Mabus will soon die and there will happen, A horrible destruction of people and animals: Suddenly vengeance will appear, a hundred hands, Thirst... Options

[ABLAT Staff]

BE SURE TO SEE- CHAIN REACTION

...On Thursday, Bush administration officials told CNN Hussein is expected to be executed "this weekend."

..."He believes in his fate, and his only concern is the unity of the Iraqi people," al-Dulaimi told CNN in Amman, Jordan.

...It said the United States will suffer "grave consequences" if Hussein is executed.


Lawyer told to pick up Hussein's personal effects
POSTED: 7:44 a.m. EST, December 29, 2006


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- With Iraqis braced for Saddam Hussein's execution, the former dictator's lawyer said Friday the U.S. military has asked that he arrange the pickup of Hussein's personal belongings.

But Hussein has not been handed over to Iraq authorities for execution and remained in U.S. custody Friday, according to Iraqi Deputy Justice Ministry Bosho Ibrahim.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki said Friday that nothing will stop or delay the execution, according to Iraqi national television.

Al-Maliki told reporters that there will be "no reviews or delays in the execution of the criminal Saddam," Al-Iraqiya TV reported.

Under Iraqi law, his defense lawyers and family would be notified before the death sentence is carried out, and there has apparently been no such notification.

"The American side has just called me and asked me to either send someone to pick up the personal effects of Saddam Hussein and his [half] brother Barzan al-Tikriti, or to give them an address to which they can send them," said lead defense attorney Khalil al-Dulaimi.

He said when he asked the U.S. military if this meant that Hussein had already been transferred to Iraqi custody for his execution, they refused to answer.

Another defense lawyer, Badie Aref, told CNN that Hussein met with two of his half-brothers in his prison cell on Thursday and passed on messages and instructions to his family.

"President Saddam was just bracing for the worst, so he wanted to see his brothers and pass on some messages and instructions to his family," Aref said. The half brothers who visited were Sabawi and Wathban Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, he said.

Another of Hussein's half-brothers, Barzan al-Tikriti, has been sentenced to death and is being held in Iraq under the same charges as Hussein.

Aref said the U.S. soldiers guarding Hussein took away a radio he kept in his cell on Tuesday so he could not hear news reports about his death sentence.

His death sentence was upheld Tuesday by an appellate court. (Full story)

"They did not want him to hear the news from the appeals court upholding the sentence," he said. "They gave him back the radio on Wednesday."

Aref said Saddam found out about the appeals court verdict "a few hours after it was announced."

On Thursday, Bush administration officials told CNN Hussein is expected to be executed "this weekend."

Hussein would be transferred from U.S. to Iraqi custody within the next day, one official said.

More than one administration source confirmed the impending transfer.

But Homeland Security Advisor Fran Townsend on CNN cautioned that the timing of the execution is up to the Iraqi government.

Two defense attorneys Thursday met with Hussein in his jail cell.

"He believes in his fate, and his only concern is the unity of the Iraqi people," al-Dulaimi told CNN in Amman, Jordan.

Al-Dulaimi described the former Iraqi dictator's morale as "normal."

Hussein was convicted on November 5 for crimes against humanity in connection with the killings of 148 people after an attempt on his life.

Hussein's execution by hanging must take place before January 27 -- or within 30 days after the Iraqi High Tribunal upheld the death sentence -- according to chief Judge Aref Shaheen. ([url=java script:cnnVideo('play','/video/world/2006/12/26/costello.saddam.death.cnn','2007/01/09');]Watch tensions escalate over Hussein's imminent execution[/url] )

"He believes in his destiny," the attorney said.

Al-Dulaimi said Thursday that neither the defense team nor Hussein's family have been given an execution date.

The U.S. State Department also says it has not been told when Hussein will be executed.

A senior Bush administration official said Thursday that the execution is likely to be "a couple of days" from now.

Hussein was sentenced to death for his role in the 1982 killings of 148 people in Dujail, a mostly Shiite town north of Baghdad, following an attempt on his life.

The dictator was found guilty of murder, torture, and forced deportation.

The Dujail episode falls within 12 of the worst cases out of the 500 documented "baskets of crimes" during the Hussein regime.

The U.S. State Department says torture and extrajudicial killings followed the Dujail killings and that 550 men, women and children were arrested without warrants.

A Web warning to U.S.
On the day Hussein's death sentence was confirmed, the Baath party that he led warned it would retaliate against the United States and its interests, and against members of the Iraqi High Tribunal if the execution is carried out.

