Recent Appearances...

Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti	Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti	Iraqi Baath Party	Iraq	20030507
Barzan Ibrahim al-Hassan al-Tikriti	Barzan Ibrahim al-Hassan al-Tikriti	Iraqi Baath Party	Iraq-Jordan	20040629	Link
Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti	Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti	Iraqi Baath Party	Iraq	20030419
	Barzan Ibrahim al Tikriti	Iraqi Baath Party	Iraq	20051029	Link

Iraq

Yezidi boy returns home from Turkey after ISIS captivity

2020-11-16

[Rudaw] A nine-year-old Yezidi boy found in ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
was reunited with his family on Thursday after six years of Islamic State

...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) captivity.

"Our teams from the Ministry have been working on his case in the ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish embassy for over a year," Ali Abbas, Spokesman for Iraq’s Ministry of Migration and Displacement told Rudaw on Thursday.

Barzan Ibrahim was only two years old when ISIS attacked the Yezidi heartland of Shingal, in Nineveh province. His parents were later killed and he was taken in by an Arab family from Tal Afar, who then migrated to Turkey and took Barzan with them, Abbas said.

"After medical tests his family was found and he was returned to his uncle," he added.

Iraq’s Yezidi minority was particularly targeted by ISIS, which invaded Shingal in August 2014, launching a genocide against the community. Thousands were killed and taken into captivity.

Approximately 6,418 Yezidis were kidnapped during the genocide, according to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Office for Abducted Yezidi Affairs. More than 3,500 have been rescued.

Several Yezidi children have been found with ISIS-linked families in Turkey.

A delegation from the Iraqi Migration and Displacement Ministry, headed by its minister Ivan Faiaq is in Turkey organizing the return of Iraqi refugees.

"193 refugees arrived back home today in Iraqi Ministry of Transportation buses," Abbas said, "So far 8,000 Iraqi refugees have been returned back to the country from Turkey."

Link

Iraq

Iraq to disband court that tried Saddam

2011-05-05

BAGHDAD The Iraqi government said Wednesday it will disband the tribunal that condemned Saddam Hussein and other top regime officials to death and was heavily criticized by human rights groups.

"Our work here is done, citizens..."

The announcement could help alleviate tension between the Shiite-led government and Iraqs Sunni community, which has long felt unfairly targeted by the Iraqi High Criminal Tribunal and has demanded its closure in the interests of national reconciliation.

The statement only said that the Cabinet approved a draft law to disband the court and that it has been sent to parliament, without giving any further details.

The court spokesman, Raid Juhi, told The Associated Press that the decision was made because the court had finished its cases. The proposed law sets June 30 as a deadline to settle a few final minor cases, he added.

A number of international human rights organizations and Iraqi Sunni politicians have been questioning whether the proceedings of the tribunal, which tried and sentenced dozens of former officials, complied with international standards for fairness.

The first among the cases it handled was against Saddam who was hanged in late 2006 for his role in the deaths of more than 140 Shiite Muslims following an 1982 attempt on his life.

It also tried and sent to the gallows Husseins cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid who gained his nickname Chemical Ali for ordering the use of mustard gas and nerve agents against the Kurds in response to their collaboration with the Iranians during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War.

Saddams half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan and former head of Iraqs revolutionary court Awad Hamid al-Bandar were also all sentenced to death and executed.

The court also tried and convicted 74-year-old Tariq Aziz, the only Christian in Saddams inner circle, for his role in the crackdown on the Shiite political parties now dominating Iraqs politics. Aziz faces a death sentence for his conviction in that case but it has yet to be implemented.

Two other Saddam-era officials have also been convicted and sentenced to death. But the cases of Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai, the former defense minister who led the Iraqi delegation at the cease-fire talks that ended the 1991 Gulf War, and Hussein Rashid Mohammed, a former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi armed forces, have angered Iraqs Sunni population who believe the sentences are too harsh.

Link

Iraq

'Chemical Ali' gets second death sentence

2008-12-03

An Iraqi court sentenced Saddam Hussein's cousin "Chemical Ali" to death on Tuesday for crushing a Shiite revolt after the 1991 Gulf War.

