Saddam Execution Video

If you think you can stomach the actual footage of Saddam's execution you can watch it on this link. You can either open it or save it to your PC.

As they are putting the rope on his neck, he says "There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is his messenger". After the rope is in place, the Iraqi's send blessings on Prophet Mohammed and his family, and one of the Sadrists shouts "Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada" (its a Sadrist thing). Saddam smiles and says something you cant clearly hear because one of Iraqi's shouts back "go to hell". You can hear Saddam say "shame on you" just before someone says "Long Live Mohammed Baqer Al Sadr" and another says "go to hell" again. There is another voice which we hear for the first time repeatedly shouting "please...please", its most likely an Iraqi official asking everyone to keep quiet. Saddam then repeats the words "There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is his messenger". He says it one more time before he drops but doesnt get time to finish his sentence..."There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed..." *trap door opens and he falls*. Immeiately after his neck snaps, people send blessings on Prophet Mohamemd and his family (without the 'Moqtada' dramatics this time) and shout "May Allah curse you" and "the dictator has fallen". Then amid the darkness, someone takes a picture and you can clearly see Saddam still hanging from the rope.

The Hangman Hangs the Hangman

I would like to congratulate first and foremost all the Iraqi people, and secondly all the citizens of the countries that Saddam destroyed, mainly Iran and Kuwait. Saddam's death to these people is like Hitlers death to the Jews, even sweeter. The man who mercilessly killed hundreds of thousands if not millions of innocent, women and children, has finally been sent to hell. No words can possibly describe the feelings of the people who lost members of their family because of him.

The hopes and dreams of many ba'thists died when Saddam's neck was snapped. The execution wont IMO wont decrease the amount of violence in Iraq, but it will make it easier for a lot of Iraqi's who lost members of their family under his brutal regime. One Iraqi today in Baghdad said "I feel like my brother is still alive". Saddam is not going to come back, and the ba'thists will have to wake up and realise that they will never enjoy the same power they did under his reign. Either join the political process, or face the wrath of a democratically elected government's armed forces who would like nothing better to do then hunt down those bastards. His execution will no doubt send shock waves across the region...all Arab and Muslim dictators (who once all feared Saddam) will now know that nothing is impossible, and they too could be behind bars one day, or worse, face the same fate Saddam did.

People's reaction to this execution is, i think, a true measure of what they are made of. The ones that are outraged at his death, are the probably the ones who support terrorism, fund terrorism or are terrorists themselves. The fools that are saying this was an unlawful execution and that Saddam was a legitimate ruler seem to have a very short memory. Saddam himself became President of Iraq by means of an ILLEGAL coup d'état. The bastards (some of whom are "lawyers") who are defending him today should at the very least stop making fools of themselves on TV.

For the Muslims, this is 2 Eid's in one day. Eid Al-Adha, and the Eid of watching Saddam walk to the gallows knowing he had only seconds more to live. His execution couldnt have come soon enough, and all because of the hard work Iraqi officials, lawyers, judges and of course the brave brave people of Al-Dujail put in order to make what was once even too lucrative to dream about, a reality.

The only problem with Saddam's execution was that reports and pictures later suggested that his neck was broken, which means he didn't feel the full pain of a slow hanging and was killed instantly. I'd still like to pretend that he did die a slow and painful death, but one of the hangmen later snapped his neck after he died. There is nothing you can possibly do to that man (and the other ba3thi dogs) that i would say is "sick" or "too horrific". The easiest part of his life was his death, now he has much more to worry about. He first had to answer to an independent court, now he has to answer to his Lord. Much harder and eventually, much more painful for him. Congratulations everyone, and alif alif mabrook. Inshallah this new year will be a better year for Iraq.

Iraq's Loss

May God Bless all of Iraq's martyrs from 1968-2006. Shia, Sunni, Kurd, Arab, Assyrian, Sabaei, Turkmen, Muslim, Christian...All of them.

Sadr's Hit List

A lot of people may already have guessed that Moqtada al-Sadr doesn't have full control over his militia, the Mehdi Army, and the recent fighting between what was later described as "possibly rogue elements of the Mehdi Army" and the Iraqi police in Diwiyana raised suspicions that the Mehdi Army were acting alone, and not taking orders from Sadr.

I had a chat with an Iraqi politician who just recently came back from Baghdad for a short visit who swears that people very close to Moqtada Sadr (and with his blessing) have released a list of people that need to be "exterminated". He claims the list is around 100-200 names. Whats different about the names on that list is that they do not belong to rival parties, they are not Sunni Arabs, and they are not foreign terrorists...they are all members of the Sadr Movement. Apparently, there is a massive turf war going on between themselves and there are quite a few Sadrists who have become the Sadrists own worst enemy. Could this be a clear message from Moqtada to the Sadr Movement that anyone who does not do as he says will be next on the list...and an easy, effective (not to mention deadly) way of showing them (in case they need reminding) that he is the boss? Maybe not, but the very thought that the Sadrists have released a hit list full of names of their own people is actually quite funny...I mean scary.

This has got to be the rumour of the century.