It said the United States will suffer "grave consequences" if Hussein is executed.

The party also vowed to shut down peace negotiations with coalition forces, according to a statement the group released on an Arabic-language Web site.

The Baathists have been operating as part of the insurgency against the U.S. and its allies since Hussein's regime fell in 2003.

In a farewell letter posted Wednesday on the former Baath Party's Web site, Hussein bid farewell to Iraqis and called on them not to hate the U.S.-led forces. ([url=java script:cnnVideo('play','/video/world/2006/12/27/costello.saddam.letter.affl','2007/01/10');]Watch Hussein try to get in the last word [/url] )

Calling Iraq a "loyal and honorable nation," Hussein says, "I bid you farewell and submit myself to the merciful and ever-faithful Lord." (Full story)

Trial itself was on trial
The White House has praised the court's decision, calling the day a milestone.

"Saddam has received due process and the legal rights that he denied the Iraqi people," said Scott Stanzel, deputy White House press secretary.

Al-Dulaimi called the ruling "crazy" and said it came from "an illegitimate and unconstitutional court."

While proponents of the Iraqi High Tribunal hail it for taking steps to ensure accountability for atrocities committed during Hussein's regime, critics have pointed to the lack of safety for attorneys and questioned the judiciary's independence and impartiality.

Three defense lawyers were killed during the Dujail trial, and another fled the country after being seriously wounded. ([url=java script:cnnVideo('play','/video/world/2006/12/26/damon.saddam.sentence.cnn','2007/01/09');]Watch to see why many consider the trial flawed[/url] )

Human Rights Watch, which had regularly issued reports about the Hussein regime's brutality, also criticized the Iraqi High Tribunal for an over-reliance on anonymous witnesses.

Hussein and others also are being tried in another case, the killings of up to 100,000 Kurds during the 1988 Anfal campaign against Kurdish rebels. The allegations include the use of poison gas against Kurdish towns in northern Iraq.

CNN's Jomana Karadsheh and Joe Sterling contributed to this report

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/12/29/hussein/index.html

Also See- http://www.abrieflookattomorrow.com/newsli...?showtopic=3390

[ABLAT Staff]

Saddam Hussein executed
Deposed Iraqi dictator hanged for deaths of 148 Shiites in 1982
BREAKING NEWS
NBC, MSNBC and news services
Updated: 9:29 p.m. MT 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, an Iraqi official told NBC News.

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.

Asked if Saddam were dead, the official in the Iraqi prime minister's office said, “Yes, the body of Saddam Hussein is in front of me.”

"Criminal Saddam was hanged to death," state-run Iraqiya television said. The station played patriotic music and showed images of national monuments and other landmarks.

Saddam's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and Awad al-Bander, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, were also hanged in connection with the Dujail killings, Iraqiya reported.

"The execution started with criminal Saddam, then Barzan, then Awad al-Bandar," an Iraqiya announcer said.

NBC News reported that gunfire, presumably celebratory, could be heard in Baghdad after the executions.

It was a grim end for the 69-year-old leader who had vexed three U.S. presidents. Despite his ouster, Washington, its allies and the new Iraqi leaders remain mired in a fight to quell a stubborn insurgency by Saddam loyalists and a vicious sectarian conflict.

Mariam al-Rayes, a legal expert and former member of parliament, told Iraqiya television that the execution "was filmed and God willing it will be shown. There was one camera present, and a doctor was also present there."

Al-Reyes did not attend the execution. She said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki did not attend, but was represented by an aide.

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

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.

Prime Minister 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,” 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.

© 2006 MSNBC InteractiveThe Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16389128/

[ABLAT Staff]

Pentagon: U.S. Forces on High Alert
Dec 29 6:57 PM US/Eastern

By LOLITA C. BALDOR
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON

The Pentagon said Friday that U.S. fighting forces in Iraq are ready for any escalation of violence there, even as condemned former President Saddam Hussein waged an 11th-hour appeal in American courts to spare his life.
"U.S. forces in Iraq are obviously at a high state of alert anytime because of the environment that they operate in and because of the current security situation," said spokesman Bryan Whitman, in advance of an appeal filed here on Saddam's behalf by his lawyers.

Whitman said U.S. forces will "obviously take into account social dimensions that could potentially led to an increase in violence which certainly would include carrying out the sentence of Saddam Hussein."

Closer to home, U.S. government officials said Friday that people should be vigilant about the possibility of a terror attack associated with Saddam's impending execution in Iraq. But an advisory that the FBI and the Homeland Security Department sent to local law enforcement agencies and intelligence community figures was routine and did not cite any specific threat.

