Saddam Hussein…The Hell That is Iraq!?

Sheri Laizer — Exclusive to iKurd.net 

This is a multi page, find page numbers at the bottom.

Editor’s Note: Sheri Laizer, a Middle East specialist and well known commentator on the Kurdish issue. Content of this article is from Chapters that will appear in Mrs.Laizer’s new book, ‘Intimate Wars – From Baghdad to Bethlehem and Beirut’.

“…THE HELL THAT IS IRAQ!?”[1] 

Upon the 12^th Anniversary of the Toppling of the Ba’ath Party Government

The statues were toppled, the President was hanged but the spirit of darkness lingers like smoke over Iraq. It is a spiritual and moral darkness that has reigned for more than a decade. Iraq, for its citizens, is a living hell.

The unnatural hybrid that is the ‘nation’ – a Frankenstein state of disparate parts – has fragmented along sectarian and ethnic fault lines.

It became uncontrollable very soon after Saddam was removed from power and the Ba’athist structures dismantled…one form of tyranny sired worse: ISIL’s medieval barbarians and the Shi’a killing teams vilify the essence of humanity, culture, art, and all in their destructive path…

 ‘Mother of all battles’ to free Mosul and the wider region from ignorant murderers

A killing spree to retake Mosul from IS barbarian hordes (aptly named ‘Daesh’) hell bent on destroying human lives, the knowledge contained in literature and museums in the name of a Great Nothing are plunging swathes of the Near East into the Dark Ages.

The Iraqi Army, bolstered by Kurdish forces, and probably, US air power and Special Forces – will have to succeed in retaking Mosul ‘sometime soon’ to prevent destruction beyond the point of no return. Last summer, the Shi’a dominated ‘new’ Iraqi army lacked the strength or the will to mount an adequate force and may still not be up to the challenge. Spring offensives are a characteristic in this part of the world because summer temperatures make ground assaults extremely hard going, as the land war in Syria has proven The response to IS in Mosul is overdue – Iraqi state forces have not acted swiftly enough and can now never repair the damage already done or restore life to the slain, health to the maimed.

The terror organisation, IS/ISIS/ISIL/Daesh dominates a shockingly large expanse of territory in both Iraq and Syria. Jihad continues to attract gullible young Muslim Westerners to a crusade that destroys rather than creates.

The US is not free of responsibility towards Iraq

Whatever Republican leader, John McCain, may say about the open nature of the US military threat of an attack on Mosul his words ring hollow. My take on the US military announcements is that they amount to recognition of how precarious the situation in Iraq actually is but that such ‘psychological warfare’ tactics also conform to past US military strategy.

President Barack Obama is no big mouth lackey like his predecessor, George W. Bush, who must be considered largely responsible (along with former UK PM Tony Blair) for taking Western forces to war in Iraq in March 2003. George W. Bush also bears accountability for employing pseudo-religious, moralistic pretexts for the invasion such as the concept of the ‘axis of evil’.  Ba’athism was a secular political doctrine. Saddam did not need to rely on religious justification for his strategies. As he gained in strength, so was he able to subvert Ba’athist doctrine to his own ends. When, towards the end of his game, he also decided to play the religious card the performance lacked conviction but fit the post-secular mood of much of the world.

Now, in the 21^st century, Jihadist barbarians bring horror and destruction wherever they tread – from the Taliban in Afghanistan through Jihadists in Mali, in Nigeria and elsewhere.  This retrograde momentum must be stopped. Education of the ‘believers’ can surely play a role to undermine support for violent extremism.

Kurds and the dream of Kurdistan

Last month, February 2015, IS barbarians began to threaten and capture Kurds in Mosul, just as they had with the Yezidi Kurds in nearby Sinjar last summer. Refugees and internally displaced families now overwhelm the basic services that the Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq (KRG), bolstered by NGOs, can provide. Conditions are critical, particularly for women and children. A failed offensive against IS forces in Mosul would provoke another humanitarian catastrophe.

