(Photo courtesy DoD)
HarpBlaster.com and American Forces Press Service

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Saddam Hussein was executed Saturday morning for the 1982 murders of 148 people in the town of Dujail.

“Today, Saddam Hussein was executed after receiving a fair trial — the kind of justice he denied the victims of his brutal regime,” President Bush said in a statement.

“Fair trials were unimaginable under Saddam Hussein’s tyrannical rule,” Bush said. “It is a testament to the Iraqi people’s resolve to move forward after decades of oppression that, despite his terrible crimes against his own people, Saddam Hussein received a fair trial. This would not have been possible without the Iraqi people’s determination to create a society governed by the rule of law.”

The Iraqi High Tribunal sentenced Saddam and seven other former aides to death Nov. 5 for ordering the massacre of 148 men in Dujail, Iraq, in 1982. Acting on Saddam’s orders, Iraqi security forces gunned down and tortured the villagers in retaliation for a failed assassination attempt against the former dictator.

In an alert, state-run television station Iraqiya said, “Criminal Saddam was hanged to death.”

In the hours leading up to his execution, Saddam turned to American courts in an effort to delay his death. However, a federal judge declined to postpone his execution.

Saddam ruled Iraq for a quarter century, and he is suspected of killing thousands during his tenure. Had he not been executed, he would have faced trials for other mass killings, and State Department officials told reporters on background before the trial began Oct. 19 that the Dujail incident wasn’t the most egregious of atrocities of which Saddam was accused, just the first case ready to take to trial.

Other atrocities included the 1988 Anfal campaign against the Kurds, including chemical attacks on the village of Halabja; the brutal crushing of a Shiite revolt in southern Iraq in 1991; and repression of the Faylee Kurds, officials said.

Rather than waiting for investigations on those and other cases to conclude, the Iraqis opted to move forward with the Dujail trial, officials said.

Saddam interrupted the proceedings regularly, Baathist “dead-enders” tried to intimidate members of the court and insurgents killed three defense lawyers in the course of the trial, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad noted when the verdict was announced Nov. 5.

In a written statement, Khalilzad called the verdict “an important milestone for Iraq” that demonstrates the Iraqi’s commitment to the rule of law. “A former dictator feared by millions, who killed his own citizens without mercy or justice, who waged wars against neighboring countries, has been brought to trial in his own country – held accountable in a court of law with ordinary citizens bearing witness,” he said of the verdict.

The Appellate Chamber of the Iraqi High Tribunal rejected Saddam’s appeal Dec. 26, upholding his conviction and clearing the way for his execution.

Coalition forces toppled Saddam’s repressive regime in March 2003. U.S. forces captured Saddam, who was hiding in a “spider hole” near his hometown of Tikrit, in December 2003. The Iraqi government maintained legal custody of the former dictator, although Multinational Force Iraq officials had physical custody of him until before the execution, at the Iraqi government’s request, defense officials said.

“Saddam Hussein’s execution comes at the end of a difficult year for the Iraqi people and for our troops,” Bush said. “Bringing Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the violence in Iraq, but it is an important milestone on Iraq’s course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain, and defend itself, and be an ally in the War on Terror.

“We are reminded today of how far the Iraqi people have come since the end of Saddam Hussein’s rule – and that the progress they have made would not have been possible without the continued service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform,” Bush said. “Many difficult choices and further sacrifices lie ahead. Yet the safety and security of the American people require that we not relent in ensuring that Iraq’s young democracy continues to progress.”