

On this day as we celebrate justice we shall not forget to pray for blessings for the souls of the dictator's victims and we shall not forget to thank our brothers in America and the rest of the coalition nations who helped us and are still helping us in our struggle to build the new free and democratic Iraq.

Tags: Saddam Saddams Sadaam Sadamm Sadam Saddam's Hussein Husseins Husain Hussain Hussein Husein Hussin Hussein's execution executions executed  éxécution date hanging hanged hung get getting gallows die died dead death dying dieing body entire full film movie photos pictures pics video watch see audio videotape tape taped recorded clip cell phone camera footage images voice translation saying spoken said details trial rein you tube youtube

Flashbacks:

• More Horrors Revealed at Trial of Saddam Hussein
• Wow. I Didn't Know Saddam Hussein Was That Important
• Saddam Judge Removed
• Remember How Clinton Faced Down Saddam? -- Or Not?
• Watch for Saddam News to Get Crazier in Days Ahead
• Media Embargoing News of Saddam Hussein Threat
• Still Uncovering More Evidence of Evil from Saddam's Iraq
• More Evidence of Saddam-Al Qaeda Connections for Journalists to Ignore
• Saddam Calls for Iraqi Unity: Bring on the Nobel Peace Prize
• Saddam Personally Signed Death Orders
• Iraq Trained Terrorists Before War; Also Paid Terrorists in Cash
• More of Saddam's Dead Unearthed; They Cry Out for Justice

Comments

[Richard D. Brinkman]

I'm having serious doubts in the coming execution of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Why not let him spend his remaining life in jail to contemplate his crimes?

[benning]

Since we - America - were/are his enemy, the point the lawyers made is moot. Turning him over to his victims is another thing entirely. My feelings are: we should turn him over to the Iraqi authorities forthwith. What they do with him is up to them.

[T.C]

HE'S DEAD HUNG BY THE NECK UNTIL DEAD AND HOPEFULLY STRUGGLED A BIT

[Daniel Winston]

I think that killing him is a sick sick Things

Be mad all you want but that is what i think

[Ralph Emerson. Benn]

THE BUTCHER IS DEAD,

For much more, see Snake Hunters Weblog.

Then Comment! reb

www.lazyonebenn.blogspot.com

[AubreyJ]

Well, I quess... like his sons... he now knows what hell is like!!!

Great job on the post today, Gina...
AubreyJ.........

[Daniel DiRito]

See a sarcastic visual of George Bush playing a round of “Hangman”…here:

www.thoughttheater.com

[Fr Mark]

Well, What have we done ??

Our Lord said Thou Shalt NOT Kill !!!

Someone please tell me is it right to take his life,, I KNOW HE TOOK LIFE,, But we could have kept him LOCKED UP.. !!!

I am just worried that we have opened another can of worms..

God Bless you advice would be great as i realy dont understand ?

[Mississippi Chris]

Saddam's execution still does not solve Iraqi problems by no means. Our soldiers are still there and dieing for a country that is not our problem. Yet may the death of saddam be a sign to all people who choose to oppose America. May others see that no bad deed goes unpunished. Saddams execution gives our soldiers a since of partial accomplishment and believe that they should commended on what they have did over in Iraq. May we also remember the soldiers and their families who have died as result of this war, and those who continue to help establish a succesful government in Iraq. Also we must remember Saddam's victims and their families who have died innocently for no crimes. I say JUSTICE HAS BEEN SERVED!!!

[frank costantino]

the only regrete i see is that his own goverment could not stop this butcher on there own,it could of saved alot of lives. everyone has the right to freedom, and a goverment that supports it's people and it,s economy not just personal gain. no matter what the battle we must fight as americans as a result of this execution. it is well worth the efforts of all that are invovled

[jaiyde]

i know im only 13 but sadam deserved to die they should have tortured him like he did to millions of others. he started war for no reasan he reked this world again we colud of been livin in piece im glad he is dead and hope he is suffering were ever he is now

[Donna Marnell]

I hope Pres. Bush is happy now. Saddam Hussein should have been
given a life sentence, not an "eye for an eye". What is this country
getting to become anyway? Are we all a bunch of murderers here?
Pres. Bush killed more people with "his war". 655,00 Iraqis have been killed in this illegal war and 3,000 of our troops. Hope Pres Bush is happy. What goes around, comes around.

[Joe Delee]

anyone condoning this is as sick as saddam

[Lurmez]

Saddam's death was a mercy killing. If we let the Iraqis have him they would've done to him what he and his son's did to many others. Our lord did say "Thou shalt not kill", but we cannot forget "an eye for an eye". If we could ask one of the many Iraqi's who were crucified, or had eyes burned out, they would say hanging is not enough!

[Nousch]

I dont think what they did is right..Even though he was a bad man,everyone singel person has rights and he should have had the rights to live.I think if he would have stayed in jail his whole life,it would have been worse for him because he would have to think of all the bad things every single day.Even if they killed him or not..what does it bring??NOTHING..if he would still be alive nothing would have happend anyways because he would be in jail and now that he is dead nothing really changed only the fact that he isnt alive.
I just think everyone deserves to live even if u've done something really bad....
The worst thing that i thought about all this was that people filmed how he got executed...I think thats just sick..they show it everywhere...Its not nice...
oh well...i guess this will be all now in the past..
But i must say..seeing those films made me really cry..As i said before...
Everyone has the right to live no matter what they did!

[A. R. Cruz]

Lennon said "Nothing is Real..,"

[D.R.Cooney]

I have traveled the world for work and have seen many terrible things with the way the way that many have to survive. I believe that many Americans do not have a clue on what it is like outside of their little world other than what they read in the slanted liberal press. How long does it take before enough is enough. Justice has been surved. Thank you Mr. President I believe you have helped to make my world a safer one.