Saddam has been in U.S. custody since he was captured in December As his execution drew near, Saddam's lawyers filed an appeal trying to stave it off.

Hussein's lawyers filed documents Friday afternoon asking for a stay of execution. The 21-page request was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington before Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.

His attorneys argued that because Hussein also faces a civil lawsuit in Washington, he has rights as a civil defendant that would be violated if he is executed. He has not received notice of those rights and the consequences that the lawsuit would have on his estate, his attorneys said.

"To protect those rights, defendant Saddam Hussein requests an order of this court providing a stay of his execution until further notice of this court," attorney Nicholas Gilman wrote.

A similar request by the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, Awad Hamed al-Bandar, was denied Thursday and is under appeal. Al-Bandar also faces execution. The Justice Department argued in that case that U.S. courts have no jurisdiction to interfere with the judicial process of another country.

The administration, meantime, sent out an advisory saying that Americans should be vigilant about the possibility of an attack. The routine advisory the FBI and the Homeland Security Department sent to local law enforcement agencies and intelligence community figures did not cite any specific threat.

"We currently have no credible, specific intelligence indicating any imminent threat against the Homeland or corroborating that individuals in the Ba'ath party or others loyal to Saddam are prepared to carry out any activities in the United States," said FBI spokesman Richard Kolko.

For its part, the White House declined Friday to talk about the timing of Saddam's execution.

Deputy White House press secretary Scott Stanzel, talking to reporters Friday from Crawford, Texas, where President Bush was vacationing, said the hanging of Saddam was a matter for the sovereign Iraqi government. Earlier, the White House said the appeals court decision to uphold the sentence marked an important milestone for the Iraqi people's efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law.

At the Pentagon, Whitman said U.S. military forces "stay at a constant state of high readiness in Iraq and I would expect through this period they would do the same."

He wouldn't comment further on any potential troop movements to strengthen security for the execution, but said the commanders in Iraq have the ability to move forces as they deem appropriate based on conditions on the ground.

Whitman also said he wouldn't comment on anything that President Bush might be contemplating in terms of changing U.S. war policy in Iraq or in connection with the intensive administration review now under way on American strategy there.

___

Associated Press Diplomatic Writer Barry Schweid and legal affairs reporter Matt Apuzzo contributed to this story.
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/12/29/D8MAQMT80.html

[ABLAT Staff]

Outrage at Timing of Execution
Ebtihal Mubarak, Arab News

JEDDAH, 31 December 2006 — The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) yesterday criticized the timing of the execution of Saddam Hussein. An analyst with the official SPA said the execution has drawn strong disapproval of observers because it took place during the holy month of Dul Hijjah, besides being on the first day of Eid Al-Adha. “It is an occasion which is respected by the entire Muslim population,” the analyst said.

He also found fault with the trial as its procedures underwent several replacement of judges and because it took place while the country was under a state of occupation and under the shadow of the ongoing sectarian violence and political strife. “Observers had expected that the trial of the former head of the Iraqi government who ruled for a considerable length of time would last longer with sophisticated legal and court procedures without politicization of the affair,” the analyst said.

Saddam’s execution struck a chord of sympathy in many Saudis, although they did not deny the crimes he committed. “We all know that Saddam was a dictator who led his country to one disaster after another,” said 47-year-old Saudi businessman Mohammad Al-Rashed, “but still his trial was illegal. What we saw on TV were more scenes of black comedy rather than objective trial.”

He said that the trial was based on the Dujail incident, in which Shiite villagers were executed for plotting against Saddam, and that it was neither enough nor convincing, as Saddam was not dealing with entirely innocent citizens. “What would any Arab leader do if he knew of an assassination plot? They would all do exactly what Saddam did, maybe more.”

Al-Rashed thought that Saddam’s war against Iran would have been a more convincing case for trial than Dujail. He said it was a crime against not only Iranians but also Iraqis.

“He was merely a tool in the hands of Americans and when his role was done they sacrificed him on the Eid day. The choice of the execution day is no mistake and it surely is an American message that mocks our defeat and surrender,” he added.

Other Saudis felt sympathy for Saddam. “We prayed for Saddam’s soul in Madinah with my family today,” said Mariam Saleh, a 29-year-old teacher. She felt that Saddam was humiliated in his last days by the Americans.

Regardless of what he did before, “he is still a Muslim and thus deserves our mercy,” said Mariam.