Kurdish aspirations for independence must surely be kept on hold for the time being given that the peshmerga forces cannot defeat ISIS singlehandedly and perhaps not even with the Iraqi Army retrained for a second round this year. American military might and Allied co-operation cannot always intervene – and already it may be too late.

Colonel Masoud Salih, from Zakho’s Military Academy in Kurdistan recently recognised that Mosul’s size ‘and a tough ISIS defense perimeter could make for one of the toughest, and longest, battles against terrorism in Iraq since 2003….[2]

Retrospective: the US invasion, 20 March 2003

Twelve years ago, the United States military attacked Baghdad aiming inter alia to assassinate Saddam Hussein. Saddam eluded these targeted strikes by moving from place to place as he had long done but continued to make televised propaganda broadcasts to the nation. A report published by the New Scientist observed at the time how the war commenced by targeting Saddam – another false pretext for war in Iraq with knock-on consequences. It was reported that:

US military officials have told reporters that about 40 Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired at about 0230 GMT and that F-117A stealth bombers also dropped guided bombs.

The attack was ordered by US President George Bush after the CIA informed him that they had good intelligence on the location of the Iraqi leader …But Saddam Hussein appeared on state television shortly after the attacks.

“With the dawn prayer today, the reckless criminal, little Bush, and his henchmen carried out their crime with which they had been threatening Iraq,” he said.[3]

4 April 2003

Iraqi television broadcast live takes of Saddam Hussein as he strolled defiantly amidst a crowd of Baghdadis in the Sunni quarter of Adhamiya flanked by his son, Qusay, and several bodyguards. This was sixteen days into the invasion as US ground forces encroached upon the capital. In a typical piece of stage-managed theatre, loyal Iraqi citizens eagerly gathered eagerly to kiss Saddam as they had in the years when he was in full command.

Three weeks into the invasion, US forces finally took Baghdad but Saddam succeeded in remaining on the run for another eight months, even after the butchery of his sons and grandson, the son of Qusay in Mosul on 22 July 2003. The Fedayeen Saddam vowed revenge – a foretaste of things to come:

“The killing of Uday and Qusay will not decrease the attacks against the Americans but rather increase them,” the speaker said…The footage also showed a group of masked men, apparently Fedayeen fighters, holding automatic rifles in a room with walls covered by photographs of Saddam and his sons. The group said that it would kill Iraqis who “collaborate” with the foreign forces…[4]

13 December 2003

Saddam was finally captured in Ad-Dawr, 10 miles (16 km) south of Tikrit through inside intelligence. American forces took Saddam into custody after parading him before the media in a series of humiliating, propagandist scenes. [5]

The day after the capture, President George W. Bush addressed the nation – and not least Saddam himself – saying “Good riddance” in his signature vulgar style. In response, Sunni insurgents carried out suicide bombings in Baghdad. Pro-Saddam slogans were used as a rallying cry in Sunni strongholds like Fallujah and Ramadi – another taste of things to come.

Preacher Bush ululated ”the capture of Mr. Hussein was crucial to the rise of a free Iraq.”[6] He went on to claim:

“In the history of Iraq, a dark and painful era is over. A hopeful day has arrived. All Iraqis can now come together and reject violence and build a new Iraq.”[7]

Alas, that was another sad misjudgement.[8]

19 October 2005 (Day 1) -The Dujail Trail Begins,

The opening of the Dujail trail where Saddam Hussein at last appeared in court along with seven of his most trusted aides was televised ‘live’ – with a 20-minute delay for blackouts if required. The Iraq High Tribunal (IHT) was modelled on previous international war crimes tribunals, including the Nuremberg Trials, in order to bring Saddam and others charged with crimes against humanity to justice.

I was in Erbil, the Kurdish capital, passing through a crowded lobby as the spectacle began. Everyone in the room stopped where they were like when people are about to see a solar eclipse.

