Posted December 29, 200618 yr Official: Saddam to be executed tonight By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writers 5 minutes ago BAGHDAD, Iraq - The official witnesses to Saddam Hussein's impending execution gathered Friday in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone in final preparation for his hanging, as state television broadcast footage of his regime's atrocities. The Iraqi government readied all the necessary documents, including a "red card" — an execution order introduced during Saddam's dictatorship. As the hour of his death approached, Saddam received two of his half brothers in his cell on Thursday and was said to have given them his personal belongings and a copy of his will. Najeeb al-Nueimi, a member of Saddam's legal team in Doha, Qatar, said he too requested a final meeting with the deposed Iraqi leader. "His daughter in Amman was crying, she said 'Take me with you,'" al-Nueimi said late Friday. But he said their request was rejected. 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. With U.S. forces on high alert for a surge in violence, people registered to attend the hanging gathered in the Green Zone before they were to go to the execution site, the Iraqi official said. Those cleared to attend the execution included a Muslim cleric, lawmakers, senior officials and relatives of victims of Saddam's brutal rule, the official said. He did not disclose the location of the gallows. Raed Juhi, spokesman for the High Tribunal court that convicted Saddam, said documents related to the execution would be read to Saddam before the execution. The documents included the red card, al-Maliki's signed approval of the sentence and the appeal court's decision. On Thursday, two half brothers visited Saddam in his cell, a member of the former dictator's defense team, Badee Izzat Aref, told The Associated Press by telephone from the United Arab Emirates. He said the former dictator handed them his personal belongings. A senior official at the Iraqi defense ministry also confirmed the meeting and said Saddam gave his will to one of his half brothers. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Saddam's lawyers later issued a statement saying the Americans gave permission for his belongings to be retrieved. An Iraqi appeals court upheld Saddam's death sentence Tuesday for the killing of 148 people who were detained after an attempt to assassinate him in the northern Iraqi city of Dujail in 1982. The court said the hanging should take place within 30 days. There had been disagreements among Iraqi officials in recent days as to whether Iraqi law dictates the execution must take place within 30 days and whether President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies had to approve it. 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," said Sheik Sadralddin al-Qubanji, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, known as SCIRI, a dominant party in al-Maliki's coalition. "Oh God, we ask you to take revenge on Saddam." SOURCE
December 29, 200618 yr Bush and Blair should be swinging from the same gallows given they murdered 25,000 Iraqis in cold blood
December 29, 200618 yr Don't really give a **** about Saddam Hussein tbh if he lives or dies but his death will ignite matters big time and the carnage that has taken place in the last 3 years is going to seem like a tea party compared with what is going to happen after Hussein is executed, they are making a martyr of him which will be a big mistake, far better let him rot for the next 20 years in a dark 8x6 cell
December 29, 200618 yr Bush and Blair should be swinging from the same gallows given they murdered 25,000 Iraqis in cold blood I hate Bush, don't know much about blair though. BUT Saddam deserves it really.
December 29, 200618 yr I hate Bush, don't know much about blair though. BUT Saddam deserves it really. Oh I have no sympathy with Hussein, VILE man but he is being executed for killing 148 Iraqis and Bush and Blair killed 25,000 by targetting residential areas of Baghdad with cluster bombs in Shock And Awe so its inconsistent that Hussein be hanged for killing 148 when the killers of 25,000 get away with it and influence Hussein's sentence
December 30, 200618 yr This 'Show Trial' and execution is being stage-managed purely for the benefit of Bush and Blair... Saddam should have been tried in The Hague as Slobodan Milosevic was... Executing Saddam will accomplish precisely nothing for the people of Iraq... In fact, if anything, it's just going to enrage the Sunnis and a real bloodbath will ensue.... WITH OUR TROOPS SMACK IN THE FUKKIN' MIDDLE OF IT ALL!!!! :angry: And Craig is absolutely correct, Bush and Blair should be swinging on a rope alongside Saddam for their multiple homicide of 25,000 Iraqi civilians.....
