Lacking details at the moment, but it's breaking news everywhere that he has been just hung.
I'll put in details as they come to hand.

OK here we go.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16389128/

I know, it was on the news this morning.

Reports: Saddam Hussein executed
Deposed Iraqi dictator hanged for deaths of 148 Shiites in 1982



NBC NEWS EXCLUSIVE



BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 10:09 p.m. ET Dec. 29, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three years after he was hauled from a hole in the ground by pursuing U.S. forces, Saddam Hussein was hanged Saturday under a sentence imposed by an Iraqi court, al-Hurra TV, al-Arabiya and Sky News TV reported.

The deposed president was found guilty over the killing of 148 members of the Shiite population of the town of Dujail after militants tried to assassinate him there in 1982, during Iraq’s war with Shiite Iran.

The official witnesses to his execution gathered Friday in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone in final preparation for his hanging, as state television broadcast footage of his regime’s atrocities.

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The Pentagon said U.S. forces, always on high alert in Iraq, were braced for any upsurge in violence from Sunni insurgents loyal to Saddam.

A U.S. judge refused late Friday to stop the execution, rejecting a last-minute court challenge by the former Iraqi president.

"Petitioner Hussein's application for immediate, temporary stay of execution is denied," U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said in Washington after a hearing over the telephone with attorneys.

An Iraqi appeals court upheld Saddam’s death sentence Tuesday for the killing of 148 people who were detained and tortured after the attempt on his life.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said in statements released Friday that those who opposed the execution of Saddam were insulting the honor of his victims. His office said he made the remarks in a meeting with families of people who died during Saddam’s rule.

“Our respect for human rights requires us to execute him, and there will be no review or delay in carrying out the sentence,” al-Maliki said.

‘God’s gift to Iraqis’
In his Friday sermon, a mosque preacher in the Shiite holy city of Najaf called Saddam’s execution “God’s gift to Iraqis.”

“Oh, God, you know what Saddam has done! He killed millions of Iraqis in prisons, in wars with neighboring countries and he is responsible for mass graves. Oh God, we ask you to take revenge on Saddam,” said Sheik Sadralddin al-Qubanji, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, known as SCIRI.

Rumors and reports swirled Friday over when the execution would take place and whether U.S. forces had handed Saddam over to Iraqi custody, presumably the last step before the execution.

Earlier reports said al-Maliki feared fueling religious tensions if Saddam were executed during Eid al-Adha, a Muslim holiday that starts at sundown Saturday.

An execution during Eid carries great symbolism. The feast marks the sacrifice the prophet Abraham was prepared to make when God ordered him to kill his son, and many Shiites could regard Saddam’s death as a gift from God. Such symbolism could further anger Sunnis, who are resentful of new Shiite power.

Najeeb al-Nueimi, a member of Saddam’s legal team, said U.S. authorities were maintaining physical custody of Saddam until the time of the execution to prevent him from being humiliated beforehand. He said the Americans also want to prevent the mutilation of his corpse, as has happened to other deposed Iraqi leaders.

Saddam has been held at a U.S. base near Baghdad airport, but the place of execution has been kept secret.

Meeting with half-brothers
Saddam, who said in court he had no fear of dying, had a farewell meeting with two of his half-brothers on Thursday, his lawyers said, adding the fallen dictator was in high spirits and ready to die a “martyr.” A third half-brother and another aide are also condemned to die for crimes against humanity.

Saddam’s conviction was hailed by President Bush as a triumph for the democracy he promised to foster in Iraq after the 2003 invasion.

International human rights groups criticized the year-long trial, during which three defense lawyers were killed and a chief judge resigned complaining of political interference.

Rights groups, along with the United Nations and many of the United States’ Western allies, oppose capital punishment and have voiced unease over the decision to put Saddam to death.

Saddam's lawyers issued a statement Friday calling on "everybody to do everything to stop this unfair execution." The statement also said the former president had been transferred from U.S. custody, though American and Iraqi officials later denied that.

The governments of Yemen and Libya made eleventh-hour appeals that Saddam's life be spared.

Yemeni Prime Minister Abdul-Kader Bajammal wrote to the U.S. and Iraqi presidents, warning in his letter to President Bush that Saddam's execution would "increase the sectarian violence" in Iraq, according to the official Yemeni news agency Saba.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi made an indirect appeal to save Saddam, telling Al-Jazeera television that his trial was illegal and that
he should be retried by an international court.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16389128/

I haven't heard anything about it which is weird

damn.. nothing to say about it..

I usually don't support hangings, but in this case, he deserved it.

I think the more important question is, where/when/will we be able to watch this?

Where he's from they would have cut his head off as an execution :/.

Yeah, that is a bit disappointing. Woulda loved to see his head cut off with a dull sword, like in the video of Nicholas ...can't remember his last name, but you know who I'm talkin' 'bout, american dude who was kidnapped and had his head chopped off.

He Deserved Death Penalty.
But being Hung?
We're in the XXI Century, not fucking Middle Age.

But Anyway, That proves whant we already know about the USA.

Gullotine at least or shot out a catipult or shot towards the sun.

oh come on . . . . you know it'll be on youtube in the next 10 minutes . . . . lol







Being hanged is not one of the ways the US uses the death penalty. so obviously he was tried in an Iraqi court system where their death penalties are far more painful then ours. please know what you're talking about when you post. he did not commit a crime against the US therefore we cant try him in our courts.

THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN FANTASTIC!

They should have done something more painful than hanging. Like launch him to space without a spacesuit so the pressure would make his body explode.