Saddam Hussein, older, bearded, and wearing a well-cut grey suit and crisp white shirt buttoned to the neck, faced down the judge. He was still darkly compelling. He was unbroken, defiant, unrepentant and still claimed to be Iraq’s legitimate President.

Those gathered around the television set, including me, all felt we had some kind of relationship with Saddam who had controlled the country for some three decades dependent on a wide-reaching security apparatus and no less, upon limited electoral freedoms.

Our relationship to Saddam depended on how he affected our lives: Saddam had become larger than life and we were small fry in comparison, even disposable in his world view.

He became an all-powerful force – beyond the reach of most of the populace including the army and the Ba’ath party – he spared, he killed and he rewarded when it pleased him to do so. He placed himself at the head of the Revolutionary Court: any person or group that seemed a threat was summarily dealt with.

Defendant Saddam

The trial is intimate: this is not simply a courtroom. The many thousands who lost their most precious friends, fathers, uncles, brothers, cousins, sons, daughters, wives, mothers, sisters, lovers, neighbours, fields, orchards, homes and habitats, the babies caught in the crossfire, burned with phosphorus, the Kurds suffocated with poison gas, the endless litany of torture, executions, the mass graves, deportations and destruction – the proceedings are intimate. Watching Saddam’s face and listening to his outbursts it is clear Saddam acknowledges no guilt but still views his scapegoats and thousands of victims as collateral damage necessary for wielding power over the nation. Saddam controlled Iraq through terror and a system of rewards and was supported by the West for years against Iran and when considered useful. The invasion was cynical and blighted. Removing the hand of power led to anarchy and a vicious Sunni and Shi’a backlash. In 2004, Human Rights Watch had already observed:

Another factor for assessing the humanitarian nature of an intervention is whether it is reasonably calculated to make things better rather than worse in the country invaded. One is tempted to say that anything is better than living under the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, but unfortunately, it is possible to imagine scenarios that are even worse. Vicious as his rule was, chaos or abusive civil war might well become even deadlier, and it is too early to say whether such violence might still emerge in Iraq.[9]

The IHT was no ‘kangaroo court’

An interesting, and perhaps, little known fact, is that Saddam Hussein and his half brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, (his mother’s fourth child in her second marriage), were both educated as lawyers. Saddam graduated from the University of Baghdad in 1971 after first studying law at Cairo Law School when in exile in 1962.

Barzan al-Tikriti raised some of the most important legal points that ‘cut to the core of the case against them’ in the Dujail trial proceedings. In their ‘gavel by gavel’ account of the trial, Enemy of the State – The Trial and Execution of Saddam Hussein, two US lawyers that assisted the IHT, Michael A. Newton and Michael P. Sharf, were able to document every aspect of the trial of Saddam and his co-defendants. Their collaboration is set down in a 305-page book that noted developments as they occurred including the lengthy consultations and training devoted to the preparation period for trial on through the work of the successive judges, and no less the full material and time given to Saddam’s defence team as also the lengthy considerations of documentation submitted in evidence. [10]

The objections that Tikriti, Saddam and the defence lawyers voiced appear to have been thoroughly addressed by the prosecution and judges based on international standards if one reads the published account in the book. These considerations were more thorough, and indeed, more just than those of Saddam’s Revolutionary Court where rough justice was meted out by Presidential decree and upheld by Judges like Revolutionary Court Judge, Awad Hamad al-Bandar, seated next to Saddam in the courtroom.

Of the eight defendants in the Dujail trial, Saddam and Barzan al-Tikriti, were the most disruptive, even audacious, seeking to undermine the trial by turning it into a farce – in this, they ultimately failed despite having former US Attorney, Ramsey Clark, on their team.  His willingness to defend Saddam was called into question by his countrymen as ‘unpatriotic.’

The news, when it found its way back to the United States, caused something of a stir. A few news reports were inquisitive — and some were sceptical — but most were simply dismissive or derogatory. “There goes Ramsey Clark again,” they seemed to say. “Isn’t it a shame? He used to be attorney general of the United States and now look at what he’s doing.”

