Saddam Exchanged Taunts Before Hanging

By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press Writer

"New video, first broadcast by Al-Jazeera satellite television early Sunday, had sound of someone in the group praising the founder of the Shiite Dawa Party, who was executed in 1980 along with his sister by Saddam.

Saddam appeared to smile at those taunting him from below the gallows. He said they were not showing manhood.

Then Saddam began reciting the "Shahada," a Muslim prayer that says there is no god but God and Muhammad is his messenger, according to an unabridged copy of the same tape, apparently shot with a camera phone and posted on a Web site.

Saddam made it to midway through his second reitation of the verse. His last word was Muhammad.

The floor dropped out of the gallows.

"The tyrant has fallen," someone in the group of onlookers shouted. The video showed a close-up of Saddam's face as he swung from the rope.

Then came another voice: "Let him swing for three minutes." "


Blogs of War has the video! Via cell phone from an undisclosed location!

American-style Family Values

Saddam Hussein's family (clockwise from top L), son-in-law Saddam Kamel and daughter Rana, son Qusay and daughter-in-law Sahar, daughter Ragda and son-in-law Hussein Kamal, son Uday, daughter Hala, Saddam Hussein and his first wife Sajda Kher Ala


Why was Saddam executed on Eid al-Adha, "the Feast of Sacrifice," which Muslims celebrate to commemorate Prophet Ibrahim's willingness to obey Allah, by sacrificing his son, Ismail? It's not as though the powers-that-be were unaware





The Eid stamp commemorates the two most important festivals—or eids—in the Islamic calendar. On these days, Muslims wish each other Eid mubarak, the phrase featured in Islamic calligraphy on the stamp. Eid mubarak translates literally as blessed festival, and can be paraphrased as May your religious holiday be blessed. This stamp is part of the Holiday Celebrations series."

Isn't it odd how alike the terms eids and IED's are? Or that the three western religions that are at odds or eids share the same ancestral father? Even worse, share a God who, supposedly, would demand of a father a test of obedience like this?