Saddam Hussein Just A Memory Now
Clutching a Quran and refusing a hood, Saddam Hussein went to the gallows before sunrise Saturday in Iraq. He was executed after a quarter-century of remorseless brutality that took the lives of countless thousands.
In Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City, people danced in the streets. Some fired guns in the air to celebrate the former dictator's death.
The 69-year-old leader who had vexed three U.S. presidents met a grim end. President Bush called Saddam's execution "the kind of justice he denied the victims of his brutal regime."
The execution took place during the year's deadliest month for U.S. troops, with the toll reaching 108.
State-run Iraqiya television initially reported that Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, also were hanged. However, three officials later said only Saddam was executed.
"We wanted him to be executed on a special day," National Security adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie told state-run Iraqiyah.
This coverage does not include any video or pictures of the execution, but video is anticipated on the internet at a later date.
Try this Iraqi
news site. Nothing there at the moment.
CNN Has coverage including the placing of the noose around Hussein's neck, but not the actual hanging.
Update
BBC News has printed a story well worth your reading. They provide a video (look under the picture of Saddam) which shows the material released by CNN and a lot more. So far there has been no video of the actual execution released.
Update
Finally - and you should be warned that this link does show the trapdoor and Saddam falling. The video was obviously taken with a telephone device as the quality is poor. There is audio on this one.