So let me explain why defending Saddam Hussein is in line with what I’ve stood for all my life and why I think it’s the right thing to do now.

That Hussein and other former Iraqi officials must have lawyers of their choice to assist them in defending against the criminal charges brought against them ought to be self-evident among a people committed to truth, justice and the rule of law.[11]

The Execution of Saddam Hussein: 6 a.m. 30 December 2006, “Camp Justice”

It is a chill, black morning before dawn. Saddam is wearing a dark coat and a black scarf. The execution chamber smells of the damp and of death. A rusting metal staircase leads to the platform where he is to be hanged. A rope is suspended from the ceiling and a trapdoor is positioned below it. In 2 minutes 36 seconds of wavering, poorly lit, cell phone recording, the world will see what happened next for themselves.

In his last few minutes on earth, Saddam Hussein was mocked and jeered at by the Shi’a guards, chanting hysterically ‘Moqtada, Moqtada’. When Saddam mockingly responded, ‘Is that (the sum of) your male strength?!” they shouted back: “Go to Hell!”

Saddam in full possession of himself replied ironically,  “[You mean] to the hell that is Iraq!?”

As the formal recitation of the Muslim prayer recommended, Saddam was part-way through repeating ”There is no god but God, and Mohamed is his Prophet” when the executioner jerked the lever for the trap door to open beneath Saddam’s feet.

“We heard the cracks of his neck,” said Judge Haddad.

Ali al-Massedy, the cameraman ordered to film the event for posterity, watched the body twitch and shake. Then he was dead. “He died instantly.”[12]

Saddam’s face is not shown in the final moments of death: the film resumes with the scenes that followed with visual confirmation that Saddam was indeed lifeless. A further sequence of jumpy, half blurred, shots shows the former President’s head twisted to one side by the rope around his neck. Those present take snapshots. There are bursts of camera flash and discordant cries of celebration like when a pack of wild dogs reach their quarry. The red opening wound on the side of Saddam’s neck that has been snapped by the rope, is the sole colour present in the image.[13]

Suspicious Timing

The timing of the execution was widely criticised for being carried out so soon after the verdict was issued, coinciding with the beginning of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha and also the New Year vacations in the West. Many observers justifiably condemned the lack of decorum displayed by the guards during the execution, and yet others the length or type of rope used that resulted in Saddam’s neck being broken rather than bringing about his death by suffocation.[14]

Thousands of others both in Iraq and around the world welcomed the death penalty for crimes committed against humanity. Significantly, Kurdish President, Jalal Talabani, – also educated as a lawyer – said to be opposed to the death penalty on principle would not directly sign the order but instead appended his signature to a letter ‘stipulating that he had no objections to an execution proceeding without his signature. This ministerial function was identical to the procedure he had previously followed with regard to convictions from the Central Criminal Court of Iraq’[15].

Dr Mowaffak al Rubaie, the post-Ba’athist Security Advisor, recalled, “As I led him to the gallows, I hoped Saddam Hussein would show remorse. There was nothing…” [16]

Also present at the execution in addition to Dr al-Rubaie, were the Deputy Chief judge of the IHT, Munqith al-Faroun – the official that tried to call the guards to order during Saddam’s last moments; Munir Haddad, the Deputy Prosecutor for the court; a member of the Iraqi Parliament close to Al-Maliki, Sami al-Askari, and several Shi’a, guards whose identities were concealed by black balaclavas.

