Saddam Hussein

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Saddam Hussein, the dictator who ruled Iraq until his regime was overthrown in the U.S.-led 2003 invasion, was executed in Baghdad by hanging on December 30, 2006. Saddam had been found guilty for the killings of 148 Shiite Muslims in 1982 and an Iraqi court sentenced Saddam to death on November 5, 2006. [1]

Prior to his invasion of Kuwait, however, Hussein had a long history of often-friendly ties to the United States. He was reported captured by U.S. forces on December 14, 2003.

"While many have thought that Saddam first became involved with U.S. intelligence agencies at the start of the September 1980 Iran-Iraq war, his first contacts with U.S. officials date back to 1959, when he was part of a CIA-authorized six-man squad tasked with assassinating then Iraqi Prime Minister Gen. Abd al-Karim Qasim," reported Richard Sale of United Press International. "U.S. intelligence services ... used him as their instrument for more than 40 years." [2]

For more on the U.S.-Saddam Hussein relationship, see "Missing U.S. Iraq History" by Robert Parry, a reprint of his February 23, 2003, article published before the invasion of Iraq began. Says Parry, "Before George W. Bush gives the final order to invade Iraq--a nation that has not threatened the United States--the American people might want a few facts about the real history of U.S.-Iraq relations. Missing chapters from 1980 to the present would be crucial in judging Bush's case for war."

For a chronology of events in Saddam Hussein's life, see article by Stephen R. Shalom, December 15, 2003, on Znet.

Executed

Saddam Hussein was hung at dawn December 30, 2006, for crimes against humanity, which was "a dramatic, violent end for a leader who ruled Iraq by fear for three decades before he was toppled by a U.S. invasion four years ago," Mariam Karouny reported for Reuters.

Reaction: Executed during Eid

Eid Al Adha is when "millions of Muslims make a pilgrimage to Mecca." [3]

"It's official," River of Baghdad Burning blog commented December 31, 2006. Nouri al-Maliki "and his people are psychopaths. This really is a new low. It's outrageous—an execution during Eid. Muslims all over the world (with the exception of Iran) are outraged. Eid is a time of peace, of putting aside quarrels and anger—at least for the duration of Eid.

"This does not bode well for the coming year. No one imagined the madmen would actually do it during a religious holiday. It is religiously unacceptable and before, it was constitutionally illegal." [4]

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  • Russ W. Baker, "IRAQGATE. The Big One That (Almost) Got Away. Who Chased it -- and Who Didn't," Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 1993: "ABC News Nightline opened last June 9 with words to make the heart stop. 'It is becoming increasingly clear,' said a grave Ted Koppel, 'that George Bush, operating largely behind the scenes throughout the 1980s, initiated and supported much of the financing, intelligence, and military help that built Saddam's Iraq into the aggressive power that the United States ultimately had to destroy.'"

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