On the morning of 30 December 2006, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was hanged in Baghdad. Also hanged were his half-brother, former intelligence chief Tikritti, and former Chief Justice of the Revolutionary Tribunal, Bandar.
Witnesses said Saddam Hussein knew his limit was approaching when he was taken out of his cell. He did not do unnecessary struggle and resistance, and was calmly taken to the gallows.
At the last moment, Saddam Hussein, armed with a Quran and dressed in black, refused to mask him and made a brief prayer. Saddam Hussein's last words were that he was ready to "die" for Iraq, and that his death would turn him into a "martyr."
In the face of death, Saddam Hussein was not afraid. He has repeatedly made it clear that he would like to be shot rather than hanged.
Lana understands her father's feelings because she has experienced betrayal between relatives. In 1995, she and her sister Lagarde witnessed their husband defecting to Jordan, and six months later, although the sisters received saddam's forgiveness, their husband did not get forgiveness from their father, because Saddam Hussein hated the mutiny the most.
A political symbol of power, democracy, violence, tolerance, aggression, massacre, peace and more, Saddam Hussein was the first former head of state in Arab history to be publicly hanged, and the first former national leader to be executed for crimes against humanity since the 21st century.
After Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in the 1990s, the United States imposed Operation Desert Shield against Iraq, forcing Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait. In 2003, the United States launched the Iraq War in the face of opposition, and eventually captured Saddam Hussein alive.
The United States and Iraq are not a common feud, but during the Cold War, Iraq was an ally of the United States to compete with Iran. That is to say, the United States has eliminated its former allies, which is the foreign policy that the United States has always pursued: there are no eternal friends, no eternal enemies, only eternal interests.
The reason why the United States vigorously supported Iraq is to deal with anti-American Iran. During the Iran-Iraq War, the United States extended a helping hand to Iraq, exported a large number of weapons to Iraq, and helped Iraq destroy Iran's navy.
The United States also promised to provide Saddam Hussein with military intelligence, financial assistance, and various war materials, and gave Iraq a $1 billion loan with an agricultural loan program.
Before the Gulf War, Iraq relied on the rich "petrodollar" to establish the Gulf region's premier advanced military production system, and Saddam Hussein was also regarded by the Western world as the pillar of the Middle East. But what americans did not expect was that after Saddam Hussein sat up, he began to attack the United States.
At the 1990 anniversary meeting of the Arab Cooperation Council in Amman, Saddam Hussein publicly accused the United States of growing influence in the Gulf, calling on the Gulf countries and the Arab world to be vigilant, "otherwise we will be ruled by the United States, and the price of oil will change according to the interests of the United States." ”
At this time, Iraq's foreign policy stance was also becoming more and more assertive and actively preparing for an attack on Kuwait. Saddam Hussein repeatedly accused Kuwait of making world oil prices low, stating that "this is the assassination of Iraq from behind with a poisoned dagger" and demanding that Kuwait compensate Iraq for $2.4 billion in damages.
On the question of Kuwait, the United States has adopted a bystander and connivance attitude. A reporter once asked US Assistant Secretary of State John Cary in an interview: If Iraq invades Kuwait, will the United States support Kuwait?
John Cary replied: "We do not have any defense treaties and agreements with the Gulf states, which is well known. The Americans seemed to have signaled Saddam Hussein that even if Iraq invaded Kuwait, the United States would not intervene militarily. Just that day. Saddam Hussein convened a meeting of the members of the Revolutionary Military Council and made the decision to invade Kuwait.
Saddam Hussein's reckless move seriously damaged U.S. interests in the Middle East, making Iraq replace Iran as America's number one enemy. Saddam Hussein's role has also changed from a "fortress" that the United States needs to a "chariot" that the United States hates.
Beginning on January 17, 1991, the U.S.-led multinational force began a heavy bombardment of Iraq, liberating Kuwait. However, the United States did not put Saddam Hussein to death, because the United States was afraid that Saddam Hussein's stepping down would affect the stability of the Gulf region and harm the fundamental interests of the United States in the Middle East; in addition, the United States also wanted to use Saddam Hussein to maintain the balance of power in the Gulf region.
Since then, Saddam Hussein has played the game of "mouse playing cat" with the United States, which has repeatedly put the United States into an embarrassing passive position. He used the interests of the oil economy as a bait to divide and disintegrate the alliance between Western countries and the United States, posing a threat and challenge to the "oil supply chain" dominated by the United States.
Saddam Hussein also held high the banner of pan-Arabism, won the sympathy and support of Arab countries by supporting the Palestinian liberation cause, threatened the strategic interests of the United States in every gulf region, and became a stumbling block to U.S. control of the Middle East.
On March 20, 2003, the United States ignited the trigger of the Iraq war on the grounds that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. Forty days later, Saddam Hussein's regime, which had ruled Iraq for 24 years, collapsed. On December 13, Saddam Hussein was arrested in his hometown of Tikrit.