Although a guard was later arrested for making and releasing the video that went public, Judge Munquith al-Faroun stated that no guards had recorded the execution whereas he had seen two fellow officials doing so on their cell phones in addition to the mute formal video record filmed to the point just before the trapdoor opens.[17] [18]

Prison and Gallows

Saddam Hussein’s execution was carried out at the joint Iraqi-American military base of Camp Justice, Mu’askar al-‘Adala, in Baghdad, just east of the mainly Shi’a quarter of Khadimiya on a bend of the Tigris.[19]

The location was previously known as Section 5 of the Military Intelligence (Istikhbarat) where Iraqis had been taken for interrogation, torture, and execution on the same gallows. The site was also known to Baghdadis as al-sh’uba al’Khamsa and is the present location of the Maximum High Security Prison, al-Himaya al-Quswa, where executions are on going. Sunni militants, including IS extremists have attacked the prison in attempts to free political prisoners held by the Shi’a-led government.[20]

In December 2013, twenty five prisoners held in Adala on ‘terrorism’ charges escaped before the death penalty could be exacted, “killing two guards and raising the question of whether they had received inside help…[21]

Almost a year later, on 18 September 2014, IS militants attacked Adala in a ground force operation that is claimed to have “marked an escalation in … the Baghdad zone:

“This attack was the first ground force attack upon a fixed military facility in the city since the fall of Mosul in June 2014. ISIS had attacked numerous prisons across Iraq during the 2012-2013 “Breaking the Walls” campaign, ending with the successful prison break at Abu Ghraib in July 2013…[22]

“The hell that IS Iraq”

Where formerly Saddam and his predominantly Sunni state oppressed and tyranised the Shi’a and Kurds, thereafter the Shi’a militias wreaked revenge in a reign of terror that continues in parallel with that of IS and the Sunni insurgency.

An Amnesty International report released in October 2014, largely focusing on abuses by the Shi’a militias (linked with government forces) and headed Absolute Impunity- Militia rule in Iraq observed:

In recent months, Shi’a militias have been abducting and killing Sunni civilian men in Baghdad and around the country. These militias, often armed and backed by the government of Iraq, continue to operate with varying degrees of cooperation from government forces – ranging from tacit consent to coordinated, or even joint, operations. For these reasons, Amnesty International holds the government of Iraq largely responsible for the serious human rights abuses, including war crimes, committed by these militias…

The largest Shi’a militias have tens of thousands of fighters in their ranks. They can look and operate like regular armed forces but are not regulated by any laws or subject to oversight and accountability mechanisms. Shi’a militias, acting outside any legal framework, have long been operating in Iraq with the backing and blessing of successive Iraqi central governments, which have been dominated by Shi’a political parties. In the wake of the Iraqi army’s spectacular flight from a third of the country in June 2014, the power and legitimacy of Shi’a militias have risen dramatically…[23]

The territorial gains made by IS in both Iraq and Syria have been far more serious than many commentators predicted. In a new report published on15 February 2015, Joe Stork, Deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, observed of both IS and the Shi’a militia in Iraq:

“Iraqi civilians are being hammered by ISIS and then by pro-government militias in areas they seize from ISIS. With the government responding to those they deem terrorists with arbitrary arrests and executions, residents have nowhere to turn for protection.[24]

Internationally recruited IS forces continue to pose a threat across the wider region as well as in strategic locations in Iraq including along the supply lines. Sectarian factors now determine where Iraq’s citizens can hope to survive should they fall into the hands of any particular militia group. HRW observed:

Militias accused the residents of supporting ISIS and “said that they would kill us because we are Sunni,” he said, “People in the area are terrified of being shot by militias.”[25]

Baghdad, remains a desirable strategic target for the various state and non-state groups active in Iraq including IS. Control of the capital is essential to the unity of the country but also key to its fragmentation along sectarian lines as the city becomes increasingly divided. The demographics have changed from those of the Ba’athist era.