[Ryan C. Westenberg]

You know I hear some people that state that "we hope President Bush is happy" blah...blah...blah EVERYONE must remember what Sadamm did as a leader and what he did to his own people. We in America cannot say yeah we hear ya because our leaders have NEVER killed us the Americans. EVERYONE must remember that this is not an American thing no matter what anyone has to say. If this was not wanted to be done in the longrun the Iraqw people would not have done it. They went through with this execution because Sadaam was a man who killed you not because you did something wrong but if had one small problem with you the cloths you wore ect. he would and did kill his own people. Death is tragic... but even more tragic our the Iraq men, women, and some children who will never be found...ever because of President Sadaam Hussin. Thank You for your time and God Bless America!

[Amy]

Every person has rights, huh? Well, this sicko took it upon himself to take that right away from completely INNOCENT people. Who gave him the right to take their lives or decide when it was time for them to die. AN EYE FOR AN EYE !! One thing though, death was too easy for Saddam. They should have put him in one of the prisons with hard core murderers and left them take care of him. Torture just as he did to people.

[J.A.Vasquez]

I am tired of hearing these stinking; lying liberals say that this war was not just. Everyone had the same information as president bush did and came to the same conclusion. Have you all forgotten 9.1.1. How many Americans died there! how many families were affected? Yes Sadamm supported terrorism! For that alone he got what he deserved. Not to mention the thousands of people, he and his family killed or destroyed. He was asked to step down on his own will. He decided against it. Yes people die in war, it something that you can not avoid. If all you liberals were around in world war 2 we would be speaking German and that’s a fact! You just keep drinking the tea that the news keeps feeding you. While they try and make them self look like they are reporting the truth. Why don’t you ask some of the soldiers coming back from Iraq how they feel about the war! They know the are doing something good for the WORLD.

[Barb]

I agree with several of you that this was indeed that right thing to do to Saddam. Yes, he killed innocent people for no good reason. He was a devil. If for no other reason, then for the sake of humanity, he should be killed because it was so very wrong what he did to all the innocent people that he ruled over. He was an evil, evil man. Don't worry though, he may not have suffered on earth, but he too will have to stand before God and answer for what he has done just like everyone else. I wouldn't want to be in his shoes.

[michelle.b]

listen there ent no excuse for what that man done im only 16 and i know what he did was wrong.He deserved the death penalty and it should of happened along time ago,saddam wasnt just just a murder he was a lot more but one of those wasnt a good leader.He killed people for the fun off it and if some one asked me to kill saddam myself i would refuse because i aint a cold blooded murder like him or the people who followed him.I dont see why innocent people have to die threw some one elses mistakes.And Bush and Blair aint no different to him either,it took them this long to do what had to be done a few years ago.So i blame bush and blair for the innocent people that died under the attack of saddam they could of stopped it all along time ago but they never.They aint men there mice,and i will be happy once they both are gone

[Mike]

As this recedes into the background of our collective attention span, we are left with: no clear video of Hussein's death, no autopsy report, no body, and no credible witnesses to his death. Considering the billions of dollars that this man controlled, payoffs on a grand scale and a staged execution are distinct possibilities. Where is the proof?

[kelly and scott]

we're glad hes dead!! he deserved it for killing millions n those people who are sad from his death need to get their heads sorted out!! go to hell hussein!

[Tylomia]

How would you like to die? Would you like to be hung? What if your loved one made a mistake in life and was hung? How would you feel?

I am against everything that Hussien did during his life time but NO ONE no matter how bad they were deserves to die by humans... only God himself can make that desition. Humans tamper with life by creating babies in a test tube and by killing people because of their wrong. No matter how bad of a person you were your whole life as long as you make it right with God before you die then you are going to heaven. So i dont care if you dont agree with me but NO ONE i repeat NO ONE deserves to die because of something they did no matter how small or large it was!!!

Although we (as humans) know that Hussien did do the things that he did what about Scott Peterson he is on the death trail and will be killed but there is no way of 100% knowing that he killed his wife Laci and unborn son. So what if he is killed and he really didnt do the crime how terrible is that.

I hope the people that their job is to killing criminals feel terrible before they go to bed at nigh and i hope that they are unable to sleep and i hope they feel guilt because no real Christian could kills someone even if it is their job and then feel like they are striaght on all levels.

That is my opinion disagree i dont care!

[Nathan]

Tylomia,
A mistake!?!? The SOB killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people!! Have you been to a good sized sporting arena? They seat about 20,000-30,000 people, right? Now take about 15 to 25 of those, filled to capacity. That's how many people he's killed by action or order. Granted I think killing is wrong, and I couldn't just go up to someone and kill them. However, if someone hurt a member of my family and I knew who it was...and the police did nothing about it....I would do everything I could to do to him/them what they did to my loved one. If my wife/parent(s)/inlaws were killed and the police did nothing, I would want revenge. I might not kill him, but by the time I'm done with him/them they'd wish I had.
Are you saying that we should feed, clothe, shelter, and provide medical care for people like Hitler, Mengele (sp?) (the one that did all those experiments on the Jews in the concentration camps), Bundy and McVey until the day they die of natural causes? Can you imagine the financial/emotional drain keeping someone like that alive for 40, 50, 60 years? If cared for, Hitler might still be alive today. McVey would be alive for 60 or more years yet.

[Alyssa]

I think that the disicion was right... He killed millions of people and he should die for what he did... I hope he burns in hell for all the horrible things he did. I don't know what some of you people are saying that he has the right to live even if he did something bad... there are consequences for your actions... so his consequence was to be hung and thats what it should be... Now if someone in the U.S. Killed one person obviously they aren't gonna get excuted but there will be a consequence for what the person did. Hello People wake up look what he did to us and many others.