At the time of his arrest, the U.S. military announced that Saddam Hussein had been designated as a prisoner of war in accordance with the Geneva Conventions and could receive the treatment and rights of prisoners of war.
However, on June 29, 2004, after the U.S. military transferred the judicial custody of Saddam Hussein and 11 senior officials of the former regime to the Iraqi interim government, Saddam No longer enjoyed the status of prisoner of war. The Iraqi Interim Government officially announced Saddam's arrest and filed charges against Saddam Hussein on 14 counts.
The first formal charge against Saddam Hussein by the Special Court was the Dujar Village case, but Saddam Hussein has consistently refused to plead guilty. On the basis of the allegations in the indictment, the Special Court found that Saddam Hussein was attacked by Shiite residents of The village on 8 July 1982 while touring the village of Dougjar. Saddam sent a large army to capture more than 1,000 villagers.
The villagers were tortured and 143 of them were brutally killed.
The "Dujar Village case" is a small witch compared to Saddam's massacre of the Kurds, so why did the Special Court charge this case in the first place? Because the "Dujar Village Case" is relatively simple. Other cases require lengthy trial procedures because of the large number of victims, witnesses and documents involved.
In order to convict Saddam Hussein as soon as possible, the Iraqi Interim Government hopes to sentence Saddam Hussein to death as soon as possible through the trial of such a difficult case as the "Dujar Village Case".
On October 19, 2005, after being arrested for 1 year, 10 months and 6 days, Saddam Hussein finally stood on the trial bench. On that day, Saddam Hussein, 68, dressed in a dark suit and holding the Quran, walked into the courtroom escorted by two guards.
When the judge identified him, Saddam Asked rhetorically, "Who are you?" You all know my name, and you still ask me what to do? I don't recognize you at all... I won't answer any questions. ”
Saddam's trial has attracted widespread attention from the international community. Because evidence of weapons of mass destruction has not been found in Iraq, the United States must stand firm in its allegations of human rights abuses against Sada in order to justify the war against Iraq and weaken the resistance of militant groups.
Many of the judges and prosecutors involved in the trial of cases have received United Nations training, and a large proportion of the trainers are from the United States. The tenth law of the Special Court to try Saddam Hussein and others was also enacted by Breeman, a former U.S. civil enforcement officer in Iraq. The purpose of all this is to put Saddam Hussein to death as soon as possible.
But the process of the "trial of the century" against Saddam Hussein was not calm. Saddam Hussein's defence lawyer challenged the legality of the special court as soon as he came up, and collectively walked out of the courtroom in protest, and the trial had to be adjourned several times. On January 15, 2006, presiding judge Amin also announced his resignation for "personal reasons."
The reason for all this is that Saddam Hussein is "favored" among a considerable part of the Iraqi population. Saddam Hussein played a political role in the Arab world as a cry for the poor, satisfying the psychological needs of the lower classes who were resentful of the disparity between the rich and the poor in the Arab world, and adding political capital to himself.
Saddam Hussein was a political victim. But in the eyes of most people around the world, Saddam Hussein is a butcher and dictator. People in many countries around the world will question the legitimacy of the Special Court, but few will doubt whether Saddam Hussein should be tried. Therefore, Saddam Hussein's trial cannot be said to have been wronged in any case.
After Saddam Hussein's arrest, both China and Russia considered it "to contribute to the stabilization of the security situation in Iraq and to the acceleration of the pace of a political settlement of the Iraqi issue within the framework of the United Nations." "By contrast, there are not many sympathizers for Saddam Hussein.
The Special Court's charges against Saddam Hussein cover the most central war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in international law. These are grave crimes against the conscience of humanity and against the common interests of the international community, of which Saddam Hussein is the main one. Professor Zhu Wenqi, a former appellate prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia, predicted at the beginning of the trial: "Saddam Hussein will undoubtedly die." ”
Since he came to power in Iraq at the age of 42, Saddam Hussein has used members of his family in particular to consolidate his political position, and for those who oppose him, he is fierce and unrelenting, even to his relatives.
On August 7, 1995, Iraqi Minister of Military Industry, Hussein Kamal, fled to Jordan with his brother Saddam Kamal because of his dissatisfaction with Saddam Hussein, causing a strong reaction in Iraq. The Kamal brothers were not only Cousins of Saddam, but also husbands of Saddam's eldest daughter and second daughter, respectively.
After defecting to Jordan, Hussein Kamal leaked Iraq's weapons of mass destruction secrets to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the CIA and the British MI6 in Jordan, increasing the pressure on the international community to impose sanctions on Iraq.
To prevent them from revealing more secrets, Saddam Managed to lure the Kamal brothers back to Iraq, and as soon as they returned to Iraq, he forced them to divorce their two daughters, and three days later the Kamal brothers were killed for "treason." Western public opinion believes that this is a "premeditated criminal act" of Saddam's regime and a "death sentence for defection" of the Kamal brothers.