It was the second death sentence to be handed down against Ali Hassan al-Majeed, who earned his nickname for his role in using poison gas against Kurdish villages. He was first condemned to be hanged last year for the killing of tens of thousands of Kurds in the 1980s, but that sentence was held up by political wrangling.

Judge Mohammad al-Uraibi also sentenced a former top Baath party official, Abdul Ghani Abdul Ghafour, to hang for his involvement in the crackdown on Shiites in the south, and 10 others to sentences ranging from 15 years to life in prison. The judge said the court had decided to execute Majeed "by hanging for committing wilful killings and crimes against humanity".

The court, the Iraqi High Tribunal, was set up to try former members of Saddam's government and was the same one that sentenced the former president to death. Saddam was executed in December 2006 after being convicted of crimes against humanity for the killing of 148 Shiite men and boys after a 1982 assassination attempt.

Majeed's reputation for ruthless use of force to crush opponents won him widespread notoriety during Saddam's rule and led many Iraqis to fear him even more than the leader himself. Saddam's execution sparked anger among minority Sunni Arabs, who were outraged by a video showing the ousted leader being taunted by official observers of the governing coalition in the moments before he was hanged.

His half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti was executed two weeks later in a botched hanging that ripped off his head. Two other members of the former government have also been executed. Also currently on trial is former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz, the public face of Saddam Hussein's regime, who is facing charges over the execution of dozens of merchants accused of breaking state price controls in 1992.

Link

Iraq

'Chemical Ali' ~~has squirmed enough~~ execution OK'd in Iraq

2008-02-29

Iraq's presidential council has endorsed the execution within a month of Saddam Hussein's cousin, known as "Chemical Ali," for his role in the 1980s scorched-earth campaign against Kurds, officials said Friday. But it spared the life of two other officials amid Sunni protests that they were only following orders.

The approval by Iraq's President Jalal Talabani and two vice presidents was the final step clearing the way for Ali Hassan al-Majid's execution by hanging. It could now be carried out at any time, a government adviser and a prosecutor said.

Al-Majid was one of three former Saddam officials sentenced to death in June after being convicted by an Iraqi court of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for their part in the Operation Anfal crackdown that killed nearly 200,000 Kurdish civilians and guerrillas.

Al-Majid was nicknamed "Chemical Ali" for ordering poison gas attacks that killed thousands.

The officials said the three-member presidential council agreed to al-Majid's execution, but did not approve death sentences against the other two Hussein Rashid Mohammed, an ex-deputy director of operations for the Iraqi armed forces, and former defense minister Sultan Hashim al-Taie.

The fate of the men who are in U.S. custody had been in legal limbo since this summer and the decision could represent a compromise to ease Sunni objections to executing al-Taie, widely viewed as a respected career soldier who was forced to follow Saddam's orders in the purges against Kurds.

Al-Majid would be the fifth former regime official hanged for alleged atrocities against Iraqis during Saddam's nearly three-decade rule.

Saddam, who also had been a defendant in the so-called Anfal trial, was hanged Dec. 30, 2006, for ordering the killings of more than 140 Shiite Muslims from the Iraqi city of Dujail following a 1982 assassination attempt against him.

A government adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information, said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and U.S. officials had been informed of the decision by phone and that a meeting was planned to decide when and where the execution should take place.

A senior U.S. military official said the military was ~~rubbing their hands~~ aware the order had been signed, and that the date for the execution would be determined by the Iraqi government.

The other two men remain in U.S. custody but are under the jurisdiction of the Iraqi government, the official said, declining to be identified ahead of an official announcement.

Prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi, who said he had received word of the decision from the presidential council, said there was a legal basis for the execution of "Chemical Ali" but not of the other two.

He said no law existed that could force the presidential council to endorse the execution of all three, so it had the prerogative to just sign off on one of the orders.

An appeals court upheld the verdicts against the three in September. Under Iraqi law the executions were to have taken place within a month. But they were put on hold after Sunni leaders including Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi launched a campaign to spare the life of al-Taie.

President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, had also refused to sign the order against al-Taie, a Sunni Arab from the northern city of Mosul who signed the cease-fire with U.S.-led forces that ended the 1991 Gulf War.

Al-Taie surrendered to U.S. forces in September 2003 after weeks of negotiations. His defense has claimed the Americans had promised al-Taie "protection and good treatment" before he turned himself in.

