Speechless Hussein trembled, struggled--
The details of Saddam's non-heroic final hour
By Gordon Thomas
December 30, 2006
12:48 p.m. Eastern
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
At two minutes past 3 a.m. (GMT) today, Saddam Hussein's boast that he would die a heroic martyr ended when he saw the gallows.
He began to tremble and his eyes filled with what one observer called "his terror at impending death. For the first time he was feeling what so many others had done facing execution from his actions."
One hour before – 2 a.m. on a cold Baghdad morning – his cell door had opened. Standing there was the Iraqi commander of the execution squad. He ordered the two American guards, who had stood their last death watch, to withdraw. In their place stepped two muscular Iraqi soldiers.
The commander told Saddam he would be hanged in the hour. There then followed the ritual formalities for execution.
Saddam ate a meal of boiled chicken and rice he had ordered at midnight. With the food he drank several cups of hot water laced with honey. It was a drink which dated back to his childhood.
After the meal he was invited to use the cell toilet – to avoid the public embarrassment of wetting himself in the execution chamber.
Saddam refused the offer.
At 2:30 a.m. he performed his final religious ablutions, kneeling and washing his hands, face and feet.
He then sat on the edge of his iron-cot bed and began to read the Quran. It had been a gift from his wife, sent to him at the outset of his trial. But only after the court’s death sentence had been passed had Saddam begun to study it.
Meantime, in the execution chamber, final rehearsals were underway.
A sack filled with builder's sand was used to test the gallows trapdoor. Twice the trapdoor swung open and the bag plunged into the void. The hangman judged the rope had been fully stretched.
After each test an Iraqi technician checked the trapdoor. Each flap was secured to the gallows platform by three steel and oiled hinges. The trap opening had been made wider than usual to avoid any chance of Saddam's body catching the sides of the platform.
At 2:45 a.m. two mortuary attendants arrived with a plain wooden coffin. They placed it beside the gallows platform.
By 2:50 a.m. the handful of invited witnesses stood against one wall of the execution chamber. They included members of the Iraqi judiciary, clerics, a representative of the Iraqi government and a doctor.
Their whispered talking fell silent as the chamber door opened. Gripped by the two hooded Iraqi guards, Saddam Hussein stood there blinking in the bright lights.
These had been switched on for the Iraqi video cameraman. It was 3:01 a.m. The tripod camera was in a corner of the chamber, providing a wide-angle shot of the gallows. Each time the test sack had plunged through the trapdoor, the cameraman had filmed a test video to check his framing.
Now at 3:01 a.m. Saddam stood there for a moment longer. Gripped firmly by the elbows, his two guards then motioned him forward towards the 12 steps leading up to the gallows platform.
At the foot of the steps, an Iraqi government official stepped forward and began to read from a single sheet of paper. It was the official death sentence.
An observer recalled: "Saddam’s mouth started to work. But no words came. The terror in his eyes was there for us all to see. He started to struggle. But he had no muscular power."
The official withdrew. Gripped even tighter by the guards, Saddam was half-forced up the steps.
The executioner – another Iraqi – came forward. In his hand he held a hood. He offered the blindfold up to Saddam.
Saddam shook his head, his mouth opened and closed.
"From where I stood he seemed to look down at the trapdoor as if he wanted to avoid it," said one of the observers.
One of his guards quickly pinioned Saddam's hands behind his back. A black cloth had been placed around his neck where the noose was now positioned.
He was maneuvered onto the center of the platform.
The silence in the room was total.
Suddenly there was the sound of a lever being pushed down hard. The trapdoor swung open. Saddam's body plunged through.
Saddam's body, neck broken, hung suspended for a few minutes. Then the doctor stepped forward and listened through a stethoscope for a heartbeat. There was none.
The two morticians stepped under the platform and cut the body down. The knife they used to slice through the rope looked like the kind a butcher would use.
At 3:14 a.m. Saddam Hussein’s body was placed in the plain wooden coffin and taken to a mortuary storage vault while a final decision was taken on the manner of its disposal. His widow had already made a request for it to be handed over to her for burial.
----
It is what it is without commentary from me, except to say it's a woefully tragic shame that he spent his final eight weeks studying a Qur'an... and not a Bible.
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Truth be told, were it not for American intervention, i.e.; the invasion of Iraq, Saddam would be alive today... as would his sons; continuing to murder and rape and silence all dissidents... Devoid of undue torture.
On the other hand, Saddam received just and merciful recompense for his sins. Merciful in that it was swift.
You see glee because you have a low opinion of me and my views, and that's certainly your prerogative, but you do yourself a great disservice by allowing your low opinion of me cloud your judgment. Especially in regard to my intent in posting an article, which I did not write, and lamenting Saddam's choice of reading material.
