Saddam - The Sacrificial Lion

Pakistanis, with blood of 3 million Bengalis on their hands, praising Saddam is like Hitler praising King Leopold as a righteous and moral man.

#7 by rf786 on January 2, 2007 1:52am PT
Dear Writer,
Irrespective of what Bush and his cohorts have done in Iraq, Saddam was a tyrant unworthy of any sympathy or respect. One can disagree with the Cnn`s and Bbc`s of this world, but listening to Iraqi expatriates who have chiling stories to tell one could only pray for this man`s death.

Rf786, as the author has correctly pointed out that in that part of the world a danda only works. As to the Dujaal killings for which he was convicted and hanged; the people of that village had tried to kill him. Killing or attempting to kill the head of a state is a treasonable offense under the laws of many nations including the US. Treason carries the death penalty in many nations including the US. Yes, his methods might have been crude but it is a different region with a different set of laws, conditions, beliefs.

As to Iraqi expatriates, I take that with a grain of salt. The BBCs and CNNs are nothing more than sophisticated instruments of deception in promoting the Western interests. They package their shit so nicely that in the end they promote and project those viewpoints that they want. A real life example. India conducted its second round of nuclear tests on May 13, 1998. Whether you agree or disagree with the tests one fact was certain that most Indians supported the tests and nuclearization just as most Pakistanis supported their country`s decision. On May 14, 1998, the local ABC affiliate of San Francisco, KGO-ABC TV had a virulently anti-India report in its 11 `o` clock news. They had one ex-serviceman from India who was anti-tests and based on that they apparently decided that he represented most of the Indians and supported any sanctions against India. Of course, how many Indians did they interview before they found one that matched their opinion is anyone`s guess. The same night on Nightline they had three Americans discussing the tests but not a single Indian was invited to give the Indian version.

HP writes <<< Are you sure Musharaf surrendered in one letter? Perhaps, perhaps he only played his part… >>>

That was no political analysis on my part, I agree with what you say that he played his part, as did Saddam until he refused to play it anymore (that was what the comparison of the appearances was about), neither Musharraf nor Saddam did anything for the sake of their people in these decisons. In the case of Saddam, his decision was that of a gangster that becomes too independant and big for his boots because the master has cut him some slack in the past, he totally miscalculated, and so the `top dogs` eliminated him in their usual manner with a farce trial. Musharraf can only pee in his pants at the thought of going against his masters...

#9 by parthaab on January 2, 2007 2:07am PT
.......

Had he done that, thousands of innocents that the bood hungry neo-cons were determined to kill would have been saved.

As they say it is better to die the death of a warrior than live the life of a coward. Just because we Subcontinentals have mastered the art of bending over and made servility seem like a virtue does not mean that we should expect everyone else to do the same. For almost two centuries Indians (includes Pakistanis and Bangladeshis) were like obedient servants to the British and what did we get in return. From a nation that along with China accounted for almost one-half of the world`s output in 1757 was a poster child for poverty in 1947.

We all have to die one day. Yes, four million Vietnamese died in the US bombings in the 1960s and 70s. Yes, most of its infrastructure was destroyed. But at the end of the day, 58000 Americans also died and hundreds of thousands battered physically and psychologically. The war changed the entire psyche of America and the Vietnam syndrome came in. The generation gap became a big rift in the American society. Despite easy victories over Grenada, Panama, Iraq (Gulf War I) and Serbia, the defeat of Vietnam was never erased from its memories. Even today with things getting out of hand in Iraq, Vietnam comparisons have started propping up.

The Vietnam of today is no better or worse off than the Indian subcontinent or many other Third World countries. Yes, it is hard to erase the memories of the dead ones but time is a big healer. Most importantly, the Vietnamese can walk with their heads held high unlike us Subcontinentals who were ``Jewel in the Crown``. If you ever want the enemy to feel your pain then give him a nice kick in the chins. It is not how many Iraqis who are dying that is making the Americans (and the poodles like Britain and Australia) rethink that war is bad; hundreds of thousands died during GW1 and another 2 million due to sanctions under the Clinton regime. It is the thousands of Americans who have died or the tens of thousands who are maimed forever that is making them rethink their strategy. The likes of Cindy Sheehan had no problems in her son joining the military and had it been an easy victory then we would never have heard from her. With her son dead, we are hearing from the likes of her.

Every reason that Western governments and their propaganda machinery had churned out to justify their invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan has turned out to be a blatant lie. Every main stream propaganda outlet like Times, BBC, ABC, CNN, and many more have publically apologized to their readership and viewership for feeding lies about this war, in order to remain credible. And this means that every accusation that they must have made against Saddam, must also have been a blatant lie.