Many Sunni Arabs saw his sentence as evidence that Shiite and Kurdish officials are persecuting their once-dominant minority and as a sign of Shiite influence over the judiciary, raising concerns the executions could ignite retaliatory sectarian attacks.

The case also strained relations between al-Maliki's Shiite-led government and U.S. officials. In late November, the Shiite prime minister asked President Bush to hand over "Chemical Ali" and the other two former regime officials.

The officials said al-Hashemi had refused to agree to the executions of the other two because he considered them career soldiers following orders.

There have been few calls for leniency, however, regarding al-Majid.

Saddam's half-brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, were hanged in January 2007.

Saddam's former vice president, Taha Yassin Ramadan, had been sentenced to life in prison for his role in Dujail but was executed in March after the court decided this was too lenient. Three other defendants were sentenced to 15 years in jail in the Dujail case, while one was acquitted.

Link

Iraq

Four years on, House of Saddam lies in ruins

2007-04-08

BAGHDAD -- Four years after Saddam Hussein's ouster, Iraq's new judiciary is dismantling piece by piece the remnants of the dictator's ruthless regime built up over a quarter of a century. The executed president's inner circle of family members and many of his cronies - mostly Sunni Arabs from the Tikrit region of northern Iraq - have been hunted down and are being sent to the gallows one by one.

Former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan, like Saddam, convicted for crimes against humanity over the killing of 148 Shiites in the 1980s, was hanged last month on the anniversary of the start of the 2003 invasion.

Even ordinary Iraqis who despised Saddam were surprised by the sudden December 30 hanging of the man who ruled Iraq with an iron fist - although thousands took to the streets to noisily celebrate his downfall. Footage of Saddam being taunted and then executed was circulated on the Internet, to the delight of many Shiite Iraqis who suffered under his regime, but was widely seen internationally as a public relations blunder.

We rather enjoyed it.

The masked executioners and their sectarian chants were seen as undermining the legitimacy of the process - but this did not unnerve the Iraqi government. Calling Saddam's execution a "gift to Iraq," Bassem Ridha, advisor to Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki, said Iraq was determined to hunt other followers of Saddam. "Definitely this was historic for us. Nobody believed Saddam would be executed. Now that it is done, it has given us a boost, courage despite the mistakes we made," he said.

Barzan Ibrahim Hassan Al Tikriti, a half-brother and former chief of the dreaded Mukhabarat intelligence service, followed Saddam to the gallows January 15. His head was ripped from his body by the rope.

As someone said here at the time, the drop table is in feet, not meters.

Uday and Qusay, Saddam's two sons who were pillars of the regime, were killed in a fierce gunbattle with US troops backed by air power in the northern city of Mosul in July 2003.

Over three and a half years since Uday last raped an Iraqi woman. Thank you American soldiers.

All four have been buried in their home village of Awjah near Tikrit, along with Awad Ahmed Al Bandar, the executed chief judge of Saddam's disbanded Revolutionary Court.

Days ahead of the anniversary of the fall of Saddam's regime April 9, 2003, prosecutors Monday demanded death in the Kurdish genocide trial of Ali Hassan Al Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali." A defiant Majid has been appearing in court with a copy of the Koran holy book, which Saddam had also carried almost up to the gallows, and sits in the same front row seat that had been used by Iraq's fallen leader.

He'll be defiant right up to the moment he's hanged. Then he'll be dead.

Among those closest to Saddam's seat of power only Izzat Ibrahim Al Duri, who has a $10 million bounty on his head, has escaped capture, amid frequent unconfirmed reports of his death. He was Saddam's number two in the decision-making Revolutionary Command Council, having stood by his side ever since the 1968 coup that brought their Baath party to power.

Former deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz, who represented the acceptable face of Saddam's Iraq on the international scene, appeared in court earlier this month to heap praise on the executed dictator. "I had the honor to work with the former regime and with the hero Saddam Hussein," Aziz said from the witness stand in the Anfal genocide trial. "He is the hero behind the unity of Iraq and its sovereignty."

I'm going to enjoy his hanging also.

Saddam's wife Sajida Khairallah Tulfah Hussein, and his eldest daughter Raghad, are among the women and children in the former ruler's family who fled abroad before the US occupation, and remain on a US wanted list.

