TruthNews Commentary, December 30, 2006

An unrepentant Saddam Hussein went to the gallows at dawn Saturday morning, hanged by the Iraqi government for murdering 148 Shi'ite Muslims in the town of Dujail in 1982. In a letter written shortly before his execution, Hussein said that he was prepared to sacrifice his life for his country. Given that he sacrificed over a million of his countrymen's lives to perpetuate his hold on power, Hussein's sacrifice seems insufficient.

At the time of his execution, the former Iraqi dictator also was being tried on charges of genocide for a military campaign against Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s. Prosecutors say 180,000 Kurds were killed.

From his ranch in Crawford, Texas, President Bush said the execution "marks the end of a difficult year for the Iraqi people and U.S. troops." Celebratory gunfire could be heard across the Iraqi capital Saturday morning.

Last month, an Iraqi court sentenced the former dictator to hang for ordering the Dujail murders. Two of Saddam's lieutenants who helped carry out the Dujail executions were also sentenced to death: his half brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, who was head of intelligence in 1982, and Bawad al-Bandar, the chief Judge of the Revolutionary Court that handed down the Dujail death sentences. Iraqi National Security Advisor Mouaffac al-Rubaie told Iraq during a live interview a short while later that the two men had not been executed, saying they would be hanged after the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

A U.S. judge on Friday refused to stop Hussein's execution, rejecting a last-minute court challenge. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said U.S. courts do not have jurisdiction to interfere in another country's judicial process.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signed the paperwork necessary to carry out Hussein's execution. Maliki said those who oppose the death sentence for Saddam are insulting the memory of his victims.

On Tuesday, an Iraqi appeals court said Hussein's execution should be carried out within 30 days.

Prior to the execution, Iraqi state television ran footage of Hussein-era atrocities. The U.S. Defense Department said U.S. forces in Iraq are bracing for any upsurge in violence that may be triggered by Hussein's execution.

U.S. forces captured Hussein in December 2003 - eight months after a U.S.-led invasion ousted him from power. Although Michael Moore has implied that Iraq prior to the U.S. invasion was an oasis of peace and tranquility, it was a tranquility that was enforced by mass murder, torture, and rape.

Saddam Hussein was born to a shepherd family near Tikrit on April 28, 1937. He ran away as a 10-year-old and went to live with his uncle in Baghdad. Saddam joined the Ba'ath Party, a secular pan-Arab fascist organization, in 1957 at age 20. This was a time of revolutionary fervor generated by the populist pan-Arabist president of Egypt -- Gamal Abdel Nasser -- and Hussein was deeply affected by it.

Hussein was involved in his first bloody political act in 1959, taking part in a failed bid to assassinate Iraqi Prime Minister Abd al-Karim Qassim, who himself had ousted Iraqi King Faisal II just one year earlier. Hussein fled to Cairo to study law, and then spent three years in jail upon returning to Iraq.

In 1968, Hussein participated in a coup led by his cousin, General Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr that overthrew the Iraqi government. Al-Bakr was named president and Saddam was named his deputy. Saddam soon became the regime's strongman. Soon after becoming deputy to the president, Saddam demanded and received the rank of four-star general despite his lack of military training. By the mid-1970s the vice president had established virtual de facto rule over the entire nation, leaning on al-Bakr to resign.

On July 16, 1979 the 65-year-old Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr stepped down, ostensibly on health grounds, and Saddam Hussein assumed the presidency in a move that was widely regarded as little more than a formality. He moved quickly to consolidate his power, executing hundreds of top-ranking army officers and politicians he suspected of opposing him. Al-Bakr died in 1982 under suspicious circumstances, with rumors that he was killed by pro-Saddam elements.

Hussein ruled Iraq with an iron hand, using murder, intimidation, detention, torture and other methods to control his political opponents. The country's Shi'ites and Kurds fared even worse, with Shi'ite marshlands in the south drained and Kurdish villages in the north destroyed and tens of thousands killed by conventional and chemical weapons.

In 1980, a year after becoming dictator, Hussein invaded his eastern neighbor, Iran, in a bid to capture the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway. The fruitless eight-year war resulted in an estimated 1.7 million deaths on both sides and ended in a stalemate;

Dissent within Iraq was always met by repression. In 1988, up to 5,000 Iraqi Kurds were killed and twice that number seriously injured when Iraqi forces used poison gas to attack the Kurdish town of Halabja.

In 1990, Saddam invaded his southern neighbor, Kuwait. Hussein said he was ready for "the mother of all battles" to retain the oil rich kingdom. But a U.S.-led coalition of some 40 countries drove Iraqi troops from the Gulf kingdom in 1991. During the war, Hussein launched 39 Scud ballistic missiles into Israel, hoping to draw the Jewish state into the war and fracture the U.S.-led coalition, which included many Arab nations including Syria and Saudi Arabia. When Iraq was driven from Kuwait, Hussein ordered that the Kuwaiti oil wells be set on fire, which caused massive ground and air pollution,

In 1991, in the wake of the first Persian Gulf War, Hussein suppressed uprisings in the Kurdish north and Shi'ite southern and central parts of Iraq, with the reported loss of tens of thousands of lives.

