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To Saddam Hussein.
Layla Anwar
…I will address you as Saddam Hussein, Sir. Even though I still consider you to be the legitimate President of Iraq, allow me not to use any formalities here. Let us forget titles , ranks and the rest . When it comes to Death , all protocols fall. Death has this even power – We are all equal in the face of it. Death knows no kings, no heads of state, no generals. It strikes and it leaves. And you know that too. What remains though is the Legacy left behind. A Legacy made of words and acts (…) You said Women are the Pioneers of this Arab Ummah , come and look at us now. Rape has replaced sexual intercourse, censorship replaced education and forced domestication has replaced public life. You said Education is the sign of a Progressive Ummah. Our schools and universities are empty.And our Brains drained and killed. You said Health is Free for all. Our hospitals are dilapidated and our doctors in exode. You said Kurds are our brothers, they are now being trained as snipers by Israel. You said Christians and Muslims are part of this mosaic called Iraq. The Christians are fleeing by thousands and the churches are deserted. Look at me Sir. I am a product of this wonderful mosaic called Iraq. I am half Muslim and half Christian. And the Muslim half has Shi’as and if you dig hard enough you will find Kurdish, Armenian, Turkish, Chaldean, Arabic roots all the way back… Where is my place now Sir? You are about to find your place soon. Like a bird flying to nest into the arms of the Sky. Whilst, I am left behind waiti! ng for m y turn. And in the meantime, searching , desperately searching for a place to rest my tired head and finding none. Sir, I heard they will execute You within 36 hours. In time for the Eid. Our sacrificial feast. You did say you are willing to be sacrificed for Iraq . You still believe they are worth it . I envy your Faith. May you go in Peace now, my True Iraqi…
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Lynching Saddam – Part 11: Juan Cole and the Vulture’s Song
Gabriele Zamparini, The cat’s dream
Christmas is over and the carols have now been replaced by the vulture’s song. Juan Cole, Middle East “expert” and one of the great heroes of the Imperial anti-war movement, wrote on his Informed Comment: Saddam Hussein, condemned to death and with all appeals exhausted, is trying to turn his death into a “sacrifice” for the Iraqi nation. In April 2003 Saddam was universally reviled but the country is now in such a horrible state that some Sunni Arabs do see Saddam as a symbol of the united Iraqi nation. Saddam, however, spoke in his typical racist way of the need to fight the “raiders and the Persians”, according to al-Hayat in Arabic (i.e. the Americans and the Shiites). Sadr Movement spokesmen demanded that he be executed on the eve of the Day of Sacrifice (Eid al-Adha)—i.e. this weekend. [emphasis added] After indoctrinating his readers [”Saddam, however, spoke in his typical racist way…”] Juan Cole “translates” Saddam Hussein’s words’ “raiders and the Persians” with “the Americans and the Shiites”. In spite of his propagandistic tool Juan Cole of course knows perfectly well that Saddam Hussein has always called all Iraqis to unity and against sectarian violence (…) The “Persians” in Saddam Hussein’s letter is obviously not referred to the Shiites, but to the Iranians who have helped from the beginning the US in their destruction of Iraq…
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Saddam Is The Last Hope For The US
Iraqi screen
…All the Iraqis now are expecting something very bad with the execution of Saddam Hussein even shiite because they know that this issue would kill the last hope they have in reconciliation and living together peacefully again.
I have talked with so many Sunni during the trial and asked them what do they think of it especailly those whom their relatives have executed by Saddam Hussein regime for plotting against him or for other reasons, they said that they do not watch the trail because they feel it is an insult for them and that all the Sunni in Iraq are in the cage where Saddam put by the shiite and Kurds and if Saddam will be executed they will feel that it is an execution to all the Sunnis in Iraq and nothing would be left for them only to fight for their wounded dignity…
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Listening to Iraqi’s Raises Questions About Basic Issues – Is There a Sunni Majority?