Living a life of ease in Amman. I'd remind King Abdullah that if he wants to have continued access to American military equipment, we want Raghad in our custody.

Link

Iraq

Ramadan Hanged, Keeps Head

2007-03-20

BAGHDAD - Saddam Hussein's former deputy was hanged before dawn Tuesday, the fourth man to be executed in the killings of 148 Shiites following a 1982 assassination attempt against the former leader in the town of Dujail. Taha Yassin Ramadan, who was Saddam's vice president when the regime was ousted, went to the gallows on the fourth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq.

Bassam al-Hassani, an adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said the execution went smoothly, although Ramadan appeared frightened and recited the two shahadahs a declaration of faith repeated by Muslims "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet."
And Satan is his doorman.
Al-Hassani said precautions were taken to prevent a repeat of what happened to Saddam's half brother and co-defendant Barzan Ibrahim, who was inadvertently decapitated on the gallows during his January execution. Ramadan, who was nearly 70, was weighed before the hanging and the rope was chosen accordingly, al-Hassani said.
Practice makes perfect.
The execution took place at 3:05 a.m. at a prison at an Iraqi army and police base, which had been the headquarters of Saddam's military intelligence, in a predominantly Shiite district in northern Baghdad. Ramadan had been in U.S. custody but was handed over to the Iraqis about an hour before the hanging, according to al-Hassani, who witnessed the hanging.

Yahya Ibrahim, a member of the Association of Muslim Scholars, said Ramadan's body will be received by members of Saddam's tribe later Tuesday and will be buried near co-defendants Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar in Ouja, on the outskirts of Tikrit. The graves, along with those of Saddam's sons Odai and Qusai and a grandson Mustafa, are in the courtyard of the building in which the former leader is buried. Ibrahim also said three days of mourning would be held for Ramadan.
Now the ___th holiest site in Islam.
His sister, Khadija Ramadan, a professor at San'a University, was reached by The Associated Press in Yemen and said their 85-year-old mother was in deep mourning for her son.
Yemen seems host to quite a few vipers and their kin.
Ramadan was convicted in November of murder, forced deportation and torture and sentenced to life in prison, but an appeals court ruled that was too lenient and he was sentenced to death. Besides the four executed, three other defendants were sentenced to 15 years in jail in the case, while one was acquitted.

Ramadan, who became vice president in March 1991 and was a Revolutionary Command Council member Iraq's highest political body under Saddam maintained his innocence, saying his duties were limited to economic affairs, not security issues.
Hey, it worked for Speer.
Ramadan was No. 20 on the U.S. most-wanted list issued shortly after the invasion began. He was captured on Aug. 20, 2003. During the 1980s, he was deputy prime minister and was for a time considered the second-most powerful man in Iraq after Saddam.
And now he's promoted to 'just as powerful.'
He was said to have presided over many purges carried out by Saddam to eliminate rivals and strengthen his political control. At the height of the standoff leading up to the war, Ramadan also suggested in 2002 that Saddam and President Bush fight a duel to settle their differences and spare their people the ravages of war.

Link

Iraq

Taha Yassin Ramadan to depart gene pool today

2007-03-20

Taha Yassin Ramadan, Iraq's former vice president, will be hanged on Tuesday for crimes against humanity, Iraqi legal sources have said. The Iraqi governement was reported on Monday to have requested that US officials hand over Ramadan into Iraqi custody ahead of his execution.

Badie Aref, a lawyer in the case, said on Monday that he was told about the planned execution by Ramadan's lawyer. "The Americans called Ramadan's lawyer and asked him to be ready as Ramadan was to be hanged tomorrow at 2.30am [2330 GMT]," Aref said.

He said: "They [the US military] also allowed Ramadan to call his family. He was very calm and composed. He asked his family and friends to pray for him and said that he was not afraid of death."

Ramadan was convicted over his role in the killing of 148 Shia Iraqi citizens from the town of Dujail in the 1980s. An appeal court upheld the death sentence against him last week. The killings took place in response to a failed assassination attempt on Saddam Hussein, the former president. Ramadan will be the third aide of Saddam to be hanged for crimes against humanity. Saddam himself was hanged for the Dujail killings on December 30 while Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad Ahmed al-Bandar were executed on January 15.