Mohammad Al-Assaf, 33, had different opinion of Saddam’s execution on the Eid Al-Adha day. “Now they made him a martyr,” he said.

He said the Americans are not naïve and they chose the day on purpose. “They wanted to implant in the minds of Muslims that the Shiites of Iraq chose the sacrifice day to kill Saddam as a challenge to Iraqi Sunnis.”

Al-Assaf said the sentence of death was passed 55 days ago and the Americans knew that by choosing the morning of Eid Al-Adha to execute him would upset all Muslims, even those who acknowledge Saddam’s cruelty.

“America’s claims of restoring peace in Iraq proved to be nonsense today. They only make things worse by inciting Sunnis against Shiites and fueling the division,” he said.

Others expressed sentiments that ranged from outrage over the continued state of insecurity and lack of sufficient infrastructure in Iraq to utter contempt for the US occupation and its past military support of the strongman from Tikrit.

“Saddam is dead, let’s close this chapter forever,” said Sultan Al-Otaibi, a resident of Jeddah. “The next chapter that we need to close now is who supported Saddam and gave him weapons. Donald Rumsfeld was hugging Saddam and the US supported him and provided biological weapons and delivery equipment.”

Imran Waheed, spokesman for the British affiliate of the Muslim political party Hizb ut-Tahrir, agrees. “Saddam’s trial conveniently ignored his close ties with Western governments and corporations throughout his years of brutality, the weapons bought from Western corporations, the support given to him in the war with Iran,” he said. “Bush and Blair, like previous leaders of the US and Britain, continue their close relationships with brutal dictators in the Muslim world when it suits their interests, and will surely discard them when it suits their interests.”

Muhammad Mardi Al-Tayeb, a Sudanese resident in Jeddah, asked what difference Saddam’s death had made to Iraq. “The very same day he was executed, Iraqis woke up to more bombs, shooting and people dying,” he said.

People like Saddam get what they deserve. However, Muhsin Ali, an Egyptian worker in Jeddah, said that he wished justice was carried out by the people of Iraq themselves rather than with the Americans orchestrating everything covertly.

“I never loved Saddam, but as an Arab I felt it was insulting that a former president, even though he was bad, was executed with the help of the US,” explained Ali.

Saudi student Hashem Al-Imam said that Saddam got what he deserved. “This is the appropriate end for a dictator that ruled Iraq with an iron fist and killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and forced many Iraqis to become refugees,” he said. “Today is a celebration of two happy occasions, Eid Al-Adha and the execution of Saddam.”

However, Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said executing Saddam at the beginning of Eid was an “insensitive and provocative act by the US-backed Iraqi government.”

“No one can deny that Saddam should have faced justice for his crimes against the people of Iraq and also his invasion of Iran and Kuwait,” said Abdul Bari. “Far from contributing to a so-called healing process, it may serve to further intensify the sectarian divisions in Iraq.”

— Additional input from Mahmoud Ahmad and Ismail Nakhuda

http://www.arabnews.com/?article=90538

[ABLAT Staff]

The Washington Times
www.washingtontimes.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunni areas erupt in rage over Saddam
By Lauren Frayer
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published January 2, 2007

