BAGHDAD (Reuters) - 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.
Reuters now shills for the insurgents:
But the hanging could complicate efforts by Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to heal Iraq's sectarian divisions with violence spiralling out of control and threatening to pitch the country into full-scale civil war ...
What did they want, to have him released to appease the Sunnis? Or for him to stay "imprisoned for life", yet always at the ready to be called upon to lead a new Sunni revolution in Iraq?
More anger from Reuters:
During his three decades in power, Saddam was accused of widespread oppression of political opponents and genocide against Kurds in northern Iraq. His execution means he will never face justice on those charges ...
Er...I believe his swaying at the end of a rope is likely more justice than the Kurds ever hoped of before the Americans came along. Any more reasons why the execution of a man who murdered hundreds of thousands of his own people, supported terrorists worldwide and started two bloody wars should have been spared?
Well, I am sure Reuters will find a few.
The AP actually gives us some facts which Reuters could not bring itself to mention:
The execution came 56 days after a court convicted Saddam and sentenced him to death for his role in the killings of 148 Shiite Muslims from a town where assassins tried to kill the dictator in 1982.
At his death, he was in the midst of a second trial, charged with genocide and other crimes for a 1987-88 military crackdown that killed an estimated 180,000 Kurds in northern Iraq. Experts said the trial of his co-defendants was likely to continue despite his execution.
Many people in Iraq's Shiite majority were eager to see the execution of a man whose Sunni Arab-dominated regime oppressed them and Kurds.
Before the hanging, a mosque preacher in the Shiite holy city of Najaf on Friday 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.
Funny how Reuters could not come up with one anti-Saddam quote or statistic. Too busy filming insurgent attacks on American forces, I'd reckon....
Even the Washington Post can do better:
By the end of his rule, human rights groups estimated, he had presided over the killing of at least 300,000 Iraqis and the torture and imprisonment of tens of thousands more.
Someone want to call Reuters and tell them that just being anti-American does not automatically make you a good guy?
'Bye, Saddam. You'll be missed - by terrorists worldwide, members of the Democratic party whom thought Iraq was better off under your heel, and by the European intelligentsia. Oh, and Hans Blix and his UN cronies, of course.
May you rot in hell 'till the end of time....
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Can't wait until the wailing begins in Europe about the evils of the death penalty - far be it from them to refrain from sticking their noses into Iraqi business when it is their morals that may be offended.
ReplyDeleteThe commentary overseas (and from US Democrats) should be interesting...can't wait to hear the "yeah, its good, BUT" from Dean/Murtha/Hillary etc.