The truth finally comes out, if you trust Lord and do the right thing. They had so much pride in their technology and power of media and propaganda but what is the net result? Take for example, Americans; the number of Americans who now believe that US government is complacent in 9/11 attacks or even perpetrator of it, is almost equal to those Americans who have acute hatered for Muslims and Islam. Britain has stopped using the crass terminology ``war on terror`` through an official decree. Only gukking losers and hindus use this terminology still. All the pride that they had in their war machine (most fearsome war machine ever in the history of mankind) has been tarnished by helpless and unarmed citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan.

God does work in mysterious ways. Everything that they intended to use against helpless people of the world has turned aginst themselves.

Re: # 6 Bizarre . . . trying to justify . . . Sadam cannot be a hero no mater what so please stop trying .

HP, `no matter what` means your mind is made up, which is great, but based on the information we have so far, he was no better or no worse than the many brutal dictators out there. In addition, his rule was good for his country. The Shia-Sunni divide is artificial and newly created - he just put down rebellions ruthlessly, much like Musharraf put down in Baluchistan or Abraham Lincoln put down in the US, or Putin in Chechnya. I did not use the word `hero` for that is very subjective. He was a great mans, and `great` may also be subjective to some, but his place in history cannot be denied.


Re: #7 Why is it that we (muslims) cannot have a Nelson Mandela or Mahatmma Gandhi? Why do we continue to honor dictators, mass murderers, tyrants? Something is wrong in paradise.

rf786, I have pondered over this question often, and a quote comes to mind: ``Everyone`s a pacifist between wars. It`s like being a vegetarian between meals.`` (Colman McCarthy). Pacifism needs a certain political climate, as it works on the conscience of the oppressor. Sadly, the Europe-Islam see-saw history goes back a long way and conscience plays very little part in it. Had Gandhi been part of the 1857 uprising, he would have been hanged in Delhi, and had Martin Luther King started his movement in the 1840s instead of 1960s, he would have been promptly lynched. Only when conditions are right does non-violent resistance work.

#15 by ballukhan: Saddam Hussein`s regime has carried out frequent summary executions

ballukhan, I do not deny that Saddam was a brutal dictator, but everything was documented and within the rule of law (what we have soon so far), however flawed the laws were. If Iraq had become a paradise after he went away, you would have a point. But with militias carrying out torture and extra-judicial murders that are way more numerous than Saddam ever did, one has no option but to conclude that he had put a strong lid on the various religious and ethnic forces in Iraq and had fashioned a modern prosperous secular Arab state, that may have become democratic over time.

Thank you all for your interaction. I will be back later.

Re: # 8

There are several Shite groups in Iraq - supporters of Sadr are not to be confused with Badr party which is ironically one of the Shite groups with out a militia.

Re: # 6

I do not know how much of this is true. Before the war started USA might have been willing to allow Saddam and his family to leave Iraq for a neutral country like Libya.

inna lillaha wa inna ilayhi raji`oon. May Allah forgive him and accept his martyrdom at the hand of the Americans and Rafidites. amen.



javascript:popUpWindow(`/mediadb/player.cfm?file_id=5657`, 20, 20, 680, 410)

The official Sunni position:

Allama Ahmad Nisar Baig Qadri on Saddam`s execution

Saddam Hussein`s regime has carried out frequent summary executions, including:

4,000 prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in 1984;
3,000 prisoners at the Mahjar prison from 1993-1998;
2,500 prisoners were executed between 1997-1999 in a ``prison cleansing campaign;``
122 political prisoners were executed at Abu Ghraib prison in February/March 2000;
23 political prisoners were executed at Abu Ghraib prison in October 2001; and
At least 130 Iraqi women were beheaded between June 2000 and April 2001.

http://fdd.typepad.com/fdd/2006/01/alert_saddams_c.html

As the trial of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein resumes, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies is posting 4 videos of actual torture and murder that took place under Saddam Hussein’s regime.

FDD President Cliff May notes: “Television news, understandably, will not broadcast such videos. But they are, nevertheless, an important record of Saddam Hussein’s crimes against humanity that should be available to the public as his trial resumes.”

WARNING: This material is extremely shocking and graphic in nature. It should not be viewed by children. Also, it may be necessary to turn the volume down before watching the 4 separate chapters.

Please note, each chapter may take several minutes to download.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

This is the real ``public lynching`` of those falsely tried and sentenced under the Islamist`s antiquated Shariat courts:

Much of the analyses that tries to elevate SH as martyr is unfounded and reeks of propaganda.