December 30, 200618 yr and thatcher...... I am off out in 2 mins for the night so can't reply in depth but to compare Thatcher with Blair is nonsense The first Gulf War had a UN mandate and was backed up by security council resolutions, the reason for Gulf War 1 was to liberate Kuwait and Iraqi civilians were not targeted Gulf War 2 had no UN mandate, was totally against international law, Iraqi civilians were deliberately targeted and the whole thing was based around lies about WMD's and ficticious claims about Saddam Hussein being involved in 9/11 Maggie did things by the book Bliar lied through his teeth
December 30, 200618 yr I am off out in 2 mins for the night so can't reply in depth but to compare Thatcher with Blair is nonsense The first Gulf War had a UN mandate and was backed up by security council resolutions, the reason for Gulf War 1 was to liberate Kuwait and Iraqi civilians were not targeted Gulf War 2 had no UN mandate, was totally against international law, Iraqi civilians were deliberately targeted and the whole thing was based around lies about WMD's and ficticious claims about Saddam Hussein being involved in 9/11 Maggie did things by the book Bliar lied through his teeth Oh please, let's not even go there, Gulf War 1 was as much about Oil as this current one is.... Kuwait??? Yeah a real paragon of democracy and freedom that was, I doubt the average Kuwaiti even noticed the difference when Saddam took over from the already existing AUTOCRATIC RULERS!!! And to say that civilians were not targeted in Gulf War 1 is also nonsense, the Yanks used Depeleted Uranium rounds in that war and there is a lot of scientific and medical evidence to support the facts that the use of these rounds caused childhood cancer and luekeamia in tens of thousands of Iraqi children born in the areas of the fiercest fighting after the war... Let's not kid ourselves about the First Oil War..... Oh, and there's the small matter that it was Gulf War 1 and the US setting up permanent bases on Arab soil that was the main factor in the creation of Al Qaeda, funnily enough Osama Bin Laden sort of objected to the US running an Imperialistic oil war in the Islamic holy land..... Yeah, nice one Maggie, nice one Bush Sr... You fukkin W/ANKERS!!!!!! <_<
December 30, 200618 yr I am off out in 2 mins for the night so can't reply in depth but to compare Thatcher with Blair is nonsense The first Gulf War had a UN mandate and was backed up by security council resolutions, the reason for Gulf War 1 was to liberate Kuwait and Iraqi civilians were not targeted Gulf War 2 had no UN mandate, was totally against international law, Iraqi civilians were deliberately targeted and the whole thing was based around lies about WMD's and ficticious claims about Saddam Hussein being involved in 9/11 Maggie did things by the book Bliar lied through his teeth maggie did not do things by the book when she sank the general belgrano killing 250 odd argentinians. the ship was warned that if it entered the exclusion zone it would be attacked, so it turned away! it didnt enter the exclusion zone, it followed thatchers threat and retreated... BUT SHE STILL GAVE THE GO AHEAD PERSONALLY, TO SINK IT that makes her a LIAR, and a war criminal. she deliberately killed those people, she has blood on her hands and should also stand trial.
December 30, 200618 yr maggie did not do things by the book when she sank the general belgrano killing 250 odd argentinians. the ship was warned that if it entered the exclusion zone it would be attacked, so it turned away! it didnt enter the exclusion zone, it followed thatchers threat and retreated... BUT SHE STILL GAVE THE GO AHEAD PERSONALLY, TO SINK IT that makes her a LIAR, and a war criminal. she deliberately killed those people, she has blood on her hands and should also stand trial. Absolutely correct Rob.... She was and remains a totally vile creature... But B-Liar seems to be Thatch in drag in many ways and there's no doubt that the brown-nosing that he has done to the Bush Admin has led us down an even more destructive path than the Maggie/Ronnie relationship.... And Maggie actually DID have some personal influence over Reagan (not much mind.....), but it is plain for all to see that Blair has absolutely NO influence on Bush's foreign policy at all and that he really is merely a puppet....
