The life of Saddam Hussein ended today the way he ended the lives of so many others. He was executed shortly before sunrise in Baghdad. Photos and video are below and in related posts here and here and here.

Note that the UNCENSORED UNEDITED video is HERE.
The death of Saddam will bring joy to few people. He has been largely irrelevant since he was pulled out of a filthy hole in the ground by American forces two years ago. Iraqi infighting and general Iraqi incompetence continued with Saddam in jail, and it will continue with him permanently in a new hole in the ground. The death of Saddam is not the antidote to the current problems in Iraq.

Nor is it something to complain about, however. The Butcher of Baghdad started three wars with his neighbors which accounted for over 2,000,000 dead people. Those who complain about Iraq’s “kangaroo court” are disguising their real complaint as usual. Any topic will suffice for creative criticism of the United States and the elected administration of President George Bush.

Never mind it is the new Iraqi government themselves who tried Saddam Hussein under the new rule of law in Iraq. That doesn’t matter to liberal defeatists so blinded by anti-American hatred that they can’t celebrate an example of the Iraqi government actually working.

Whether one approves of the death penalty or not, approves of Iraqi justice or supports free peoples generally, we should all at least all be thankful that a brutal tyrant is no longer meting out his own justice. Unfortunately as the catcalls from liberals will attest, we don’t all share the same humanitarian interests. They went so far as to narcissistically try to block his execution in a U.S. court!
Hussein’s lawyers filed documents Friday afternoon asking for a stay of execution. The 21-page request was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington before Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.
Attorneys argued that because Hussein also faces a civil lawsuit in Washington, he has rights as a civil defendant that would be violated if he is executed. He has not received notice of those rights and the consequences that the lawsuit would have on his estate, his attorneys said.
“To protect those rights, defendant Saddam Hussein requests an order of this court providing a stay of his execution until further notice of this court,” attorney Nicholas Gilman wrote.
A similar request by the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, Awad Hamed al-Bandar, was denied Thursday and is under appeal. Al-Bandar also faces execution. The Justice Department argued in that case that U.S. courts have no jurisdiction to interfere with the judicial process of another country.
Al-Bandar argued that his trial violated his rights under the U.S. Constitution but Justice countered that foreigners being tried in foreign courts are not protected by the U.S. Constitution.
Here is the execution video from Arabic television:
The more GRAPHIC complete video is HERE.
If that video gets taken down, try this one:
Note that the UNCENSORED UNEDITED version is HERE.
Joe Citizen has done a good job reporting on the events here and here, as has Mary Beth here.
Roundup: Wizbang!, Sensible Mom, Right Voices, Malkin, Mary Katharine, Captain’s Quarters, Hot Air, Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, Blue Crab, Autone.
[tags]saddam+hussein, baghdad, executed, hang, hung, hanged, gallows, dead, butcher+of+baghdad, photos, video, trial, reaction, pictures, unsensored, uncensored, unedited, complete[/tags]









December 29th, 2006 at 7:51 pm
too bad that he could only be hanged once. of course, his suffering has just begun and will continue throught eternity, if there is a god who protects innocent people over evil ones.
December 29th, 2006 at 7:51 pm
too bad that he could only be hanged once. of course, his suffering has just begun and will continue throught eternity, if there is a god who protects innocent people over evil ones.
December 30th, 2006 at 9:18 am
I’m sorry, but I won’t believe it till I see it. All I have seen so far is they put the rope around his neck. Has anyone seen the bastard swing? I think he is alive and well in exile somewhere over in the middle east. Don’t be surprised if you hear of him again.
December 30th, 2006 at 9:27 am
At last! The tyrant is dead…
Saddam has finally been hung, and the authorities in Iraq did the right thing to carry out his execution ASAP….
December 30th, 2006 at 12:58 pm
Well McCain, as satisfying as Saddam’s execution was, I want to see the list of that tells us who’s next.
With all of those bad dudes locked up here and there, they ought to load them up in buses and hang a bunch more of them while they have the ropes warmed up.
December 30th, 2006 at 1:24 pm
Well okay, but I don’t feel it is personally satisfying. I’m not even a fan of the death penalty. To me this is just an interesting historical event that is overstated in significance. Still have a war to win, and he hasn’t been part of it for four years. However, if it helps the Iraqi government gain traction in some small way with their folks, it may be worth something.
December 30th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
McCain~
This Saddam thing is not so much personally satisfying as it is satisfying in the sense that the folks in charge of the government over there got the job done, at least in Saddam’s case.
The Hussein trial has taken too much time and taken too many lives to have dragged it out too much longer. Another three or four months of the same old stuff would open the door of compromise just that much wider and, as we all know, any verdict less that the death sentence would be seen as a failure.
Saddam’s execution does give the new government of Iraq a little bit of traction because they have taken away one reason that some of the insurgents had for fighting, not to say that they don’t have many more. One thing is for sure though, Saddam wont be having anyone posting pep talks to his supporters on the WEB anymore.
Now all of the militant types that were fighting because they were Saddam loyalists have to decide to take up another cause, or just go home. Either way the fighters decide go, for the time being anyway, theres one less faction to deal with. At least for now.
Getting back to that personal satisfaction thing though, I do get a bit of personal satisfaction knowing that our military didn’t go through all of the trouble to capture Saddam, only to have him survive long enough for his buddies to bust him out of some prison, and whisk him off to a secluded villa somewhere to live off of that UN money thats still floating around.
Those guys and gals in green went after his arse to bring him to justice, and justice is what he got. Way to go Team USA and all of our friends that are serving in the various armed services that make up the coalition forces that are bravely toughing it out in Iraq.
SIDE NOTE: What’s up with the people in India? I have scanned the WEB throughout the day and the Indians are all kinds of tore up about this Hussein execution.
I know that the people raising hell are a bunch or radical Muslims, but they seem to be taking this whole situation harder than the Saddam supporters in Iraq. They seem to be a little too angry.
I sure hope nothing around the house breaks so I don’t have to call any customer service hot-lines in the next few days. They need some time to cool off over there.
December 30th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
[...] Saddam Hussein Executed [...]
January 3rd, 2007 at 6:34 am
Killing of saddam is too bad,they would have given him life imprison,so that he realizes,we know that all things are going around oil fields,we should not blame him.we should know truth before blindly blaming some body, don’t relay only on some media,gather information what has happened in past,who is reponsible for vietnam war(who can give answer for this),how many innocent people has died in this war,who is reponsible for this,it so pity,who can give reason for indian freedom fighters deaths(eg gellian valla bag, salt revolution),who is accountable for this not only in india all over the world. we should think with peace(with heart)all this things. As Iam a peace lover iam protesting the death.
January 8th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Every one was saying how afull and scary the movie was but, i watched it and it was that scary. All I see is him drop. I did not see him hang or die. The person holding the camera was bad vidio taping it. The camera kept on moveing to the side and every thing. The pitchers are show alot more then the movie.