Following the first Persian Gulf war, Iraq was put under UN sanctions while international inspectors searched Iraq for weapons of mass destruction. The northern and southern parts of the country were declared no-fly zones in order to protect the Shiites and Kurds.

In April of 1993 the Iraqi Intelligence Service attempted to assassinate former President George H. W. Bush during a visit to Kuwait. Kuwaiti security forces apprehended a group of Iraqis at the scene of an alleged bombing attempt. On June 26, 1993, the U.S. launched a missile attack targeting Baghdad intelligence headquarters in retaliation for the alleged attempt to attack former President Bush.

The Oil-for-Food Program was established by the United Nations in 1995 under UN Security Council Resolution 986. It was intended to allow Iraq to sell oil on the world market in exchange for food, medicine, and other humanitarian needs for ordinary Iraqi citizens without allowing Iraq to rebuild its military. However, the program became embroiled in bribery and scandal, with most of the money going into the pockets of Hussein and the UN. There were even indications that some of the money was channeled to the Al-Qaeda terrorist group. The GAO estimated that the Hussein regime generated $10.1 billion in illegal revenues.

The Al-Qaeda connection with the Oil-for-Food Program involved the United Nations Procurement Department and IHC Services, a company that specialized in helping other companies get UN contracts. IHC was investigated in the summer of 2005 after Fox News broke the story that IHC was involved with Alexander Yakovlev, a Russian official in the UN Procurement Department, who later resigned and pled guilty to corruption charges. One of the shareholders of IHC's holding company was Engelbert Schreiber, Jr., who has been linked to Ahmed Idris Nasreddin, a man designated as a terrorist financier by the US and the UN. The UN has named Nasreddin as a man "belonging to or affiliated with Al Qaeda." IHC also had connections to Saddam Hussein's former regime through Petra Navigation Group, a company that advertised itself as IHC's agent in the Middle East. Petra Navigation was on the blacklist of firms blocked from doing business with the U.S. for violating sanctions against Hussein's regime.

Although the proof has never been conclusive, Iraq was implicated in the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995, in which the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was destroyed, killing 168 people. Two Americans were convicted of the bombing. Timothy McVeigh was executed on June 11, 2001, and his friend Terry Nichols, is serving a life sentence. But initial reports by witnesses pointed to "Middle Eastern" suspects. A bulletin put out by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol immediately after the Murrah bombing specifies a blue car occupied by "Middle Eastern male subject or subjects." The next day, the federal government issued arrest warrants and sketches of two men seen together, John Doe No. 1 and No. 2. John Doe 1 turned out to be McVeigh, who was quickly picked up on an unrelated charge. Nichols helped McVeigh make the bomb but was not present at the bombing. John Doe 2 has never been arrested.

The most incriminating testimony centers around former Iraqi soldier, Hussain Al-Hussaini, whom witnesses place in the company of McVeigh prior to the blast, seated in the passenger seat of the Ryder truck the morning of April 19, exiting that truck at ground zero, and speeding away from the bomb site in the only getaway vehicle targeted by the FBI in an all-points-bulletin for Middle Eastern suspects. Al-Hussaini has been unable to establish his whereabouts for the critical hours of that fateful morning, and the Justice Department has declined to officially exonerate him of suspicion.

"You're talking about at least ten people that put Tim McVeigh with Hussain Al-Hussaini before the Oklahoma City bombing," Larry Johnson, a former CIA analyst and deputy director of counter terrorism for the U.S. Department of State told Fox News in March 2002. "Two people who identify Hussain Al-Hussaini (with McVeigh) in a bar on April 15. Three people who identify Hussaini Al-Hussaini running from the federal building early in the morning of April 19 at 5:30 A.M. as he is practicing timing himself. You have two witnesses that put Tim McVeigh with Hussain Al-Hussaini in the Ryder truck. You have one witness inside the Murrah Building who sees Hussain Al-Hussaini getting out of the truck...and he is seen driving away from the building."

McVeigh's lawyers have uncovered reports of meetings between Terry Nichols and Al Qaeda prior to the bombing. Jayna Davis, a former television reporter in Oklahoma City, obtained a sworn statement of Edwin Angeles, the co-founder of Abu-Sayyaf, a Southeast Asia chapter of Al-Qaeda. Angeles said that he attended a meeting in the early 1990s on the island of Mindanao in which Terry Nichols discussed bomb making with Osama bin Laden's chief explosives trainer - Ramzi Yousef, the convicted mastermind of the 1993 truck bombing of the World Trade Center.

The Grand Jury indictment against McVeigh and Nichols acknowledged that the pair had conspired with "others unknown" to blow up the Murrah Federal Building. The indictment reads in part:

...the defendants herein, did knowingly, intentionally, willfully and maliciously conspire, combine and agree together and with others unknown to the Grand Jury to use a weapon of mass destruction, namely an explosive bomb placed in a truck (a "truck bomb"), against persons within the United States and against property that was owned and used by the United States and by a department and agency of the United States, namely, the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building at 200 N.W. 5th Street, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, resulting in death, grievous bodily injury and destruction of the building.