Dal LaMagna and Faruq Ziada
In the two articles below Dal LaMagna, the founder of Progressive Government, and Faruq Ziada, a former Iraqi Ambassador, raise the question of whether there is really a Sunni majority population in Iraq. LaMagna is an advocate for listening to and talking with Iraqis about ending the U.S. occupation and ensuring a stable Iraq. As he explains this article comes out of trips he has made to the region where he has learned a great deal from Iraqis about their situation. If there is a Sunni majority it has major implications as to the legitimacy of their ‘democracy,’ the discussion of allying with the so-called Shia majority and ideas to break Iraq up into three divisions…
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SADDAM’S HANGING VERDICT IS ILLEGAL AND UNJUST
Allen L Roland
Am I the only online columnist who recognizes the truth of what Human Rights Watch said yesterday ~ “ The Iraqi government should not implement the death sentence against Saddam Hussein, which was imposed after a deeply flawed trial for crimes against humanity.” How can we deny civil liberty to others and retain it for ourselves ? Has our light of liberty and justice gone completely out ?…
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Bush Iraq Policy Murky on the Real Enemy
Gareth Porter*, IPS-Inter Press Service
This year saw the emergence of a sectarian civil war in Iraq and much more open Sunni-Shiite conflict in the Middle East. Sunni regimes in the region expressed acute anxiety both about the possibility of the Sunni-Shiite civil war in Iraq spreading to their own countries and about the growth of Iranian influence. In that setting, the most striking thing about the George W. Bush administration’s policy in 2006 has been its inability to identify the primary enemy in Iraq…
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U.S.: Saddam Likely To Die By Sunday
CBS News: Officer Says Ex-Dictator To Be Turned Over To Iraqis Within 36 Hours, Executed By Sunday
CBS
A U.S. military officer tells CBS News that Saddam Hussein will be turned over to the Iraqi government within the next 36 hours. The officer expects that the Iraqis will execute their former leader before the start of the Eid religious holiday on Sunday, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin. Iraqi officials also said that Saddam’s final moments will be videotaped by the government, reports CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston. “We will video everything,” National Security adviser Mouffak al Rubaie said. “All documentation will be videoed. Taking him from cell to the execution is going to be videoed, and the actual execution will be documented and videoed.”…
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A LETTER FROM PALESTINE
Desert Peace
Dear Friends; Just want to wish all of you the best Greetings of the season. Last week our Jewish brothers celebrated the Festival of Lights, this week we saw our Christian brothers celebrate their Christmas. On Saturday night the Feast of the Sacrifice will begin for our Muslim brothers. A time of love for all of us, a time to be united with families and loved ones. But this is not the case in the Occupied Territories. Thousands of families are still divided, chaos runs rampant in our streets, our children are dying…With Israels ‘blessing, a large quantity of arms and ammunition were just sent thought the border crossing… the move was made ‘in a effort to bolster Fatah affiliated groups’… Is this what Olmert sees as a peace initiative? Israel won’t fire at Palestinians but will aid Palestinians to do it themselves??…
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Saddam hands family messages to brothers – lawyer
Suleiman al-Khalidi, Reuters
In the shadow of the scaffold, Saddam Hussein met two of his half-brothers on Thursday and passed on personal messages to his family, a lawyer said. Badie Aref, one of Saddam’s lawyers, said the rare meeting with maternal half-brothers Sabawi and Watban Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, who are in U.S. custody, was at the request of the ousted Iraqi leader and took place inside his heavily guarded prison cell in Baghdad. Aref said Saddam was in very high spirits and had sensed “something was happening relating to the sentence” when prison guards took away a small radio he had been given several months ago. “He met Sabawi and Watban and gave them letters to his family in anticipation … he is clearly unaware of the details of what is happening around him and prepared to give his life as a martyr to his country,” Aref told Reuters by telephone…
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Stress of violence leads to more suicides
Report, IRIN
The number of suicides in war-ravaged Iraq is increasing due to psychological stress caused by relentless violence, medical experts said. “We see more cases of suicide each month and all evidence shows that the main reason for the suicides has been the stress and pressure caused by the continuing violence,” said Dr. Muhammad Hamza, a specialist in suicide medical investigation at the Ministry of Health. Hamza said that he found that 70 percent of suicide victims chose to poison themselves using rat and cockroach poison. Others either shot or hanged themselves…