The UK Home Office addressed the issue of dangers to civilians in its Country Guidance and Information report of 22 August 2014 headed Iraq: the security situation in the ‘contested’ areas of Iraq, referring to the high risks to civilians:

Based on current available evidence, civilian casualty levels have risen significantly over the last few years and jumped in June 2014 to over 1,500 for the month; this is highest level since 2007. These trends demonstrate a worsening security situation and indicates (sic) that as the conflict in Iraq evolves into a conventional civil war, focused on control of territory, this is likely to place civilians at greater risk.[26]

Although Baghdad was not recognised in the Home Office report as being a ‘contested’ area, the level of random violence since it was published has become so high that the capital indeed has indeed turned it into a ‘contested’ space – a strategic centre. Car bomb and other attacks, resulting in the highest casualty rates since the peak in violence between 2007-2008, have become an almost daily occurrence.  The most recent figures released by UNAMI are alarming:

UN Casualty Figures for December 2014 deadliest since 2008 in Iraq

Baghdad, 1 January 2015 – According to casualty figures released today by UNAMI, a total of 1,101 Iraqis were killed and another 1,868 were wounded in acts of terrorism and violence in December*.

“Yet again, the Iraqi ordinary citizen continues to suffer from violence and terrorism.  2014 has seen the highest number of causalities since the violence in 2006-2007.  This is a very sad state of affairs,” the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General (SRSG) for Iraq, Mr. Nickolay Mladenov said.

The month of June registered the highest number of casualties in 2014, with a total of 4,126 civilian casualties (1,775 killed and 2,351 injured – Anbar included).

From 01 June, when armed violence spread from Anbar to other areas of Iraq, to 31 December 2014 there were a total of 22,292 civilian casualties (8,481 killed and 13,811 injured) (including Police, and including Anbar).[27][28]

Dismembering Iraq – tyranny over Iraqis

Territory can be gained and lost in a matter of hours or of days. Control can swiftly pass from one group to another, to state or non-state actors. In the summer of 2014, the Institute for the Study of War Iraq observed in a ‘Warning Intelligence Update: Baghdad’:

ISIS seeks to break down political boundaries in the Middle East by cultivating conditions for governmental failure, especially in Iraq. Baghdad represents an important location for ISIS to target. ISIS spokesperson Abu Muhammad al-Adnani stated on 11 June that ISIS’s intent to attack Baghdad and toppling (sic) the standing Iraqi government Consistent, coordinated, and overwhelming attacks in Baghdad proper might sufficiently address the organization’s political strategic objectives. ISIS has apparently altered its military posture in Baghdad Province from that which had been witnessed since the fall of Mosul, possibly indicating a new move in this direction…[29]

IS strategy makes it exceedingly difficult for security forces to prevent bombing attacks or pinpoint specific locations ahead of attack unless intelligence is supplied in advance. Citizens are consistently caught in such attacks. Mosul is collapsing and its destruction proceeds apace as is clear from the horrendous destruction of its museum and library.

Whither the Ba’athists?

Many prominent former Ba’athists still live under King Abdullah’s protection in Jordan. At the same time, the Jordanian authorities actively seek to disencumber themselves of the thousands of ordinary Iraqi, Syrian and Palestinian refugees that overburden the small state economically as well as contributing to internal political problems – not less the sectarian divide.

Discretion can plainly be exercised when determining whose needs are the greatest and where Jordan’s interests may benefit. Jordan has also begun to suffer adverse attention at the hands of IS militants that recently executed a Jordanian pilot in an act of barbarity attaining new heights, reportedly setting him alight and burning him to death.

Other  senior Ba’athists, bureaucrats from the old regime and family members have fled into exile and many claimed asylum in the West. Saddam’s second wife, Samira Shahbandar, and their son, Ali, now aged around 31 reportedly first fled to Syria, then to Lebanon and may now live in Canada.[30]

Broken alliance

Although former Ba’athists, some Sunni tribes and Sunni members of the old Iraqi Army formed an expedient alliance with IS, this has broken down. Once IS extremists began to dominate the other parties, arresting dissenters and threatening harm for disobedience to the so-called Caliphate, the pact could not hold.