Hussein expelled the UN weapons inspection teams from Iraq in November 1998. In response, U.S. President Bill Clinton launched a four day bombing campaign against Hussein's weapons facilities.

When the second Palestinian intifada against Israel began in September 2000, Hussein began sponsoring the suicide bombers, offering rewards of $25,000 to the families of every Palestinian suicide bomber. The rules for rewarding suicide bombers were strict and insisted that only someone who blew himself up with a belt of explosives got the full payment. Payments were made on a strict scale, with different amounts for wounds, disablement, death as a "martyr" and $25,000 for a suicide bomber. Mahmoud Besharat, a representative on the West Bank who handed out the money from Hussein, said, "You would have to ask President Saddam why he is being so generous. But he is a revolutionary and he wants this distinguished struggle, the intifada, to continue."

Hussein had a long history of supporting and sponsoring terrorism and Iraq was one of seven countries that were designated by the Secretary of State as state sponsors of international terrorism. Specific charges listed by the White House include the following:

• Iraq sheltered terrorist groups including the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO), which used terrorist violence against Iran and in the 1970s was responsible for killing several U.S. military personnel and U.S. civilians.

• Iraq sheltered several prominent Palestinian terrorist organizations in Baghdad, including the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), which is known for aerial attacks against Israel and was headed by Abu Abbas, who carried out the 1985 hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro and murdered U.S. citizen Leon Klinghoffer. After the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Abbas was captured on April 15, 2003 by American forces in Iraq while attempting to flee from Baghdad to Syria. Italy subsequently requested his extradition. Abbas died of natural causes on March 8, 2004 while still in U.S. custody.

• Iraq sheltered the Abu Nidal Organization, an international terrorist organization that carried out terrorist attacks in twenty countries, killing or injuring almost 900 people. Targets included the United States and several other Western nations. Each of these groups had offices in Baghdad and received training, logistical assistance, and financial aid from the government of Iraq.

• Former Iraqi military officers had described a highly secret terrorist training facility in Iraq known as Salman Pak, where both Iraqis and non-Iraqi Arabs received training on hijacking planes and trains, planting explosives in cities, sabotage, and assassinations.

Hussein's downfall came after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. With Iraq's long history of sponsoring terrorism and Hussein's continued violation of the 1991 cease-fire agreement, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution authorizing the invasion of Iraq October 11, 2002. The UN Security Council passed Resolution 1441 on November 8, 2002, which gave Hussein "a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations" and "threatened "serious consequences" if he did not. With over a hundred thousand U.S. forces waiting to invade, Hussein allowed inspections to resume, but Iraqi cooperation remained minimal. Iraq submitted a false declaration regarding its weapons of mass destruction that failed to account for over a thousand tons of chemical weapons. UN inspectors discovered a number of chemical warheads not previously acknowledged by Iraq. UN inspectors discovered that Hussein had built and tested several hundred ballistic missiles that were banned under Security Council resolutions. Chief UN inspector Hans Blix ordered Hussein to destroy the missiles but Hussein refused. Iraq also continued trying to shoot down U.S. and coalition warplanes patrolling the northern and southern no-fly zones.

On March 20, 2003, the U.S. led a coalition force from more than 40 countries invaded Iraq. The Iraqi government and military collapsed within three weeks. Hussein eluded capture until December 13, 2003, when he was captured near his hometown of Tikrit and put on trial.

Iraq's current national security adviser, Muwafaq al-Rubaie, expressed shock at Hussein's callousness when he visited him in prison in December 2003, the day after his capture. "I came out of that meeting very angry -- very, very angry -- that he has absolutely no remorse towards the crimes he has committed against the Iraqi people," al-Rubaie said. "The man is unrepentant. He is pure evil."

Hussein was executed a few months shy of his 70th birthday. He is survived by three wives and three daughters. His two sons, Uday and Qusay, were killed in a shoot-out with coalition forces in July 2003. Saddam had two of his sons-in-law, Hussein Kamel and Saddam Kamel, executed in 1996 for cooperating with the UN inspection teams assigned to look for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Iraq is roughly equivalent to the kingdom Babylon of ancient times, and Hussein sometimes fancied himself as another Nebuchadnezzar, the best-known king of Babylon. The city of Babylon itself lies 50 miles south of Baghdad. In 1985, Hussein started rebuilding the city on top of the old ruins with his name inscribed on many of the bricks, in imitation of Nebuchadnezzar. One frequent inscription read, "This was built by Saddam Hussein, son of Nebuchadnezzar, to glorify Iraq." If Hussein had read the Bible instead of the Koran, he might not have been so eager to call himself the king of Babylon. Here's what the Bible has to say about the king of Babylon (Isaiah 14:5-11):

That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth. The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing. Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us. Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.