The Kamal brothers originally wanted to flee to Jordan and, with the support of the United States, join forces with other anti-Iraqi forces to overthrow and replace Saddam Hussein's regime. However, various anti-Iraq organizations outside the country have also been angry about Kamal's massacre of Iraqis and refuse to cooperate with him.
The United States also felt that the Kamal brothers could not play any role in the plan to change the Iraqi regime, which had become a burden, and the Kamal brothers felt desperate and finally made the decision to return home.
The Kamal brothers were not the only ones who betrayed Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein was so easily overthrown by the United States, and the strength of the US military was only external, and the most fundamental and more internal reason was that the Saddam regime had long lost the hearts and minds of the people. In Saddam Hussein's words, it was the emergence of "traitors" in Iraq.
Before the war, Iraq seemed to be fighting with the same enemy, shouting "with blood and life, swear to defend Saddam Hussein to the death." But after the war broke out, Saddam Hussein soon rebelled and became a loner.
Hundreds of thousands of his elite divisions such as the Iraqi Republican Guard and the Special Guard disappeared at a critical moment in the war; after the US military occupied Baghdad, the common people actually pushed down saddam's bronze statue in cheers; after Saddam's two sons, Uday and Qusai, were killed, many Iraqi residents actually took to the streets to shoot and celebrate.
Facts have proved that the majority of ordinary Iraqis not only failed to defend Saddam Hussein, but on the contrary, a considerable number of people became "betrayers" and "whistleblowers".
Saddam Hussein has always blamed the "betrayers and whistleblowers" for the failure. On the face of it, this view is not unreasonable.
Maher Sophien Tikriti was a man of great trust in Saddam, and he was also his cousin, serving as commander of the Iraqi Republican Guard, a position of great importance that was enough to show that Saddam had great confidence in him.
Maher also swore to Saddam hussein that he would be loyal to him for life. But as soon as the U.S. army entered Baghdad, he betrayed Saddam Hussein and persuaded the soldiers to lay down their weapons and surrender, allowing the U.S. army to easily occupy Baghdad. In exchange, After receiving a large bonus, Maher took his family across the ocean to the United States.
When Saddam Hussein escaped from Baghdad, the United States sent a large number of soldiers to search around and offered a reward of $25 million, just to capture Saddam Hussein alive. The United States was able to capture Saddam Hussein in the end because of the traitors around Him. This man was Saddam's bodyguard and confidant Ibrahim.
On December 13, 2003, the U.S. military, led by Ibrahim, found the hole in which Saddam was hiding and dragged Saddam Hussein out.
Why did Saddam Hussein rebel and lose the support of most Iraqis? In fact, Saddam Hussein has never understood that he has knocked himself down.
Saddam Hussein ruled with an iron fist in Iraq for 24 years, using dictatorship, repression and bloodshed to act arbitrarily, without allowing for different opinions or even different voices. In October 2002, when the Iraqi referendum decided whether Saddam Hussein would succeed him as president, 2,000 people in Baghdad did not vote for various reasons, and these 2,000 people quickly "disappeared" from the world.
Under Saddam's bloody and repressive rule, everyone in Iraq is at risk, but the resentment in their hearts is growing. The people have long hoped that Saddam Hussein's regime will perish as soon as possible. Therefore, before the war, the people shouted in unison "swear to die to defend Saddam Hussein", but after the war, most Iraqis cheered the collapse of the Saddam regime, and Saddam Hussein became a "street rat" hiding in tibet and the west.
In order to realize his ambition to rule the entire Arab world, Saddam Hussein first provoked the 8-year-long Iran-Iraq War, which caused more than 400,000 Casualties and direct economic losses of hundreds of billions of dollars, and postponed his country's economic plans for 30 years.
In 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait again, and after more than 10 years of international sanctions, Iraq's economic losses amounted to more than $200 billion.
The war and sanctions have brought deep calamity to the Iraqi people, who are suffering terribly.
The Americans were able to easily achieve "inversion" because the Iraqi people abandoned Saddam Hussein. The reason why those "betrayers" "betrayed" is not only because of the temptation of the dollar, but not because they are pro-American, but because they conform to the public opinion of the Iraqis to "overthrow the Za" and conform to the hearts and minds of the Iraqis.
Today, it seems that the trial process around Saddam Hussein did not give people a sense of seriousness of the "trial of the century", but more like a super "performance show" with actors, directors, theaters, and audiences. It was a trial without suspense, and the defendant had already been sentenced to death before the trial began.
The trial of Saddam Hussein is a big drama of american directors competing for the hearts and minds of the people. The U.S. use of force against Iraq was not authorized by the United Nations Security Council, nor did it find so-called weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which led to doubts about the legitimacy of the war in Iraq.
Therefore, the United States needs this trial, it needs to execute Saddam Hussein, and it needs to show the world the brutal and authoritarian side of Saddam's regime, so as to prove the necessity and legitimacy of overthrowing Saddam's regime.