Update: he's a deader, as reported by the Guardian. Hanged before dawn. My favorite part:

The official, who witnessed the hanging ... said precautions had been taken to prevent a repeat of what happened to Saddam's half brother and co-defendant Barzan Ibrahim, who was inadvertently decapitated on the gallows.

To borrow from what one Rantburger said before, sounds like this time, they remembered that the drop table is calculated in feet, not meters. More:

Ramadan appeared frightened and said words that indicated he was remorseful, the official said, although he was not more specific.

Translation -- "I wuz a rat!"

Link

Iraq

Taha Yassin Ramadan Says U.S. Tortured Him

2007-02-20

Former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, now awaiting execution, said in a sworn statement that he was tortured by U.S. personnel for three weeks after his 2003 arrest, according to a copy of the document made available by his lawyer.

According to the statement, dated March 22, 2006, and handwritten in Arabic, Ramadan said ``methods of torture'' were used against him after he failed to provide information on the whereabouts of deposed President Saddam Hussein while he was in hiding, or on the Iraqi resistance. The statement said Ramadan was held in a compound at the Baghdad airport, where he was kicked, beaten with an aluminum pipe and given limited access to water and a bathroom for 20 days. ``If these allegations are true, then the U.S. should set up an independent investigation,'' said Said Boumedouha, a London- based Middle East researcher for Amnesty International, an international human-rights organization. ``How can you say this trial was fair if some of the people were ill-treated or tortured before they were brought to court?''

Ramadan's co-defendants Hussein, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad Hamed al-Bandar have already been executed by hanging. Ramadan was initially sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the 1982 killing of 148 Shiite Muslims in the village of Dujail. An appeals court on Feb. 12 ruled the sentence too lenient and ordered his execution.

Link

Iraq

This week's Weekly Report from State Department

2007-01-19

Ambassador Khalilzad and General Casey Discuss New Security Plan:

At a press conference January 15, US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Multi-National Forces-Iraq Commander General George Casey discussed the new Baghdad Security Plan, which is based on the assumption that increased security for Baghdad is key to allowing political progress and for securing the rest of the country.
The plan is designed, structured, and led by the Iraqis with US support. Prime Minister Maliki and the Government of Iraq (GOI) have committed that all those who break the law will be targeted; there will be no sanctuary for criminals or murderers; no militia will be a replacement for the state or control local security; and military commanders will have freedom of action and an ability to do what is needed without political interference or micromanagement.

Plan Incorporates Economic, Political, and Reconstruction Efforts to Assist with Security:

An essential part of the plan is for Iraq to improve its ability to meet the needs of its people. To facilitate this, the Iraqis are planning political, economic services, and public affairs programs with senior Iraqi leaders in charge of each. Additionally, the GOI will also spend $10 billion on infrastructure and reconstruction projects, creating jobs for the Iraqi people.
Working jointly with the GOI, the US will double the number of Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Iraq to support the provincial and local governments, helping communities with reconciliation efforts and accelerating the transition to Iraqi self-reliance.

Political Progress Necessary for Security Plans Success:

Political progress is also critical to the success of the new security plan. As such, the GOI has committed to holding provincial elections, reforming de-Ba'athification laws, passing hydrocarbon legislation, sharing oil revenues among all Iraqis, and considering constitutional amendments.

Regional Efforts to Improve Security:

The new plan also reinforces regional efforts to stabilize Iraq, and it is integrated into a broader regional strategy, encouraging more Arab states to play a positive role and supporting Iraqi efforts to engage their neighbors.
The regional aspect of the plan also seeks to change the behavior of Iran and Syria, going after their networks in Iraq that are attacking Coalition Forces and undermining Iraqi security. For example, the Coalition and GOI have already taken steps against Iranian Explosively Formed Penetrator/Improvised Explosive Device networks associated with the Iranian Quds forces.

Iraqi Police Net 301 New Recruits in Fallujah and Habbiniyah:

In recruiting drives held January 10, the Fallujah Police District enlisted 102 Iraqi males, and the Habbaniyah Police District enlisted 199. The 301 recruits will soon travel to Jordan to attend the International Police Training College, where they will be joined by 550 recruits from other parts of Anbar province.
There are currently over 1,900 Iraqi Police candidates in training in Jordan who are scheduled to return to Anbar province for duty in January and February.

