The unauthorized video, which ignited protests by Saddam's fellow Sunni Arabs in various Iraqi cities, threatens to turn the ousted dictator into a martyr. Saddam was shown never bowing his head as he faced death, and asking the hecklers if they were acting in a manly way.

The Bush administration sent conflicting signals Wednesday about the taunting and baiting that accompanied the execution, with the White House declining to join criticism of the procedure and the State Department and U.S. military publicly raising questions about it.

Saddam, who was convicted for the killings of 148 Shiites, was dignified and courteous to his American jailers up to the moment he was handed over to the Iraqis outside the execution chamber, a U.S. military spokesman said.

He "was courteous, as he always had been, to his U.S. military police guards," Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell said. "He spoke very well to our military police, as he always had. And when getting off there at the prison site, he said farewell to his interpreter. He thanked the military police squad, the lieutenant, the squad leader, the medical doctor we had present, and the colonel that was on site."

Although Saddam "was still dignified toward us," Caldwell said his demeanor changed "at the prison facility when the Iraqi guards were assuming control of him."

National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie and two other top officials variously reported one to three men were being questioned in the investigation into who heckled Saddam as he was minutes from death and took cell phone pictures of his execution.

"The investigation has already had an arrest warrant against one person and two to follow," al-Rubaie told CNN. He said the guard force at the execution was infiltrated by an Arab television station or another outsider.

The clandestine footage appeared on Al-Jazeera television and Web sites just hours after Saddam was hanged Saturday. The tumultuous scenes quickly overshadowed an official execution video, which was mute and showed none of the uproar among those on the floor of the chamber below the gallows.

Sami al-Askeri, a Shiite lawmaker who advises Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said two "Justice Ministry guards were being questioned. The investigation committee is interrogating the men. If it is found that any official was involved, he will face legal measures."

A second key al-Maliki adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information, said, "In the past few hours, the government has arrested the person who videotaped Saddam's execution. He was an official who supervised the execution and now he is under investigation."

Prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon, one of 14 official witnesses to the execution, told The Associated Press that he saw two government officials using camera phones at the hanging.

"I saw two of the government officials who were ... present during the execution taking all the video of the execution, using the lights that were there for the official taping of the execution," he said. "They used mobile phone cameras. I do not know their names, but I would remember their faces."

Caldwell said no Americans were present for the hanging and that the tumultuous execution would have gone differently had the Americans been in charge.

As the storm over the handling of the hanging gained strength, Caldwell was among several U.S. officials who suggested displeasure with the conduct of the execution.

"If you are asking me: 'Would we have done things differently?' Yes, we would have. But that's not our decision. That's the government of

The White House declined to join in the criticism.

"The president is focused on the new way forward in Iraq so these issues are best addressed out of Iraq, out of Baghdad," deputy White House press secretary Scott Stanzel said. "Prime Minister Maliki's staff have already expressed their disappointment in the filmings, so I guess we'll leave it at that."

Stanzel said the U.S. military and the U.S. Embassy in Iraq had expressed concerns about the timing of the execution and about "the process and what took place."

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said U.S. officials had questioned holding the execution on a Muslim festival day, the opening of Eid al-Adha, and as well as some procedures.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and his diplomatic team "did engage the government of Iraq on issues relating to procedures involved in the timing of the execution (of Saddam), given the upcoming holy days. While the government of Iraq gave consideration to U.S. concerns, all decisions made regarding the execution were Iraqi decisions based on their own considerations."

Wednesday's remarks by U.S. officials were the first public confirmation of reports that the Americans had questioned the timing of the hanging.

The second-guessing over the conduct of the execution came as Iraqi and Arab media and an Iraqi government official said preparations were under way to hang two of Saddam's co-defendants in the next few days but that the details still have to be worked out with the American military.

A Cabinet official, speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the information, said the two men would hang "at the beginning of next week."

Caldwell said those executions, like Saddam's, were the responsibility of the Iraqi government. "It's a sovereign nation. It's their system. They make those decisions."

Saddam's half brother Barzan Ibrahim, a former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, were originally scheduled to hang with Saddam. But their execution was delayed until after Eid al-Adha, which ended Wednesday for Iraq's majority Shiites.

Al-Arabiya satellite television and Al-Furat TV, run by Iraq's major Shiite Muslim political organization, both reported that Ibrahim and al-Bandar would go to the gallows on Thursday. However, Mariam al-Rays, an al-Maliki adviser, called such reports "baseless."