December 30, 200618 yr maggie did not do things by the book when she sank the general belgrano killing 250 odd argentinians. the ship was warned that if it entered the exclusion zone it would be attacked, so it turned away! it didnt enter the exclusion zone, it followed thatchers threat and retreated... BUT SHE STILL GAVE THE GO AHEAD PERSONALLY, TO SINK IT that makes her a LIAR, and a war criminal. she deliberately killed those people, she has blood on her hands and should also stand trial. The weather is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too wet and windy tonight, **** driving to Luton in this :o Going back on topic the sinking of the Belgrano was the right thing to do, it was not a cruise ship or a tourist boat it was packed to the rafters with enough missiles to sink the entire British fleet, what would have stopped it turning back around and firing a few cruise missiles towards our ships ? don't forget only days before 2 British ships had been sunk by Argentine missiles, its all the well playing monday morning quarterback 25 years later after the event but Maggie did not have that luxury, as commander and chief of the armed forces her duty was to the British fleet long before the welfare of any Argies In that situation I would have blown the Belgrano out of the water too Out of the exclusion zone or not it was stacked with missiles that could reach and sink our ships
December 30, 200618 yr Absolutely correct Rob.... She was and remains a totally vile creature... But B-Liar seems to be Thatch in drag in many ways and there's no doubt that the brown-nosing that he has done to the Bush Admin has led us down an even more destructive path than the Maggie/Ronnie relationship.... And Maggie actually DID have some personal influence over Reagan (not much mind.....), but it is plain for all to see that Blair has absolutely NO influence on Bush's foreign policy at all and that he really is merely a puppet.... The debate we have the day she dies is going to be a cracker :lol: although I hope she lives another 20 years
December 30, 200618 yr Just found this on Wikipedia, further justifies Maggie's actions.... "At the time of the attacks the ship was sailing away from the Falkland Islands. Though the ship was heading away from the Falkland Islands, it had been moving towards the task force all the previous day. It had only turned around because an airstrike on the task force was cancelled, because there was not enough wind to launch planes from the aircraft carrier operating to the north of the Falklands. The ship had in fact been ordered back towards the coast to wait for more favourable conditions for an attack. Hector Bonzo, captain of the Belgrano commented on this move "We were heading towards the mainland but not going to the mainland; we were going to a position to await further orders" [2] Also the Belgrano could have been brought about in minutes and entered a region of shallow water called Burdwood Bank in a few hours, where it would have been impossible for the trailing British submarine to follow." The Belgrano was just going to a safe haven to await instructions to attack the British fleet Good on Maggie
December 30, 200618 yr The weather is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too wet and windy tonight, **** driving to Luton in this :o Going back on topic the sinking of the Belgrano was the right thing to do, it was not a cruise ship or a tourist boat it was packed to the rafters with enough missiles to sink the entire British fleet, what would have stopped it turning back around and firing a few cruise missiles towards our ships ? don't forget only days before 2 British ships had been sunk by Argentine missiles, its all the well playing monday morning quarterback 25 years later after the event but Maggie did not have that luxury, as commander and chief of the armed forces her duty was to the British fleet long before the welfare of any Argies In that situation I would have blown the Belgrano out of the water too Out of the exclusion zone or not it was stacked with missiles that could reach and sink our ships i utterly dissagree with this.... they were warned off and so went off , they were posing NO threat at all. if they had turned back then they were fair game... but you cant warn someone off then kill them anyway.
December 30, 200618 yr The debate we have the day she dies is going to be a cracker :lol: although I hope she lives another 20 years well this back end we have got rid on pinochet, hussain, time for one more odious fascist before big ben strikes... ill celebrate like fcuk when that woman goes, i detest her.
December 30, 200618 yr Just found this on Wikipedia, further justifies Maggie's actions.... "At the time of the attacks the ship was sailing away from the Falkland Islands. Though the ship was heading away from the Falkland Islands, it had been moving towards the task force all the previous day. It had only turned around because an airstrike on the task force was cancelled, because there was not enough wind to launch planes from the aircraft carrier operating to the north of the Falklands. The ship had in fact been ordered back towards the coast to wait for more favourable conditions for an attack. Hector Bonzo, captain of the Belgrano commented on this move "We were heading towards the mainland but not going to the mainland; we were going to a position to await further orders" [2] Also the Belgrano could have been brought about in minutes and entered a region of shallow water called Burdwood Bank in a few hours, where it would have been impossible for the trailing British submarine to follow." The Belgrano was just going to a safe haven to await instructions to attack the British fleet Good on Maggie Yeah mate and Wikipedia is such a great source of unbiased, accurate information..... :lol:
December 30, 200618 yr awww, i feel well sorry for him now! i no he did abit of evil but thats o need to fight back with evil??
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