As of July 2014, the Reuters news agency reported:

…In the past week, Sunni militants who overran the city of Mosul last month have rounded up between 25 and 60 senior ex-military officers and members of former dictator Saddam Hussein’s banned Baath party, residents and relatives say. The crackdown potentially signals a rift in the Sunni alliance that helped secure Islamic State fighters swift victory when they rode in from the desert to capture Mosul last month…Tribes and former loyalists of Saddam’s Baath party were eager to hit back at Iraq’s Shi’ite leaders, even if they did not share ISIL’s vision of a caliphate ruled on mediaeval Islamic precepts. But now, leaders of those groups are being ordered to swear allegiance to the new caliphate…

The move echoes Islamic State tactics in neighbouring Syria, where the group, an offshoot of al Qaeda, entrenched itself in the rebel-held east by eliminating other opponents of President Bashar al-Assad..[31]

By early 2015, Iraqi Sunnis have begun to regroup and rethink their strategy distinct from the failed tactical co-operation with the IS organisation in which they were soon cast as the losers.

The Dis-united States of Iraq

The Kurds would like their own declared state, but cannot risk it. Moderate Sunnis want a return to order without terror. Shi’a Iraqis still naturally look to Iran even if they identify as Iraqis and many see themselves as Iraqis first, religion divisions less important. The educated and Saddam’s generation see Iraq differently from those born after the 1991 uprisings created No Fly Zones in the north and south of the countries protecting them from Saddam through Allied over-flights.

The ‘Arab spring’ has turned into an unbroken winter of discontent. Hopes of freedom and democracy have been crushed by extremes of violence. War crimes are the currency of power.

Barbaric opportunists destroy rather than create, kill rather than give life, and this in the name of religion, of a higher power. For now, Iraq remains the ‘hell’ of Saddam’s gallows’ vision.

APPENDIX I

My edit of the exchange that occurred between Saddam Hussein and the gallows crew moments before Saddam was hanged on 30 December 2006. This combines several sources as well as listening to the video.

A cacophony of competing voices, individual speakers difficult to distinguish, can be heard in the background while Saddam is being led to the gallows platform, his black scarf and the rope prepared around his head and shoulders.

A voice says “Ali” – whether calling someone present or in reference to Imam “Ali” of the Shi’a sect.

Saddam Hussein begins the recitation of the prayer (salvat): “I testify that Mohammed is the Messenger of God.”

Saddam Hussein: “Ya Allah” (Oh, God), as the noose is put over his head and settled around his neck.

Another voice continues the recitation of the prayer: “May God’s blessings be upon Mohammed and his companions/household /family.”

Several voices, including that of Saddam Hussein, repeat the prayer: “May God’s blessings be upon Mohammed and his companions/household/family.”

Suddenly several voices shout out “Moqtada!…Moqtada! …Moqtada!” in reference to the Shiite cleric, Moqtada Al-Sadr.

Saddam retorts: “Moqtada…Moqtada! Is that your male strength?”

Several individuals shout back: “Go to Hell [or hell-fire]!”

Saddam Hussein retorts ironically: “To the hell that is Iraq!?”[32]

Several voices in the background continue with their pro-Shia rant: “Long live Mohammed Bakr Al-Sadr!”

Munquith Faroon, the IHT Deputy Judge, present as a formal witness calls for order and decorum: “Please do not [act like this]. The man is to be executed. Please, no, please stop/desist.”

Saddam Hussein begins the recitation of the prayer anew: “I bear witness that there is no god but God and I testify that Mohammed is the Messenger of God. I bear witness that there is no god but God and I testify that Mohammed…”

On pronouncing the name ‘Mohammed’ for the second time and before Saddam can finish the sentence, the executioner pulls the lever operating the trap door beneath the gallows and the rope tightens around Saddam’s neck. His body drops through the trap door breaking his neck and killing him.

Several voices begin shouting “The tyrant [dictator] has collapsed!”

Other wild voices chant: “May God’s blessings be upon Mohammed and his household (family).”

A lone voice can be heard advising: “Let him hang for eight minutes.”