Under Shariat laws of the Islamists much of the executions are infact the real ``mob lynching`` in the public.

Does that turn every other criminal who stands sentenced to death under the antiquated Shariat courts and gets executed in public under the Islamist`s rule turns into a martyr because he faced the lynching with dignity knowing that the antiquated trial proceedings would not stand any where in the modern judicial system ???

Execution gives Saddam a martyr`s crown
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 02/01/2007

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml;jsessionid=CVDPWK1IETUZJQFIQMGSFFOAVCBQWIV0?xml=/opinion/2007/01/02/dl0201.xml&posted=true&_requestid=202647#comments


In Washington the air is heavy with recrimination as the implications of Saddam Hussein`s grotesquely botched execution sink in. What should have been an act of justice following due process had the baying ugliness of a lynching. A judicial execution designed to show finally that the era of Saddam is over threatens to have the opposite effect. When a dictator of exceptional brutality is shown dying with dignity and no little courage at the hands of hooded thugs, the martyr`s crown surely beckons. No wonder American officials are washing their hands of the whole gruesome affair, and Tony Blair is refusing to make any comment from his Miami poolside.

There is some justice in American claims that it is the Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki who must shoulder the burden of blame for this debacle. He trampled over religious and legal sensibilities to expedite the execution. The Iraqi constitution (by which the American-led coalition sets such store) requires President Jalal Talabani and his two vice-presidents to sign a decree of authorisation for any execution. Mr Maliki effectively ignored this requirement. Even more inflammatory as far as Iraq`s Sunni minority is concerned was his flouting of the Iraqi law that executions should not take place during the Id al-Adha holiday. For Sunnis, that began on Saturday, the day of Saddam`s execution.

If this had been some careless piece of provocation by an inept government, it would be one thing. But the anti-Sunni chanting of the masked executioners as Saddam died and the way the whole repellent scene was swiftly put into the public domain suggests something more menacing. The Maliki government appears to have used the execution to send a calculated message to Iraqi Sunnis that the Shias are the masters now. An administration whose overriding purpose should be to unify Iraq begins to look like a factional regime intent on repaying the Sunni minority for Saddam`s decades of oppression of the Shias.

American sources have insisted there was little they could do to avert this latest calamity. They may be dismayed at Baghdad`s dismal incompetence yet are constrained from intervening on the grounds that it would simply undermine the fledgling regime. Yet as President Bush completes his plans for a significant reinforcement of US forces in a final attempt to quell sectarian unrest in Baghdad, Saddam`s execution looks likely only to inflame the situation and make the prospects of an orderly withdrawal by the coalition more remote than ever. Mr Bush could be forgiven for thinking that everything he touches in this ill-starred country turns to dross.

---

Outrage mounts over `lynch mob` hanging
By Neil Tweedie
Last Updated: 9:23am GMT 02/01/2007Page 1 of 2



Leader: Execution gives Saddam a martyr`s crown
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/02/wiraq02.xml
Nurse: Dictator spent captivity feeding birds
Iraqi civilian death toll reaches all-time high
Your View: Is it right to watch the video of Saddam Hussein`s death?
In pictures: Saddam`s daughter speaks out
The execution of Saddam Hussein – widely condemned yesterday as more an exercise in lynch law than judicial punishment – was rushed through by the Iraqi government despite American requests for a delay.

senior Iraqi source said the US ambassador in Baghdad wanted the hanging to be postponed for two weeks but relented when the Shia dominated government rushed through documents approving it. It appeared that the United States was anxious the execution should not be carried out with unseemly haste.

The disclosure follows a clamp-down in Iraq on media coverage of the execution amid growing revulsion at what many across the Sunni Muslim world regard as a sectarian act of revenge by a hostile administration. It followed television and internet broadcasts of unauthorized telephone camera pictures showing Saddam being taunted by Shia witnesses in the death chamber shortly before the hanging.

In the footage, which has attracted thousands of hits on the internet across the world, the onlookers can be heard chanting the Shia version of an Islamic prayer in a calculated final insult to Saddam, a member of Iraq`s Sunni minority. As the noose is fitted another man can be heard telling Saddam he is going to hell.

The former president for life still manages a sarcastic response, asking his executioners: ``Do you consider this bravery?``

The witnesses also repeatedly call out the name of the militant Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, leader of the Mahdi Army, before cheering as Saddam`s body crashes through the trapdoor of the gallows. The dictator`s last words were ``there is no God but Allah and I testify that Mohammed is the messenger of God``.