In Washington, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts denied a request by a lawyer for Bandar to block the U.S. military from transferring custody of the condemned man to Iraqi authorities.

U.N. human rights chief Louise Arbour, backed by new Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, appealed to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to prevent the execution of Ibrahim and al-Bandar, saying she was concerned with "the fairness and impartiality" of their trials

HACKED BY ÝSKORPÝTX

TURKISH HACKER

THE ISLAM IS SUPERIOR -YOU WILL DRAW YOUR PUNISHMENT

George W. Bush (1946 - .... )...2007

FUCKED USA

 

Dear Editor

 

This is what I found today when I looked up www.usaweeklynews.com

 

and you click on the usaweeklnews heading on their home page which normally links to their other site www.internationalnewslimited.com

instead of obtaining the www.internationalnewslimited.com site  ended up seeing this instead, I thought that this would be interesting to you to see. Did you know if this has happened to any other USA or American web sites. Obviously this person does not like the USA or George Bush and is impliying that they are going to try and kill George Bush this year by saying that his life span is from 1946 to 2007. I take this as a definite threat that George Bush should be told about as I think his life is in danger and should be warned. It may be necessary for someone ti try and find out who did this hacking and from where. I do not know why they haver done this to this particular site, But it is important that this be brought to public attention through your newspaper.

I think the situation is very serious

 

best regards

 

 

a concerned citizen

A Bitter Family Saga is at an End-bottom of page

Saddam hanging taunts evoke ugly past

SADDAM HUSSEIN IS EXECUTED-Video

Saddam's last moments

Blogs on Saddam's Execution

Dictator Who Ruled Iraq With Violence
Is Hanged for Crimes Against Humanity
Saddam Hussein was hanged in Baghdad before dawn during the morning call to prayer. His execution came with terrible swiftness after he lost the appeal of his death sentence.
Iraq’s sectarian violence has raised questions about what change, if any, Saddam Hussein’s death might bring. 
 BAGHDAD, Saturday, Dec. 30 — Saddam Hussein, the dictator who led Iraq through three decades of brutality, war and bombast before American forces chased him from his capital city and captured him in a filthy pit near his hometown, was hanged just before dawn Saturday during the morning call to prayer. Skip to next paragraph Enlarge This Image Iraqi Television, via Associated Press Video from Iraqi state television showed a noose being placed around Saddam Hussein’s neck before his hanging early Saturday. Multimedia Interactive Feature Death of the Iraqi Tyrant Graphic A Year on Trial Related News Analysis: Joy of Capture Muted at the End (December 30, 2006) Obituary: The Defiant Despot Oppressed Iraq for More Than 30 Years (December 30, 2006) Iraqis Consider Fate of Hussein’s Body (December 30, 2006) How Much Should Be Shown of a Hanging? Network Executives Wonder and Wait (December 30, 2006) The Reach of War Go to Complete Coverage » Agence France-Presse Saddam Hussein visiting the Shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf in 1996. The final stages for Mr. Hussein, 69, came with terrible swiftness after he lost the appeal, five days ago, of his death sentence for the killings of 148 men and boys in the northern town of Dujail in 1982. He had received the sentence less than two months before from a special court set up to judge his reign as the almost unchallenged dictator of Iraq.




END OF AN ERA FOR IRAQ
Saddam Hussein Executed in Baghdad

Saddam Hussein has been executed by hanging in Baghdad. Shiites danced in the street to celebrate while Sunnis mourned the dictator's death. George W. Bush welcomed the news but Germany reacted by condemning the death penalty on principle. Saddam Hussein has been hanged in Baghdad in a violent end for a leader who ruled Iraq in a reign of fear for three decades. Photo Gallery: Saddam Executed For War Crimes Click on a picture to launch the image gallery (5 Photos) Saddam was executed by handing before sunrise Saturday at a former military intelligence headquarters in Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah. The former Iraqi dictator, who was dressed in a black coat and trousers, struggled briefly after being handed over to his Iraqi executioners by American military guards. He was reported to have grown calm, however, as the moment of his death grew closer. He held a Koran as he was led to the gallows and refused to wear a hood over his head. He was reported to have shouted "God is great. The nation will be victorious and Palestine is Arab," before the rope was put around his neck. Iraqi television showed what it said was Saddam's body after the execution. Hundreds of Shiite Muslims danced in the streets in Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City and others fired guns in the air to celebrate the dictator's death. The government did not impose a curfew, as it had done last month when Saddam was convicted. Meanwhile people in the Sunni-dominated city of Tikrit, once a Saddam power base, mourned his death. Just a few hours after his death, a bomb exploded in a market in Kufa, a Shiite town 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad, killing 31 people and wounding around 58 others. It was not clear if the explosion was connected to Saddam's execution or if it had been previously planned. The execution came 56 days after a court convicted Saddam and sentenced him to death for his role in the killings of 148 Shiite Muslims from Dujail. Iraq's highest court rejected Saddam's appeal Monday and ordered him executed within 30 days. A US judge Friday rejected a last-minute court challenge and refused to stop Saddam's execution. US authorities held Saddam in custody until the execution to prevent him being humiliated publicly or his corpse being mutilated.