There are further shouts and cries of wild jubilation and comments about Saddam in the background as the witnesses talk and take flash photographs.

Thus it ends.

Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/saddam-hussein-s-last-words-to-the-hell-that-is-iraq/4620
[1] Saddam Hussein (28.04.37- 30.12.2006)
Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/saddam-hussein-s-last-words-to-the-hell-that-is-iraq/4620
[2] http://rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/17022015
[3] http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn3527-iraq-war-begins-by-targeting-saddam.html
[4] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jul/24/iraq.usa2
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aKNfFf4fAg
[6] http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/14/international/middleeast/14WIRE-HUSSEIN.html
[7] Op. Cit.
[8] A Pretext for War, 9/11, Iraq and the Abuses of America’s Intelligence Agencies, James Bamford, Doubleday, 2004.
[9] http://www.hrw.org/news/2004/01/25/war-iraq-not-humanitarian-intervention
[10] Enemy of the State: The Trial and Execution of Saddam Hussein by Michael A. Newton and Michael P. Scharf, St. Martins Press, New York, 2008.
[11] http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jan/24/opinion/oe-clark24
[12] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1538234/Saddams-end-tormented-as-his-death-loomed.html
[13] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYXczlVlLyY
[14] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1538229/Even-at-the-end-this-tyrant-divided-his-enemies.html
[15] Enemy of the State: The Trial and Execution of Saddam Hussein Newton and Scharf, p.203
[16] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/as-i-led-him-to-the-gallows-i-hoped-saddam-hussein-would-show-remorse-there-was-nothing–dr-mowaffak-al-rubaie-on-the-dictators-last-moments-8565040.html
[17] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYTwSBndv34
[18] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/03/AR2007010300358.html
[19] http://iraqslogger.powweb.com/index.php/subcategory/2/IraqSide/Developments/102007///1
[20] http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE14/020/2013/en/fe6337f9-08a6-4aec-91a3-f6782adf70b8/mde140202013en.html
[21] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/14/world/middleeast/prisoners-flee-baghdad-jail.html
[22] How an ISIS attempt to free prisoners in Baghdad could spiral into something much worse
Updated by Zack Beauchamp on September 19, 2014,
[23] http://www.amnesty.org.uk/sites/default/files/absolute_impunity_iraq_report.pdf
[24] http://www.hrw.org/news/2015/02/15/iraq-militias-escalate-abuses-possibly-war-crimes Iraq: Militias Escalate Abuses, Possibly War Crimes, Killings, Kidnappings, Forced Evictions,
[25] Op. Cit
[26] www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/347269/CIG_Iraq_security_situation_v2_0.pdf  (Para: 1.3.20)
[27] http://www.uniraq.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=3141:un-casualty-figures-for-december-2014-deadliest-since-2008-in-iraq&Itemid=633&lang=en
[28] CAVEATS: In general, UNAMI has been hindered in effectively verifying casualties in conflict areas.  Figures for casualties from Anbar Governorate are provided by the Health Directorate and are noted above.  In some cases, UNAMI could only partially verify certain incidents.  UNAMI has also received, without being able to verify, reports of significant numbers of casualties along with unknown numbers of persons who have died from secondary effects of violence after having fled their homes due to exposure to the elements, lack of water, food, medicines and health care.  For these reasons, the figures reported have to be considered as the absolute minimum.
[29] http://iswiraq.blogspot.fr/2014/07/warning-intelligence-update-baghdad.html
[30] http://www.lebanonwire.com/1005/05101701AFP.asp
[31] http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/07/08/uk-iraq-islamic-state-mosul-idUKKBN0FD1AA20140708
[32] In his last moments, Saddam Hussein’s speech was compelling. When his executioners and guards swore back at him with “Go to Hell!” Saddam rebutted with “[You mean] to the hell that is Iraq!?”
Source: http://www.globalresearch.ca/saddam-hussein-s-last-words-to-the-hell-that-is-iraq/4620

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