1st IA Division Assumes Control of 2nd Brigade:

The 1st Iraqi Army (IA) Division assumed tactical command of the 2nd Brigade from US Marine Regimental Combat Team 5 (RCT-5) in a ceremony in Fallujah January 9. The brigade has operated under the direction of RCT-5 for the last year in Fallujah proper and will continue its informal partnership with the regiments 1st Battalion, 24th Marines.

Iraqi Leadership Declares Support for Bush Plan:

Iraqs Deputy Prime Minister, Barham Salih (Kurdish Alliance), said that Iraqi leaders must commit to reforms. He stated that the time has come to take initiative, and utilize American support that has been offered to us to really turn the corner. Salih added that failure to do so would damage Iraqi leaders credibility in the eyes of Iraqis.
Commenting on the new security plan, Khaled al-Attiya (UIA), a deputy speaker of parliament, said If we want the Iraq that we longed for and worked for, then those political forces which suffered under the former regime ... must get together and make this work.

Vice President Hashimi Attacks Maliki for Shia Militia Ties: Ahhhh, politics!

Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, Iraqs most senior Sunni Arab politician, launched a bitter personal attack on Prime Minister Maliki, warning him that the Iraqi government had only limited time to break with sectarian groups and start delivering to ordinary citizens.
Hashimi stated that Maliki must serve all Iraqis, rather than maintain his affiliation with Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. He argued that Maliki had to be encouraged to break away from Sadr and unite with other groups in Iraqi society, such as the Sunnis and the Kurds.

SCIRIs Hakim Calls on GOI to Curb Militia Violence:

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim (SCIRI) publicly stated that the Government of Iraq should strike with an iron fist against anyone who endangers the safety of people. He also urged the militia of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to disarm. Hakim commented just hours after President Bush announced his new strategy in Iraq.

Page 19 shows the Government has lowered the oil production goal from 2.5 million barrels per day to 2.1 mbpd. They produced about 2.1 through November and December. Perhaps this reflects the softening price of crude? Or some big producer is down for maintenance? No explanation is offered in the report. Refined product supplies are up.

Two Saddam Aides Hanged at Dawn:

The sentences against the former head of Iraqi Intelligence and the judge of the Revolutionary Court that ordered the execution of 148 citizens of Dujail in 1982 were carried out at dawn January 15. Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Saddam's halfbrother and Awad al-Bandar, former judge on Saddams Revolutionary Court, were hanged for their roles in the Dujail killings.
Barzan was a feared figure in Iraq at the head of the intelligence service in the 1980s. Bandar presided the Revolutionary Court which sentenced 148 Shiite men and youths to death after an assassination attempt on Saddam in the town of Dujail in 1982. Along with Saddam, they were convicted November 5 of crimes against humanity by the US-sponsored High Tribunal.

More than 13 hours after the carrying out of the sentences against two of Saddam Hussein's aides, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad Hamad al-Bandar, an official video was played to a small group of Iraqi and Western reporters that showed the noose decapitating Tikriti. Officials said they would only run the silent, three-minute video once and not show it in public again. Once was enough.

In order to avoid the distribution of any illicit videos such as the ones released after the execution of Saddam Hussein reporters attending the showing had their mobile phones taken by Iraqi security men.

Saudi Arabia to Host Next Arab League Summit:

Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the Arab League announced January 16 that Riyadh will host the organization's next summit March 28 and 29 in a bid to heal ethnic divisions in the region. The 22-member Arab League traditionally holds its annual summit in March in different Arab capitals.

Iraqi President Talabani Arrives in Syria:

President Talabani became the first Iraqi head of state to visit Syria in nearly three decades when he arrived in Syria January 14 with a high-ranking delegation including interior, trade and water ministers and the chief of the State Oil Marketing Organization. Good. Let the Iraqis negotiate with the Syrians, not the Congress.

Link

Iraq

Barzan's head popped off

2007-01-15

Two of Saddam Hussein's aides were hanged before dawn on Monday, the Iraqi government said, admitting that the head of his half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti was also ripped from his body during the execution. On the defensive after international uproar over sectarian taunts during the illicitly filmed hanging of the ousted president two weeks ago, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh insisted there was "no violation of procedure" during the executions of Barzan and former judge Awad Hamed al-Bander.