Reactions to Saddam's Execution

US troops cheered as news of Saddam's execution was broadcast on television in the mess hall at Forward Operating Base Loyalty in eastern Baghdad.
US President George W. Bush issued a statement from his Texan ranch welcoming the execution. Bringing Saddam to justice was "an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain and defend itself," the statement read. Bush added that the execution marks the "end of a difficult year for the Iraqi people and for our troops". However he cautioned that Saddam's death will not halt the violence in Iraq.
German politicians criticized the death penalty after hearing the news. "The federal government, like the European Union, rejects the death penalty on principle, irrespective of the circumstances," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Saddam execution draws mixed reactions from world's political and religious leaders

 (AP) World political and religious leaders were divided over whether former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's execution Saturday was a milestone toward peace or further conflict in the Middle East. British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said Saddam had "now been held to account for at least some of the appalling crimes he committed against the Iraqi people," while at the same time condemning the death penalty, a position taken by European leaders and human rights organizations. The former Iraqi dictator was executed shortly before the start of the festival of Eid al-Adha, one of the two most important holidays in Islam. A three-day official mourning period was announced by the government of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, which also canceled all Eid celebrations. On Friday, Gadhafi made an indirect appeal for Saddam's life, telling Al-Jazeera television that Saddam's trial was illegal and that he should be retried by an international court. While the Vatican denounced the execution as "tragic," Kuwaitis and Iranians welcomed the death of the leader who led wars against each of their countries. "This is the best Eid gift for humanity," said Saad bin Tafla al-Ajmi, former information minister of Kuwait, which was invaded by Iraq in 1990, setting off the Gulf War. Iranian state TV hailed the hanging of Saddam, who waged war with Iran from 1980-88. "With the execution of Saddam, the life dossier of one of the world's most criminal dictators was closed," state-run television reported. President Bush said Saddam was executed "after receiving a fair trial _ the kind of justice he denied the victims of his brutal regime." "Bringing Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the violence in Iraq, but it is an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain and defend itself, and be an ally in the war on terror," Bush said in a statement. Many countries condemned the use of the death penalty, though they tempered their criticism with condemnation of Saddam's crimes. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said that he did not believe Saddam's execution would solve Iraq's problems: "I don't know whether the sentence of Saddam Hussein was a sentence or whether it was vengeance." Afghan President Hamid Karzai appeared to criticize the timing of the execution, but said it was "the work of the Iraqi government" and would have "no effect" on Afghanistan. In Australia, another U.S. ally in the Iraq war, Prime Minister John Howard said the execution was a sign that Iraq was trying to embrace democracy. "I believe there is something quite heroic about a country that is going through the pain and the suffering that Iraq is going through, yet still extends due process to somebody who was a tyrant and brutal suppressor and murderer of his people," Howard told reporters. Indian officials, who were against the execution, expressed their disappointment and worried the execution could trigger more sectarian violence. "We hope that this unfortunate event will not affect the process of reconciliation, restoration of peace and normalcy in Iraq," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in a statement. Russia _ whose president, Vladimir Putin, had vocally opposed the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam _ expressed regret that international opposition to the execution was ignored. "The political consequences of this step should have been taken into account," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said in Moscow. Moscow warned that Saddam's death could worsen the discord and violence in Iraq. "The country is being plunged into violence and is essentially on the edge of large-scale civil conflict," Kamynin said. "The execution of Saddam Hussein may lead to the further aggravation of the military-political atmosphere and an increase in ethnic and religious tension." In Pakistan, an Islamic ally in the U.S.-led war on terror, a leader of a coalition of six religious parties said Saddam had not received justice. "We have no sympathy with Saddam Hussein, but we will also say that he did not get justice," Liaquat Baluch, a leader of the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, also known as the United Action Forum, said by phone.