The soundtrack and images contrasted sharply with officially-released silent pictures of Saturday`s execution portraying it as much more subdued and dignified event. There have also been reports that Saddam, 69, was taunted by his executioners in his cell in the hours before his death, with one brandishing the rope that would later hang him.

``The Americans wanted to delay the execution by 15 days because they weren`t keen on having him executed straight away,`` said a senior Iraqi source. ``But during the day [on Friday] the prime minister`s office provided all the documents they asked for and the Americans changed their minds when they saw the prime minister was very insistent. Then it was just a case of finalising the details.``

The lack of neutrality or dignity during the hanging, combined with the decision to rush it through at the start of the Muslim festival of Eid, has raised fears of a widespread Sunni backlash. Demonstrations as far apart as Jordan and Kashmir were accompanied by condemnation in the Arab press. The unauthorized footage also undermined American and British attempts to portray the execution as an impartial judicial event. The Foreign Office refused to comment on it yesterday.

US forces, who had held Saddam since his capture in December 2003, handed him over only four hours before his death following the conclusion of negotiations between the Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki and American officials.

Saddam had been sentenced to death for overseeing the murder of 148 Shia civilians in the town of Dujail following an alleged assassination attempt against him. His appeal against the death sentence failed on Dec 26, the court instructing that he should be hanged within 30 days.

According to the Iraqi source, the US ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, told Mr Maliki that he would not hand over Saddam unless he signed a death warrant and obtained authorisation from the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani.

Mr Maliki was said to be anxious to rush through the execution to gain maximum credit among the fractious Shia community, but Mr Talabani, a Kurd, was anxious to see Saddam tried for crimes against his people. Mr Maliki won out. No presidential decree was judged to be needed and Mr Maliki signed the death warrant in front of television cameras. Shia clerics said there was no religious problem with a Saturday execution as Eid would not have begun.

``There were a few guards who shouted slogans that were inappropriate and that`s now the subject of a government investigation,`` said Sami al-Askari, an adviser to Mr Maliki. ``That should not have happened. Before we went into the room we had an agreement that no one should bring a mobile phone.``

No Americans were present in the death chamber.
US officials discussed burying Saddam in the US-controlled Green Zone in Baghdad, but later agreed to have his body flown to Tikrit.

Yesterday, the Iraqi government ordered the closure of the Sharkiya television station, which is seen as sympathetic to the Sunni community, accusing it of stirring up sectarian hatred over the execution.

But it was the government of Mr Maliki that was being blamed inside and outside Iraq for inciting religious hatred. The Sunni cleric group in Iraq, the Muslim Scholars` Association, described the hanging as a ``purely political act``.

Its timing on the day that Sunnis celebrated the start of Eid was a calculated provocation showing the ``grudge`` still held by the Shia. The Saudi newspaper Al-Watan attacked the ``sectarianism gripping the corridors of power in Iraq`` while the Qatar-based daily Al-Sharq described the hanging as an act of sectarian revenge by the Shia majority in Iraq, which suffered for decades under Saddam`s Sunni-dominated regime.

Saddam`s eldest daughter Raghad joined a demonstration in the Jordanian capital Amman. The demonstrators chanted anti-American and pro-Saddam slogans. Raghad, who is exiled in Jordan, told protesters: ``I want to thank you for this show of support. May God protect you.`` One of the banners held by protesters read: ``Leader Saddam the father of martyrs``.

Demonstrations also continued in Saddam`s heartland. In Al-Dawr, near to Saddam`s home village of Awja, where he was buried on Sunday, hundreds of Sunnis took to the streets. Nearby in Tikrit, dozens of mourning tents were erected.

Akber sahib,

(Every person I spoke to today, Muslim or Christian, devout or atheist, was seething with hidden rage at the timing of execution. )

Some Tambrams in Chennai had a different take. Dec 30 was Vaikunth Ekadashi and apparently anyone who dies on that day goes to heaven.

Regards

...contd...#8,

He never really had any defense.

Yes I guess not. Three of his defense lawyers were murdered, another one had to flee the country after being severely injured, and the judges were changed twice, the second one after he allowed a small dignity under the law (I think of allowing him to remain in head-gear while in court), accused of being sympathetic and replaced with a known enemy of Saddam whom he had forced into exile.

Indeed, Saddam had no defence.

Whatever else Saddam was, sophisticated he was not.

Using the anology of a thief entering your house and threatening with a knife, Saddam should intelligently saved himself, or at least protected his country - by giving himself upto the Americans initially.

Had he done that, thousands of innocents that the bood hungry neo-cons were determined to kill would have been saved.

Having said that, the hanging of Saddam following a sham trial, with the attendant hype will awaken the world to the dangers that America poses to world peace.