But defense lawyers and politicians from Saddam's once dominant Sunni Arab minority expressed fury at the fate of Barzan, Saddam's once feared intelligence chief, and there was also skepticism and condemnation of Iraq's Shi'ite-dominated government across the mostly Sunni-ruled Arab world. "The convicts were not subjected to any mistreatment," Dabbagh said describing the beheading by the rope as a rare mishap. "Their rights were not violated. There was no chanting."

Government adviser Bassam al-Husseini said the damage to the body was "an act of God". During his trial for crimes against humanity over the killings of 148 Shi'ites from Dujail, a witness said Barzan's agents put people in a meat grinder.

The treatment of corpses is a particularly sensitive issue in Muslim culture. Video footage of Saddam's body lying on a trolley showed what appeared to be a wound on his throat. Hangmen gauge the length of rope needed to snap the neck of the condemned but not to create enough force to sever the head.

Link

Iraq

Ibrahim and al-Bandar hanged

2007-01-15

U-lu-lu-lu-lu-lu!!!

Saddam Hussein's half brother and the former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court were hanged before dawn Monday, Prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon said, two weeks and two days after the former Iraqi dictator was executed in a chaotic scene that has drawn worldwide criticism.

Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, had been found guilty along with Saddam of in the killing of 148 Shiite Muslims after a 1982 assassination attempt on the former leader in the town of Dujail north of Baghdad.

"They (government) called us before dawn and told us to send someone. I sent a judge to witness the execution and it happened," al-Faroon said.

Good riddance to them both. Now they're re-united with Sammy and Himmler in hell.

Two officials in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information, confirmed that the hangings took place around 6 a.m. local time.

The executions reportedly occurred in the same Saddam-era military intelligence headquarters building in north Baghdad where the former leader was hanged two days before the end of 2006, according to an Iraqi general, who would not allow use of his name because he was not authorized to release the information. The building is located in the Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah.

And why not? We already know the gallows mechanism works as advertised.

The two men were to have been hanged along with Saddam on Dec. 30, but Iraqi authorities decided to execute Saddam alone on what National Security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie called a "special day."

And special it was.

A lawyer for the two men told The Associated Press recently that they were taken from their cells and told they were going to be hanged on the same day Saddam was executed. Issam Ghazawi, a member of Saddam's defense team for the past two years, said he met individually with Ibrahim and al-Bandar recently, and that Ibrahim told him they were escorted from their cells and told they were also going to be executed.

"The Americans took me and al-Bandar from our cells on the same day of Saddam's execution to an office inside the prison at 1 a.m. They asked us to collect our belongings because they intend to execute us at dawn," Ibrahim reportedly said. He said the two men were also told to write their wills.

Al-Bandar and Ibrahim were taken back to their prison cells nearly nine hours later, according to Ghazawi. "Their execution should be commuted under such circumstances because of the psychological pain they endured as they waited to hang," he said.

So the next time we'll nudge the Iraqi government to move along.

Ghazawi quoted as Al-Bandar as saying he "wished to have been executed with President Saddam." Ibrahim, the lawyer said, "was in the worst condition. He kept crying over the death of his brother and said it was a great loss for the family and the Arab world."

Since when do we grant wishes? You wanted to hang with Sammy? Umm, no. You swing on an ordinary day with a bare minimum of witnesses and no public notice. How's that?

Link

Iraq

Iraqi President Urges Delay in Hanging Sammy's Co-Defendants

2007-01-11

SULEIMANIYAH, Iraq Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Wednesday said delay the execution of two of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants.

This is not the time to lose your nerve.

Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief, Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, were sentenced to death after being found guilty along with Saddam of involvement in killing 148 Shiite Muslims after a 1982 assassination attempt on the former leader in the northern town of Dujail.

Their executions were postponed, however, until after the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which ended a week ago. Iraqi officials have said the two men were expected to be hanged in the coming days, but no date has been released.

"In my opinion we should wait on the executions," Talabani said Wednesday at a news conference with U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad. "We should examine the situation," he said without elaborating.

Sounds like the tranzis got to him.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that Khalilzad asked him to delay Saddam's execution for 10 days to two weeks, but added that Iraqi officials rejected the demand.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More