Like all good fascist states, Saddam’s regime had its paperwork. The most dreaded document produced by Ba’athist bureaucracy was the “red card” — a death decree signed by a judge and printed on red paper. Guess what Saddam got a few hours before he was hanged yesterday:
Iraqi officials say as Hussein stood on the gallows he was handed a red card; the official order for his death, signed by the chief judge. The card was symbolic, as it was a staple of the many state-sponsored executions under the Hussein regime in Iraq.
Aside from giving him a taste of his own medicine, the red card was also meant as a symbol that it was the the Iraqi government, not the Americans, who tried and executed Saddam Hussein, thus making it less likely Saddam’s dead-enders will elevate him to martyrdom.
Even though the Saddam loyalists are probably smart enough to see through the “red car” ploy, they are not a particularly potent force in the insurgent wars today. Saddam probably lost a lot of his followers, and any chance of restoring his tyranny, when the Americans and British released photos showing him in very bad straits after his capture. First there was video of a doctor checking Saddam’s mangy beard for lice, followed by glamour stills of a beardless Saddam in his tighty-whiteys.
It’s hard to regain the adulation and fear of your subjects after they’ve seen you in your BVDs.
Political designs behind Saddam’s execution :
1. Saddam is clearly the scapegoat for an international war syndicate, which includes many in our current political leadership, both in front and behind the scenes. Evacuating due process, controlling evidence and terrorizing the defense team were all par for the course in Saddam’s trial. A key reason for the speedy road to execution, was to eliminate a prominent player and key witness of this international criminal war conspiracy, thereby avoid further indictment of members of our leadership, many of whom have been accessory to Saddam’s actual crimes.
2. To « bookend » media fatigue and public indifference, re : Saddam’s trial. The whole point of the « trial » was to deliver a quick public execution, and thereby feed the hunger for blood so brilliantly cultivated in Western public opinion. An execution gives sense of heightened drama, and inagurates the next round of intensified bloodshed in the region… and beyond.
3. Lastly, to make Saddam a martyr for (gasp!) sympathisers, thereby deepening chaos in the middle-east over a longer period of time. Certainly, the US-led war in Iraq can be called a success insofar as its central purpose has been to aid the spreading of chaos in the Middle-East.
[...] story No Comments so far Leave a comment RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI Leave a comment Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTMLallowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong> [...]
Wow. What a creepy loon the first poster is.
Hussein killed hundreds of thousands of his own citizens and was responsible for a million deaths on each side during the Iran/Iraq war. But we’re the bad guy.
i don’t see them handing him a red card on the gallows, do you?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xtxr1ViaC9A
The images are sickening – I personally find it disgusting how people are actually look to watch the video of him dying. America should not have let him be executed, that was just disgusting and morbid.
Watch him at the tight end of the rope…
http://www.shokk.com/blog/pages/saddams_neck
No #1 makes a good point, it can be seen as a tactical move to get him out of the way as soon as possible. Saddams role has been played out long ago, for a lot of parties involved in the Iraq war, Saddam can only be a nuissance. We all remember a former Bush supplying a lot of weapons to the same people who are now killing Americans.
He killed a lot of people brutally and visciously. But try to imagine that there are people willing to look further than that, and use his tyranny as a way to get them an extra buck or 2…billion…
Saddam himself used to be plagued by car bombers. Of course, they would rid themselves of identification before an attack.
The “president” ordered every bit of flesh found, and faces sewed back together. These were shown on television with a large reward offered. If a bomber was identified, his family was killed. It worked.
I shed no tears for Saddam. He held power by torture and death and fear.
The shame is that it worked, and he is held as a model. There are so many aspiring cruel dictators who want to fill his shoes.
Listen up: It’s not about oil. The Americans have spent more on this thing than the value of all of Iraq’s oil reserves. It’s about a culture that can’t go from dictatorship to democracy overnight. It’s a foreign concept. They didn’t grow up with it. There isn’t time to ease them into it.
But you knew that.
Best,
Tom
There is nothing scarier than the ignorance of the American public to monsters of their own creation. If it wasn’t for the back-door deals of the 70’s 80’s and 90’s there wouldn’t have been a Saddam Hussein to kill all those people or a 9/11. I don’t even believe they hung him. It was a pure setup by removing media they essentially blacked out any possiblity of anyone that could say he was left alive to live.
Although it is true that Sadaam was a monster two points.
1) The Islamic world runs on different concepts of the west.
Strongman are the norm. Hopefully benevolent ones
2) Americans although well meaning are culturally naive. America views democracy as the highest form life and the evolution if the ultimate political system.
These cultures do not work on consensus. Another strongman will ultimately take Sadaams place.
This conflict goes all the way back to ancient Mesopotamia.
America may mean well but this conflict and America’s lack of comprehension makes the Vietnam conflict look like a picnic.
America is paying with lives and a lot of cash while it subsidizes oil for Europe ,China and Japan who are using America as a lucrative dumping ground for their exports.
Although it is true that Sadaam was a monster two points.
1) The Islamic world runs on different concepts of the west.
Strongman are the norm. Hopefully benevolent ones
2) Americans although well meaning are culturally naive. America views democracy as the highest form life and the evolution if the ultimate political system.
These cultures do not work on consensus. Another strongman will ultimately take Sadaams place.
This conflict goes all the way back to ancient Mesopotamia.
America may mean well but this conflict and America’s lack of comprehension makes the Vietnam conflict look like a
The crimes selected to try Saddam for are carefully selected to hide the west’s complicity.
I have viewed the footage of Saddam being hung, yet I did not see any red card being handed to him. In fact, it looks sorta like his hands were tied behind his back. Is there an image of the red card being handed to him? The actual video footage http://www.krazy-kreations.com/saddam/hanging.html does not show anyone giving Saddam anything other than instructions.
Huh?
If Iraq had the world’s third largest reserves of olive oil instead of petroleum, would we be there now?
I felt sorry for Sadamm when I saw the look of fear in his face. Then I slapped myself and realized what he has done and how many he has sent to their death.
I think the place where he was executed used to serve as a disposal place for his enemys.
I wish Kim of North Korea could follow in his footsteps.
[...] Saddam was handed one of his own red cards before his death [...]
Gambling…
nice blog!…
[...] read more | digg story [...]
Saddam was given a red card in a small office just outside the larger room where he was hung.His hands were cuffed in front. After given the red card his hand were cuffed in the back. He was then lead to the execution room and made to walk up the steps you see in the video. He was given instructions and told what was going to happen. He was then led carefully to the trap door area where he was noosed up. Then the taunting began and the trap door sprung open. Saddam looked very tired, but not afraid to me. Rumor has it he was kept up all night prior to his execution being taunted in his cell as well as being interviewed by government agents as to possible disclosure of info. He deserved death as he was a monster and a cruel man who brutally killed so many people and ruined the lives of others, including kids.
proactiv pro solution activ pro solution activ proactiv