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The kissing party and beyond
Khalid Amayreh, palestine-info.co.uk
The kissing, some say “exaggerated kissing” at Ehud Olmert’s official residence in Jerusalem on 23 December looked cordial and surrealistic. Cordial because Abbas and Olmert (and also the old-timer Ahmed Qrei) were smacking kisses on each other’s cheeks like gluttonous lovers. Well, even the proverbial prodigal son wouldn’t have received this preponderance of warmth, which really surprised political observers and gave the impression that the “problem” between Israel and the Palestinian people was only psychological in nature. And surrealistic because only a few months ago, Olmert was referring to Abbas as “irrelevant, weak, and expendable” until the Israeli premier was prodded by the Bush Administration to stop it…
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Democracy and Its Discontents in Gaza
Ramzy Baroud
Palestinians had no illusions that electing a government under occupation doesn’t change the status quo of their beleaguered lives, but it could, they hoped, bring an end to the nepotistic system espoused at home. It’s all too convenient for the BBC website to describe the ongoing bloodshed between Hamas and Fatah supporters in the Gaza Strip as “inter-factional rivalry,” and it’s equally fitting for the Washington Post to narrate the same unfortunate events — which have left many Palestinians dead and wounded — as if they are entirely detached from their adjoining regional and international milieus…
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DAILY WAR NEWS FOR THURSDAY, December 28, 2006
Today in Iraq
Seven U.S. soldiers were killed and three others wounded in several military operations in Iraq, the U.S. army in Iraq said on Thursday. A car bomb exploded at a petrol station near the Shaab stadium in central Baghdad, killing 10 people and wounding 25, police said. Two roadside bombs exploded in Bab al-Sharji in central Baghdad, killing seven people and wounding 35, Interior Ministry and police sources said. The casualty toll in a dual bombing that ripped through a central Baghdad market on Thursday rose to 11 dead people and 43 wounded, Iraqi police sources said. A total of 51 bodies were found on Wednesday in different districts of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said…
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Five More U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq
Associated Press
December 28, 2006 – U.S. military officials in Baghdad have announced the deaths of five more American troops in Iraq. A roadside bomb killed one soldier and wounded another on a foot patrol north of the capital today. That followed the deaths of three soldiers and one Marine in incidents yesterday. One hundred American troops have been killed so far in December, making it the second deadliest month for U-S military personnel this year.
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Baath Party Statement
To the American Administration: A warning to anyone who harms President Saddam Hussein and his comrades.
The Arab Baath Socialist Party
Our party has already warned the American Administration against carrying out the order to execute President Saddam Hussein and his comrades and has affirmed that that would be the most serious of the red lines that the American Administration must not cross. Today after the confirmation by the so-called appeals court of the verdict of execution of the President and his comrades, our party warns once again of what the execution of this sentence will mean for the situation in Iraq and for America itself. The whole world knows that the final say is in the hands of the American Administration and not in the hands of the stooge government in Baghdad. The most recent proof of that is the arrest by American forces of two Iranian emissaries who came to Iraq at the invitation of Talibani whom America calls the president of Iraq!…
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So typically Noamesque as to sound like a parody
Xymphora
Noam Chomsky comments on the Iraq Study Group Report. After pointing out that poll results display overwhelming Iraqi desire for American withdrawal, he proposes a referendum in Iraq to decide the issue. This is so typically Noamesque as to sound like a parody. While maintaining his usual attacks on the American Empire, Noam proposes a precondition that he knows will never happen (what Empire is going to ask for a referendum guaranteed to prove how unpopular it is with the people it is supposed to be helping?), thus ensuring the fulfillment of the Zionist goal of keeping American troops in Iraq until the country is forced into Yinon-style non-threatening (to Israel) statelets. As usual, fiendishly clever…
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GI Special 4L23: Betrayed – December 28, 2006
Thomas F. Barton
Betrayed:
After Two Weeks At Home From Iraq War, Bush Regime Traitors Announce Plan To Send 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment Troops Back Now:
“The Quick Turnaround Has Not Been Met Favorably By Some Families”
Despicable Shitbag Liar, Maj. Earnhardt, Says Their Morale Is “High”
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