Hahaha.....Sounds about right

WOW...No kidding.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=O9vESeXEOHg

It almost looks like he got out of it at one point...almost.

haha ^^^^^ thats hilarious^^^^^

all i have to say is its about time he payd

This put a smile to my face when I heard the news. What made me even happier, was all the Iraq citizens cheering in the streets! True, some are upset about this, but a majority were happy, as evident by the massive public partying.

I hope this proves to some people that we are in Iraq for a purpose, and it is turning into a much better place.

I think he should have died the way he tortured his own people, Instead of being hung

Yeah, he definitely got the easy way out.

Those pictures give me hope of a video...

Is it just me or does the second one look like a new-years party? I guess its just the blue-ish ness and red colors.

I think it's funny that the day before they kill him they said "Saddam will be dead within the next month." Haha, they fooled him!

I'll have to agree with you on that.


And I'm sure it will be on TV, but if you want to see it all, you can find it on OGRISH, but i have to warn you.

I'm glad he's dead. But he deserved a death penalty much worse that what he got. Like having his body parts [slowly] cut off with a butter knife.

Wouldn't that make us as bad as he was for torturing iraqis?

im glad that hes dead

hangings are cool in my opinion...I dont have a problem!

Well anywhos I dont fucking care how he died...as long as it was painful and funny. lmao! lol!

Im still unsure of my feelings on this. I don't support thte death penalty, regardless of the crime, but I know that the culture that Saddam comes from does. It just gets me that yesterday he was alive and now he's not.

I don't think it was painful..

lmao//

anyway i only got one thing to say azbout him

its about time that fucker got executed

Here is the actual video right before his execution.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=38e1076b19&p=1

I really don't get why it was necesary for them to release that.

Finally.

Because its important to know it actually happend.

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/200612...iNTShqkMrfMMg--

Yeah but do the general public need to see it? I imagine there'll be a host of oh so amusing avatar things by the end of the day.

He deserved what he got.

Probably.. although waiting a shit load of time for your death sounds awful

He didn't wait a shit load of time. The sentence he got a couple weeks ago called for his execution to be held within 30 days. It happend relatively quick. In America you wait many years for your death on death row.

Unless of course you are assuming that he assumed he would get the death sentence.

hahaha.

That fucker deserves it.

yeah but they had him in captivity for like several months.. im sure he knew what as coming

I know what evil Saddam Hussein has done but it doesn't make it any less weird to see a human being hung.

I agree with Iona - I really don't know how I feel about it

Haha. Agreed, like.

we didnt kill him, the iraqi govt did. we just took part in it to make sure it went down the right way. thats why he was hung, because he had to be tried under his own countries conditions.

why dont you people get that?

Being hung is the Iraqi way, what would you propose? Lethal injection? Sorry, they don't do it.

And there was a lot gained. An evil dictator has now been sent to hell, which will have a resounding effect on Iraq. Did you see the cheering in the streets? This gives the Iraqi's hope for peace, and it made thousands overjoyed with happiness who had personally lost loved ones due to his tyranny.

If someone killed my mom, then they got the death sentence, I would be damn happy. DAMN happy. Now multiply that by several thousand.

I think some ppl are a little light hearted about this...

So, it would appear Bush finished wut his daddy started. It is definentely a victory to see saddam dead. But wut will happen now? Will anything change? Will the violence stop? Will Iraqi lives get better? I think no is the answer to all of those. The terrorists have been doing fine without Saddam, and I'm sure every damn terrorist also knew that saddam was screwed and that they couldn't help him.

This might raise moral for everybody, but is sure as hell will not have any impact onthe war at all.

Did you not see the footage of that car bomb that killed 68 people as a DIRECT result of his hanging?????!!!

I'm not saying that his death has not brought relief for thousands but for once I agree with something Bush has to say - his hanging will NOT end the violence in Iraq

thank god somebody else understands politics. thank you for that post.


i personally think he should have been hung publicly in the middle of downtown baghdad. for everyone to see. hell the fucker killed people publicly o why shouldnt have he. anyhow, i have 2 cousins who married muslim men from iraq and i know they were glad to see him go. i have heard very bad stories about what Saddam's army has doen to their families and them.

Woah woah. I think you are overstepping your bounds here a bit fella. Did I insinuate that the violence will stop due to this? No, of course not, but it is a major step. Will Iraqi lives get better? Will there be change? OF COURSE.

Iraqi's lived in constant fear of their dictator. Sure, there will be some violence as a cause of this in the coming weeks, but that is all, very temporary. A majority of the Iraqi people are overjoyed by him being executed, due to the extreme atrocities done to his own people. Will anything change? Yes, Iraqi's have hope, and for one of the first times in a long time, the Iraqi people as a whole can be happy about something, and realize that there is justice in this world.

Will their lives get better? Of course they will. It is a long process, but it is changing for the better already. I'm going to take a guess here and say that you have absolutely no idea what life in Iraq was like when Saddam was in charge.

Nobody is saying this is going to be deterring the terrorists, their motives were not to help Saddam's cause, but instead those of religious means. There is something called justice in the world, and Iraq had not seen it in a VERY long time until Saddam's death.

no shit . . . . did you really think it would. we are fighting terrorism. it will never end, this is a religious battle.

and about his hanging . . . . People in the muslim neighborhood detroit were dancing in the street.


then dont post in here . . . . this is political forum.

There was a video of his final moments on AOL.. the link dosen't work any more for me.. I saw it earlier though. They just brought him in the room, put the noose around his neck, and the video ended.


Wait nvm. Scratch that. i just found it.
http://news.aol.com/topnews/video/_a/sadda...230103809990001