Iraqi party demands death penalty for Saddam
Iraq's dominant political party yesterday demanded that Saddam Hussein face the death penalty, despite the reservations expressed by new President Jalal Talabani in an interview with The Washington Times over the weekend. Leading members of the Shi'ite Muslim-led United Iraqi Alliance, which holds 140 seats in the 275-member national parliament, insisted that Saddam must be executed for the crimes committed under his brutal reign. Ali al-Dabagh, a party spokesman, called Saddam "the No. 1 criminal in the world."
Eliminating the death penalty "is something that cannot be discussed at all," Mr. al-Dabagh told the Associated Press in an interview. Sheik Hassan Shimmari, another United Iraqi Alliance lawmaker, said the death penalty for Saddam and his senior aides is justified by both Islamic tradition and Iraqi law. "It is surprising the president should adopt such a position," he told reporters in Baghdad. In his interview with The Washington Times, Mr. Talabani, an ethnic Kurd, said he was sticking to his long-standing personal opposition to the death penalty worldwide, but conceded that he was in the minority even within the three-member presidential council that he heads. Iraq's two deputy presidents, Shi'ite Adel Abdul-Mahdi and Sunni Sheik Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer, both support the death penalty if Saddam is convicted. Many of the president's fellow Kurds, who were the victims of atrocities under Saddam, also favor executing the former dictator. Mr. Talabani said he would not sign an execution order, if one were given. "It is for me difficult to sign this ... if the courts will decide [that], the others can do it. ... It does not mean I said that Saddam must not be executed. It is up to the courts, not to me," he told The Washington Times. In a separate interview with the BBC released yesterday, Mr. Talabani said, "My two partners in the presidency, the government, the [parliament], all of them are for sentencing Saddam Hussein to death before the court will decide." He suggested he might "go on holiday" and let his two partners in the presidency sign the death warrant. Separately, Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. troops entered the rebellious town of Madain, south of Baghdad, but found no evidence of a group of more than 100 hostages reportedly being held by insurgents. Although Sunni Muslim leaders called the kidnapping accounts a hoax, U.S. military officials said the operation to regain control of Madain was a major success for the new government's fledgling security forces. The office of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said that 10 rebels and large amounts of weapons were seized in the operation. In a separate incident, Iraqi insurgents struck in the heart of Baghdad yesterday, killing a senior Iraqi security official and his nephew in their home. The target of the attack, Maj.-Gen. Adnan Midhish Kharagoli, was an adviser to Iraq's defense minister, Iraqi officials said. Saddam was captured by U.S. forces in December 2003 and now sits in a heavily guarded jail near Baghdad's airport. No trial date has been set. The U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority abolished the Saddam-era death penalty law in 2003. The law listed some 114 offenses for which the death penalty could be applied. Over the objections of some U.S. coalition partners, the Iraqi interim government revived the death penalty in August 2004, limiting it to cases involving murder, drug trafficking and endangering national security. A State Department spokes-man, speaking on background, said the United States wants Iraq to rebuild its legal system, but said the issue of capital punishment was one for the Iraqis themselves to work out. "We have no objection to the death penalty, since we have it in our own country, but it's a matter for the Iraqis decide," the spokesman said. "We are certainly not pushing for it." This article is based in part on wire service reports.
From a humble birth, Saddam Hussein rose to power and kept it by eliminating opponents and suppressing dissidents. How he shaped Iraq and the world.
RISE TO POWER
April 28, 1937 Saddam Hussein is born near Tikrit
1955 Moves to Baghdad 1956 Joins the Arab Baath Socialist Party
1957 Denied admission to the Baghdad Military Academy
1959 Attempts to assassinate the prime minister of Iraq and is sentenced to death, although he later escapes to Syria and then to Egypt
1962-1963 Studies law in Cairo, but does not earn a degree
Feb. 8, 1963 Returns to Iraq after the Ramadan Revolution and is elected to the Baath Party July 1968 Participates in a coup to overthrow Iraq's president and the regime
Nov. 9, 1969 Elected vice chairman of the Revolution Command Council
June 1, 1972 Nationalizes all of the oil companies in Iraq
March 11, 1974 Helps implement the 'Autonomy Law' for Iraqi Kurdish Citizens, who are forced to go to Iran
July 16, 1979 Elected president of Iraq and chairman of Revolution Command Council.