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BAGHDAD -- Rage over the hanging of Saddam Hussein spilled into the streets in many parts of the Sunni Muslim heartland yesterday, especially in Samarra, where a mob of protesters broke the locks of the badly damaged Shi'ite Golden Mosque and marched through carrying a mock coffin and photo of the executed former Iraqi dictator.
Sunni extremists had blown apart the glistening dome on the Shi'ite holy place 10 months earlier, setting in motion the sectarian slaughter that now grips the troubled land.
The U.S. death toll climbed to at least 3,002 by the final day of 2006 as the American military reported the deaths of two soldiers in an explosion Sunday in Diyala province, northeast of the capital.
The Samarra protest was particularly significant because it signaled a widening expression of defiance among Sunnis, the minority Muslim sect in Iraq that had enjoyed special status and power under Saddam and had oppressed the now-ascendant Shi'ite majority for centuries.
Until Saddam was executed, excluding a few days of protests after his death sentence was handed down Nov. 5, the broader Sunni population had sought a low profile in the sectarian conflict that had seen thousands of them killed or driven from their homes by Shi'ite militia forces since the Samarra bombing Feb. 22.
The Sunnis were angered not only by Saddam's hurried execution, just four days after an appeals court upheld his conviction and sentence, but also by the unruly and undignified manner in which the hanging was carried out.
A clandestine video of the hanging showed Saddam was taunted by some present at the execution with chants of "Muqtada, Muqtada, Muqtada" in the last moments of his life.
The chants were a reference to anti-American Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who runs one of the deadliest religious militias in Iraq and is a major power behind the government of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who had pushed for Saddam to be hanged before the year was out.
Iraq's government said yesterday that it would investigate the video and the taunts at the execution.
Saddam was put to death on the eve of the Shi'ite celebration of the Eid al-Adha, the major Muslim festival marking the end of the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca and a remembrance of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son, now symbolized by the slaughtering of sheep.
The first judge in the so-called Dujail trial, Rizgar Mohammed Amin, said Saddam's execution during Eid was illegal according to Iraqi law. Sunni Muslim festivities marking the holiday began on the day that Saddam was hanged.
Judge Amin, a Kurd, was removed as chief judge in the case after Shi'ite complaints that he was too lenient. He was replaced last January by Judge Raouf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman.
Judge Amin said: "The implementation of Saddam's execution during Eid al-Adha is illegal according to Chapter 9 of the tribunal law. Article 27 states that nobody, even the president (Jalal Talabani), may change rulings by the tribunal and the implementation of the sentence should not happen until 30 days after publication that the appeals court has upheld the tribunal verdict.
"The hanging during the Eid al-Adha period [also] contradicts Iraqi and Islamic custom.
"Article 290 of the criminal code of 1971 states that no verdict should be implemented during the official holidays or religious festivals," he said.
Iraq's 1971 legal code was largely used in the Saddam trial.
"The Ba'ath Party and Ba'athists still exist in Iraq, and nobody can marginalize it," said Samir al-Obaidi, 48, who attended a Saddam memorial in the Azamiyah neighborhood.
In Dor, 77 miles north of Baghdad, hundreds more took to the streets to inaugurate a giant mosaic of Saddam. Children carried toy guns, and men fired into the air.
Mourners at a mosque in Tikrit, near Saddam's hometown, slaughtered sheep as a sacrifice for their former leader. The mosque's walls were lined with condolence cards from tribes in southern Iraq and Jordan who were unable to travel to the memorial.
Saddam's eldest daughter briefly attended a protest yesterday in Amman, Jordan -- her first public appearance since her father was hanged.
Raghad Saddam Hussein stopped in at the demonstration staged by the Professional Associations, a body that groups unions for doctors, engineers and lawyers, in its office parking lot in west Amman.
"God bless you, and I thank you for honoring Saddam, the martyr," two witnesses recalled Mrs. Hussein as telling the protesters, who included a junior Cabinet minister, on her arrival. She left a minute later.
Also, U.S. forces killed six persons in a raid on the Baghdad offices of a top Sunni politician, Saleh al-Mutlaq, on suspicion it was being used as an al Qaeda safe house, the military and Iraqi police said.
The U.S. military took on heavy fire from automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades as they sought to enter the building. Mr. al-Mutlaq is a senior member of the National Dialogue Front, which holds 11 of the 275 seats in Iraq's parliament.
Police reported finding 40 handcuffed, blindfolded and bullet-riddled bodies in Baghdad on the first day of the new year.

http://www.washtimes.com/world/20070102-121558-1690r.htm

[ABLAT Staff]

Top Iraqi source: U.S. tried to delay execution
POSTED: 9:59 p.m. EST, January 1, 2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. officials reportedly tried to delay last week's execution of Saddam Hussein, fearing it would fuel perceptions the death of the former Iraqi dictator was more about Shiite retribution and less about justice.

Those fears seemed borne out by an amateur recording of Hussein's last moments.

It was a caution that fell on deaf ears, however, as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite, was determined to put Hussein to death before the beginning of the Eid al-Adha holiday.

The holiday began at sunrise Saturday for Iraqi Sunnis on Sunday for Shiites.

Hussein, a Sunni, was executed 6 a.m. Saturday (10 p.m. Friday ET). ([url=java script:cnnVideo('play','/video/world/2006/12/31/damon.saddam.execution.video.spreads.cnn','2007/01/14');]Watch Iraqis pass around footage of execution[/url] )

Official: U.S. wanted to wait two weeks
By midday Friday, amid reports and public denials that the United States had given Iraqis custody of Hussein, American officials were talking privately with al-Maliki, according to a member of the Iraqi parliament close to the prime minister.

At one point, the parliament member said, a top U.S. official suggested a delay of two weeks.

