Saddam has been executed

[TCO]

He's dead. Let's start killing some Taliban, now. Get that gantry going at Gitmo.

[Harry Tuttle]

Wow. How long has it been? Nuremburg?

[SlowwHand]

http://english.aljazeera.net is still reporting unconfirmed, but...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

[DRoseDARs]

Isn't this like the fourth "Saddam's Dead" thread we've had in two days?

[SlowwHand]

Saddam Hussein executed
Deposed Iraqi dictator hanged for deaths of 148 Shiites in 1982


BREAKING NEWS
NBC, MSNBC and news services
Updated: 1 minute ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three years after he was hauled from a hole in the ground by pursuing U.S. forces, Saddam Hussein was hanged Saturday under a sentence imposed by an Iraqi court, state-run Iraqiya television reported.

The deposed president was found guilty over the killing of 148 members of the Shiite population of the town of Dujail after militants tried to assassinate him there in 1982, during Iraq’s war with Shiite Iran.

Iraq's Deputy Foreign Minister Labeed Abbawi confirmed the execution to the BBC on Saturday. Multiple TV outlets, including U.S.-backed al-Hurra TV, al-Arabiya and Sky News TV had already reported the news.

Al Arabiya also reported that Saddam's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and former Judge Awad al-Bander were also executed.

NBC News reported that gunfire, presumably celebratory, could be heard in Baghdad after the executions.

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

The Pentagon said U.S. forces, always on high alert in Iraq, were braced for any upsurge in violence from Sunni insurgents loyal to Saddam.

A U.S. judge refused late Friday to stop the execution, rejecting a last-minute court challenge by the former Iraqi president.

"Petitioner Hussein's application for immediate, temporary stay of execution is denied," U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said in Washington after a hearing over the telephone with attorneys.

An Iraqi appeals court upheld Saddam’s death sentence Tuesday for the killing of 148 people who were detained and tortured after the attempt on his life.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said in statements released Friday that those who opposed the execution of Saddam were insulting the honor of 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.

‘God’s gift to Iraqis’
In his Friday sermon, a mosque preacher in the Shiite holy city of Najaf called Saddam’s execution “God’s gift to Iraqis.”

“Oh, God, you know what Saddam has done! He killed millions of Iraqis in prisons, in wars with neighboring countries and he is responsible for mass graves. Oh God, we ask you to take revenge on Saddam,” said Sheik Sadralddin al-Qubanji, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, known as SCIRI.

Rumors and reports swirled Friday over when the execution would take place and whether U.S. forces had handed Saddam over to Iraqi custody, presumably the last step before the execution.

Earlier reports said al-Maliki feared fueling religious tensions if Saddam were executed during Eid al-Adha, a Muslim holiday that starts at sundown Saturday.

An execution during Eid carries great symbolism. The feast marks the sacrifice the prophet Abraham was prepared to make when God ordered him to kill his son, and many Shiites could regard Saddam’s death as a gift from God. Such symbolism could further anger Sunnis, who are resentful of new Shiite power.

Najeeb al-Nueimi, a member of Saddam’s legal team, said U.S. authorities were maintaining physical custody of Saddam until the time of the execution to prevent him from being humiliated beforehand. He said the Americans also want to prevent the mutilation of his corpse, as has happened to other deposed Iraqi leaders.

Saddam has been held at a U.S. base near Baghdad airport, but the place of execution has been kept secret.

Meeting with half-brothers
Saddam, who said in court he had no fear of dying, had a farewell meeting with two of his half-brothers on Thursday, his lawyers said, adding the fallen dictator was in high spirits and ready to die a “martyr.” A third half-brother and another aide are also condemned to die for crimes against humanity.

Saddam’s conviction was hailed by President Bush as a triumph for the democracy he promised to foster in Iraq after the 2003 invasion.

International human rights groups criticized the year-long trial, during which three defense lawyers were killed and a chief judge resigned complaining of political interference.

[Lonestar]

May Khorne consume your soul upon arrival in the Warp, Saddam.

[MrFun]

Too bad Osama Bin Laden is still free.

[Harry Tuttle]

Originally posted by MrFun
Too bad Osama Bin Laden is still free.

Yeah well one gone...

[Q Classic]

Ah, shame.

Like I said, I cannot justify even his execution, what with being pro-life and all.

I don't see what was so wrong with letting him be an extended guest at Abu Ghraib, y'know? Or having to live in his little rabbit hole for the rest of his life.

[SlowwHand]

I'm pro-life. That's why I'm also pro-dp.

[Q Classic]

I find those positions mutally contradictory.

I just don't think the guy merited execution. Y'know, the whole killing 'em as punishment thing makes me feel as if Saddam got of easy, y'know? It's not like he had to suffer the effects of a nerve gas. It's not like he got waterboarded or worse, like the innumerable victims of disappearings.

A hanging's too... merciful.

And you guys are ****ing cowards for allowing it to happen. What, is a little bit of barbarism, blood and guts for one of, according to your spectrum's words, the worst war criminals ever... too much?

And yet, that kind of torture is a-ok for people who haven't committed the crimes on his level.

It's ****ed up.

[SlowwHand]

I have a nephew doing 50 years, no parole, for doing habitual petty crap. Hussein was an habitual murderer.
No, the punishments fit.

[Victor Galis]

Originally posted by Harry Tuttle


Yeah well one gone...

One what? What did Saddam have to do with Osama?

I'm actually kind of annoyed because this destroys my ability to play the devil's advocate in debate rounds about Iraq (Yeah... I'm pretty insensitive these days.)

[Q Classic]

Yeah, what did Saddam have to do with Osama?

Oh, right, something about the War on Terror, ruining another country so they wouldn't have to ruin our own.

[Q Classic]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
I have a nephew doing 50 years, no parole, for doing habitual petty crap. Hussein was an habitual murderer.
No, the punishments fit.

I must dissent. Torture a torturer. Let a mass murdered suffer 99% of all the hundreds of thousands he killed.

Letting him die once has him is like a ****ing get out of jail free card.