REGIONAL CONFLICT
Sept. 4, 1980 Initiates a war with Iran
1982 Former President Ahmed Hassan Bakr dies mysteriously. It is widely suspected that Hussein was involved
1987-1988 Saddam launches the Anfal Campaign against the Kurds: 180,000 Kurds disappear and 4,000 villages are destroyed
March 1988 The Kurdish town of Halabaja is gassed: 5,000 people are killed and 10,000 are injured
Aug. 8, 1988 Agrees to a ceasefire with Iran. Iraq wins the conflict
August 1988 Kurdish villages on the Turkish border are gassed. Thousands die.
GULF WAR I
Aug. 2, 1990 Saddam seizes Kuwait
Jan. 16, 1991 The United States bombs Baghdad
February 1991 President George H.W. Bush declares a ceasefire; the Persian Gulf War ends 1993 Saddam breaks the peace terms from the end of the Persian Gulf War. The U.S. bombs Iraq
October 1998 Saddam fails to comply with United Nations weapons inspectors, resulting in a four-day bombing raid by the United States
1999 Throughout the year continual airstrikes on Iraq 2000 It is reported that Saddam has used humanitarian funds to build presidential palaces and personal enrichment
GULF WAR II
2002 Saddam allows U.N. weapons inspectors to return to Iraq
February 2003 Dan Rather interviews Saddam, who says he would not go into exile, claims Iraq does not have any weapons that go against U.N. resolutions
March 19, 2003 The United States and other Coalition forces start bombing campaign in an effort to remove Saddam Hussein and his regime from power
April 9, 2003 Baghdad falls to U.S.-led forces; Saddam's whereabouts unknown
July 22, 2003 Saddam's sons and henchmen, Uday and Qusay, are killed in a firefight with U.S. troops
Dec. 14, 2003 Saddam is captured by U.S. forces
Oct. 19, 2005 Saddam goes on trial in Baghdad. He questions the validity of the court that will try him and his seven co-defendants. All plead not guilty to charges of ordering the killing of 148 Shias from the village of Dujail.
Aug 21, 2006 Saddam and six other defendants are put on trial for mass killings in the so-called 'Anfal Campaign' of 1987-88
Nov. 5, 2006 Saddam Hussein is found guilty of crimes against humanity for the killing of 148 Shias in Dujail in 1982. He is sentenced to death Dec. 26, 2006 Iraq's highest appeals court upholds Saddam's death sentence
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - Enraged crowds protested the hanging of Saddam Hussein across Iraq's Sunni heartland Monday, as a mob in Samara broke the locks off a bomb-damaged Shiite shrine and marched through carrying a mock coffin and photo of the dictator.
The demonstration in the Golden Dome, shattered in a bombing by Sunni extremists 10 months ago, suggests that many Sunni Arabs may now more actively support the small number of Sunni militants fighting the country's Shiite-dominated government. The Feb. 22 bombing of the shrine triggered the current cycle of retaliatory attacks between Sunnis and Shiia, in the form of daily bombings, kidnappings and murders.
Monday's protest came on a day that saw the U.S. military kill six Iraqis during a raid on the offices of a prominent Sunni political figure, who was suspected of giving al-Qaida in Iraq fighters sanctuary.
Until Saddam's execution Saturday, most Sunnis sympathized with militants but avoided taking a direct role in the sectarian conflict -- despite attacks by Shiite militia that have killed thousands of Sunnis or driven them from their homes. The current Sunni protests, which appear to be building, could signal a spreading militancy.
Angered by taunts
Sunnis were not only outraged by Saddam's hurried execution, just four days after an appeals court upheld his conviction and sentence. Many were also incensed by the unruly scene in the execution chamber, captured on video, in which Saddam was taunted with chants of "Muqtada, Muqtada, Muqtada."