Al-Hakim in London

Sayyid Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim, leader of the SCIRI party recently arrived in London for a short visit after coming back from talks with the US President in Washington DC. He came over to the Al-Khoei Foundation just before midday for a reception and to give a short talk. Some of the previous (Iraqi) visitors to the Foundation include former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, his right hand man Sayyid Iyad Jamul Al-Deen MP, former IGC President Adnan Pachachi, former Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, Vice President Adel Abdul Mehdi and also the President, Jalal Talabani.

Al-Hakim didn't arrive alone, he came with Shiekh Humam Hamoodi, a high ranking SCIRI member who was also the head of the constitution drafting panel which came up with the charter that was ratified on 15th October 2005. A few other high ranking SCIRI members were also present. Some who live here in London, and others who have come from Iraq. Including SCIRI's spokesman Ali Al-Bayati, who is also an advisor to the Iraqi Embassy.

After spending 5-10 minutes inside the Secretary General's (Sayyid Abdul Sahib Al-Khoei) office for small talk, he sat at the head of the hall next to the Ambassador of Iraq, Salah Al-Shiekhly and other SCIRI members. After a formal welcome message from the SG, Al-Hakim spoke briefly about the pain and suffering the Iraqi people are going through on a day to day basis and then due to a very tight schedule (he is off to Iraq tomorrow) he had to leave to go to the Imam Ali Foundation, Sayyid Sistani's office in London, which is just a few blocks down the road, for lunch.

After he left, Shiekh Humam Al-Hamoodi, stayed behind to take questions from a few Iraqi ex-pats (and journalists). There were very interesting questions asked and the answers were even better, or shall we say, more interesting. Regarding the ongoing violence in Iraq, he stated that since the fall of the Saddam regime till about Febuary 2006, the Shia were relatively (and i think even he used that term loosely) calm when it came to retaliating against "Salafi, Takfeeri and Saddamists" attacks. Mainly because Sayyid Sistani was quoted as saying "Even if half the Shia are killed, we will not take Iraq into a civil war". Sheikh Al-Hamoodi quoted Sayyid Sistani in a meeting he had with him. Apparently, Sayyid Sistani told him that "The Sunni's are not just our brothers, they are ourselves". After the Samarra Shrine was destroyed on 22nd Feb, "even Sayyid Sistani could not hold back the angry Shia" who wanted revenge. Even then, he said, there is a big difference between Shia attacks and the terrorists who "want to destroy Iraq". While the terrorists "randomly attack" the Shia, the Shia only target the ones "responsible for the heinous crimes against the innocent Shia".

He said "the more we progress politically, the more violence we see" which is a dilemma for the Iraqi government. "We were facing massive amounts of violence prior to the formation of the government, so we made sure to include all sects and blocs in the government to form a national unity government, but all we saw in return, was a step up in the attacks and more bloodshed".

Its not all doom and gloom for Iraq though. "If you look at the news bar strips at the bottom of some of the channels nowadays, you can see that the number of dead have began to slightly decrease". Good news eh?

People who wanted to ask questions normally stood up and asked them, but one person, and i promise it wasn't me, wrote down on a piece of paper and passed it to the chair asking "What do you have to say about Iranian involvement in Iraqi politics?". The Sheikh responded, without dropping a beat "The Iranians have absolutely no involvement in Iraqi politics".

After the Q&A was over, as everyone was leaving, I managed to stop one of the SCIRI leaders (who i cannot name) at the door and asked him a very simple question. "When will Iraq see the end of militias...I mean all militias...Mehdi Army, Badr Brigade (SCIRI's armed wing)...all of them? Roughly how many years?". He answered my question by asking me a question, "So you are saying all of Iraq's problems are because of the militias?". I replied "No i didnt say that, all i asked was how many years do you think the militias will exist in this new Iraq?". The answer wasnt exactly an answer. He said "The tone of your voice and the way you asked the question seem to me that you are implying the militias are responsible for all of Iraq's problem". Only after repeating myself for the third time, and short of dropping on my knees begging him to answer the actual question, did he give me an answer. "The stronger the Iraqi army becomes, and the quicker its trained and equiped, the weaker the militias will become...I'd say 1 or 2 years...maybe abit longer for the Sadrists".

Later at night, Al-Hakim gave a lengthy speech at the Islamic Center of England (Shia mosque funded by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatullah Khamenai) infront of around 500 Iraqi's. Outside the mosque, there was a small demonstration of around 15 people. 3-5 were Iraqi ba'athists and the rest were Palestinians. They were shouting slogans such as "Hakim leave Iraq alone, the people dont want you", "Murderer", "son of muta", "Ayatullah sandal (Iraqi insult)" and "Killer of Palestinians". Their chants were drowned out by the dozens of SCIRI supporters dancing and shouting "Ali is with you" as Hakim left the mosque and got into his car. Police were there making sure things dont get out of hand, but at the end they did. It was after Al-Hakim left. The fight, believe it or not, wasnt between the ba'athists/Palestinians and Iraqi Shia, but between the Shia themselves. A handful of Sadr supporters provoked the SCIRI supporters and one of them even joined the ba'athists demo. The police had to break-up a punch up and atleast half a dozen police cars/vans with sirens blazing came to the scene to disperse the crowd. The ironic part was that I was trying to explain to a police officer why the ba'athist and Palestinians who support Saddam had turned up and in the end they turned out to be the peaceful ones.