I've been to your blog, you're smarter than this.
There is no glory or accomplishment in this story. Were the employees of Enron allowed to judge Andrew Fastow, and Ken Lay. Do we let the family of murder victims set on the jury to decide a killer's fate? Saddam Hussein's trial was a shadow play. A formality to lay a veneer of acceptability on the murder of a despot. I don't have to find a scripture quote to know the truth that the ends don't justify the means.
Did you know that in Saddam's day the government used the same "red-card" form to set an execution date? Did you know that Sunni's hold Saturday as part of this weekend's holy days while Shia Muslims do not? (hint: Saddam:Sunni Government:Shia)
Because of the myopic focus on Iraq, Bin Laden is thought to still walk free. The number of international terror incidents have increased every year, and larger more dangerous problems that America should be leading the world in fighting are going unacknowledged.
Did you see the story on the first inhabited island in Indonesia to be swamped from rising ocean levels due to global warming?
Also EL, if you're going to post entire articles without comment you can't find fault with people assuming you endorse the article in it's entirety.
A gross distortion considering all the mass graves scattered across the verdant bucolic Iraqi countryside.
2. "...surpassed those dead on 9/11/01"
Irrelevent. Smoke and mirrors to confuse the issue of Saddam's execution.
3. "Fastow... Lay... the family of murder victims... the murder of a despot"
More smoke and mirrors. It's called a jury of ones peers here in the United States... an impartial jury of ones peers... and not relevent to Saddam's fair trial by the Iraqi judicial system as erected by the citizens of Iraq via free elections and the crafting a constitution that is NOT a carbon copy of our own. And because Saddam wasn't tried in the Hague his execution somehow amounts to murder? That's quite a leap. Timothy McVeigh was tried in the U.S. by a fair and impartial jury and summarily executed once he waived all appeals. McVeigh then, according to your standard, was murdered... He did not receive the just recompense for the choices he made that lead to the Oklahoma City bombing-- and how many dead? 168.
You want the "murder" of a despot? How about Nicolae Ceauşescu, one-time dictator of Romania? Both he and his wife Elena were shot and killed on Christmas day, 1989, after a short "trail" in a kangaroo court. They were taken out into the snow, stood against the wall and shot by a lone Romanian military officer, one Lonel Boeru. That was murder.
4. ""red-card"... holy days"
Again, irrelevent.
5. "America should be leading the world in fighting..."
As if we weren't already doing that! If we were in NKorea or Iran, you and others on the wind-blown left would be using THOSE campaigns as clubs, just like you're using Iraq now.
Since you feel so free to bandy about irrelevencies, allow me to offer a few inconvenient numbers for your consideration...
Revolutionary War: 25,324 killed
Mexican War: 13,283 killed
Civil War (North): 363,020 killed
Civil War (South): 199,110 killed
World War I: 116,708 killed
World War II: 408,306 killed
Korean War: 54,246 killed
Vietnam War: 58,219 killed
The loss of a single life is tragic, but your sanctimonious objections to just over 3,000 in 3 years of fighting....? Please!
6. "...from rising ocean levels due to global warming"
For the third time, Irrelevent! Saddam should not have been executed because of the horrors of global warming ?!!
7. "...fault with people assuming..."
Firstly-- When I post articles without comment it is generally to save it, for myself... Something I choose to remember. And I can most certainly take offense when someone chooses to idiotically ascribe a specific emotional state to me for having posted a particular 'something'. ESPECIALLY when the only comment I've offered is one lamenting the fact that a dead man chose to read the wrong book in his final days.
Hey, ya know what Jesus did when Saddam died?
Jesus wept.
But I don't know why anyone would post such a story without comment, unless it was to encourage people to revel in it. However, I withdraw the assumption.
If his motives are pure, it is time for balance.
I think we should be able to judge issues by facts and not implied assumptions or accusations.
One of the reasons I enjoy reading EL's site is his mild manner.
Thank you! And Happy New Year to you.
Happy New Year to you!
:)
Desperate, anguished comments, attacks and fact-based accusations directed at his unAmerican, irrational and unChristian policies are my duty as an American and, in some cases, my Christian obligation.
And hey, EL and I get along mainly because we do not attacj each other personally -- although we both, sometimes, in exasperation cut it a little close. :-)
Hey, how's 2007 going over in Georgia?? Still 1 minute away here!
And against my better judgment, I've cracked a bottle of the bubbly stuff. Alcohol so doesn't impress me anymore; it's more out of a sense of tradition than any real desire to drink, which departed years ago along with my desire for pot and hash, Praise God!
Also sad to note: the Russian spy who died recently had converted to Islam only days before his death...