The chants referred to Muqtada al-Sadr, a firebrand Shiite cleric who runs one of Iraq's most violent religious militias. He is a major power behind the government of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Many Sunnis are also upset that Saddam was put to death the day that Sunni celebrations began for Eid al-Ahda, a major Muslim festival. The judge who first presided over the case that resulted in Saddam's death sentence said the former dictator's execution at the start of Eid was illegal according to Iraqi law, and contradicted Islamic custom.
The law states that "no verdict should implemented during the official holidays or religious festivals," said Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin, a Kurd.
Rizgar presided over Saddam's trial on charges he killed 148 Shiite men and boys in Dujail, north of Baghdad, in a botched assassination attempt in 1982. The judge was removed from the case after Shiite complaints that he was too lenient.
In a Sunni neighborhood in northern Baghdad, hundreds of demonstrators mourned the executed leader. Some praised the Baath Party, the outlawed nationalist group that under Saddam cemented Sunni Arab dominance of Iraq.
"The Baath party and Baathists still exist in Iraq, and nobody can marginalize it," said Samir al-Obaidi, 48, who attended a Saddam memorial in the Azamiyah neighborhood.
In Dor, 77 miles north of Baghdad, hundreds more took to the streets to attend the dedication of a giant mosaic of Saddam. Children carried toy guns and men fired real weapons into the air.
Mourners at a mosque in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit slaughtered sheep as a sacrifice for their former leader. The mosque's walls were lined with condolence cards from tribes in southern Iraq and Jordan who were unable to travel to the memorial.
Saddam's eldest daughter briefly attended a protest Monday in Jordan -- her first public appearance since her father was hanged.
"God bless you, and I thank you for honoring Saddam, the martyr," said Raghad Saddam Hussein, according to two witnesses. She addressed members of the Professional Associations -- an umbrella group of unions representing doctors, engineers and lawyers -- in the group's office parking lot in west Amman.
In the midst of the protests, U.S. forces continued operations in Iraq.
Six Iraqis were killed in a U.S.-led raid on the Baghdad offices of a top Sunni politician, Saleh al-Mutlaq. The U.S. military and Iraqi police said they suspected the offices were being used as an al-Qaida safe house.
Al-Mutlaq is a senior member of the National Dialogue Front, which holds 11 of the 275 seats in Iraq's parliament.
U.S. forces said they took on heavy fire from automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades as they sought to enter the building. Ground troops were backed by helicopters that "engaged the enemy with precision point target machine gun fire," the military said.
It was unclear whether the deaths resulted from the ground assault or fire from U.S. helicopters.
Associated Press Television News footage showed masses of rubble in the area and what appeared to be a long smear of blood where a body had been dragged across the floor of one of the buildings.
Walls were pitted with what appeared to be bullet and shrapnel holes.
U.S. death toll at 3,002
The U.S. death toll, meanwhile, climbed to at least 3,002 by the final day of 2006 as the American military reported the deaths of two more soldiers in an explosion Sunday in Diyala Province, northeast of the capital. With the announcement, the Associated Press count of fatalities showed that at least 113 U.S. service members died in December. That makes it bloodiest month of 2006.
Iraqi authorities Monday reported that 16,273 Iraqis — including 14,298 civilians, 1,348 police and 627 soldiers — died violent deaths in 2006. The total exceeds the Associated Press count by more than 2,500.
On the first day of the New Year, Iraqi Police reported finding the 40 handcuffed, blindfolded and bullet-riddled bodies in Baghdad. A police official, who refused to be named out of security fears, said 15 of the bodies were discovered in the mainly industrial Sheik Omar district of northern Baghdad.
An Iraqi worker for the Algerian Embassy in Baghdad was shot to death, police said.
Also Monday, the Iraqi government raided and sealed the offices of a privately owned television station, charging it had incited violence and hatred in its programming. In its coverage of the execution of Saddam over the weekend, a newscaster had worn black mourning clothes.
The satellite television channel Al-Sharqiya, which broadcasts from Dubai, remained on the air late Monday. The station is owned by Saad al-Bazzaz, a one-time chief of radio and television for Saddam.
© 2006 The Associated Press
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