Al-Maliki and his aides rejected that, the Iraqi official said, citing security concerns and rumors of possible violence swirling around the capital.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi official said, the Americans asked for written documentation to make sure the execution was legal under the Iraqi constitution.

There was one final hurdle: Would President Jalal Talabani, a Sunni Kurd who opposes the death penalty, object to the execution?

A phone call later Friday between al-Maliki and the president ended with a decision that Talabani's signature was not needed.

No explanation for the decision was given.

Late Friday night, the parliament member told CNN, top U.S. officials met with al-Maliki's deputies to work out when the handover should take place, along with other logistical arrangements.

At that point, Iraqi officials told the media that al-Maliki had signed the last crucial document.

Conflicting accounts of Hussein's demeanor
Hussein's delivery to the gallows went by the book.

He was transported from his holding cell at Camp Cropper to the execution site, a building where Hussein's intelligence officers had hanged so many others.

There, he was handed over to Iraqi security.

Two witnesses have given conflicting accounts on his bearing as he walked to his death. Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, called him "a broken man."

"He was staring at me, and I was sort of looking at him as well, in a forceful way," he said. "And then he said -- he was telling me, don't be afraid. Of course, you know, this is -- he's afraid, so he was frightened."

But a top judge -- Munir Haddad of the Iraqi Supreme Appellate Court, which upheld the death sentence -- saw Hussein differently.

"I was very surprised," he said. "He was not afraid of death."

Cell-phone video
The official government video of the execution was released without sound and ends when the noose is put around Hussein's neck.

But a crude cell-phone video leaked less than 24 hours later goes much further -- showing bitter exchanges between Hussein and his Shiite guards.

After Hussein offers prayers, the guards shout praise for Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric whose father is believed to have been murdered by Hussein's regime.

They chant, "Muqtada! Muqtada! Muqtada!"

Hussein smiles.

"Is this how you show your bravery as men?" he asks.

"Straight to hell," someone shouts back at him.

"Is this the bravery of Arabs?" Hussein asks.

A sole voice is heard trying to silence the taunts.

"Please, I am begging you not to," the unknown man says. "The man is being executed."

Another shout, "Long live Mohammed Baqir Sadr" -- referring to Muqtada al-Sadr's father-in-law and a founder of the Shiite Dawa movement who was executed by the Hussein regime. Dawa is al-Maliki's party.

The taunts continued, and the trapdoor dropped shortly after 6 a.m. Saturday. Hussein was hanged. ([url=java script:cnnVideo('play','/video/world/2006/12/31/raman.saddam.gallows.to.grave.cnn','2007/01/14');]Watch Hussein's last moments [/url] )

Immediately after, Shiite witnesses danced around his body, chanting celebratory slogans.

On Sunday, the U.S. military transported Hussein's body for burial at his home village of Awja near Tikrit, where Sunnis took to the streets loudly calling the former Iraqi president a hero and a martyr.

The grainy, dark video has outraged Sunnis, while Shiites have scrambled to see for themselves that Hussein was dead.

"It's something amazing," said Abbas Mansour, owner of a mobile-phone store in Baghdad. "No one really believed that Saddam would be executed because the people were so scared of him and his regime.

"So anything of him, on TV or on mobile phones, they want to see it. It's like a thirst that cannot be quenched. Even little kids are looking for it."

Mahmoud Askar, a Kurd who believes Hussein deserved to be hanged for his crimes, does not agree with the way it was carried out.

"The way the whole thing was filmed was a bad decision by the government, and ultimately helped Saddam because people sympathize with him," he said.

U.S. military officials would not comment for this story, saying the execution proceedings were matters handled by the Iraqis.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/01/01/...tion/index.html

[ABLAT Staff]

16,273 Deaths Reported in Iraq in 2006

By LAUREN FRAYER (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
January 02, 2007 10:48 AM EST
In a Jan. 1 story about Sunni demonstrators breaking into the Golden Dome mosque in Samarra as part of a protest of the execution of Saddam Hussein, The Associated Press erroneously reported that the protesters broke the locks off the door of the damaged Shiite shrine and forcibly entered. Iraqi police now say demonstrators were allowed to enter the shrine through a side door after threatening violence.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - As enraged crowds protested the hanging of Saddam Hussein across Iraq's Sunni heartland Monday, government officials reported that 16,273 Iraqi civilians, soldiers and police died violent deaths in 2006, a figure larger than an independent Associated Press count for the year by more than 2,500.

The tabulation by the Iraqi ministries of Health, Defense and Interior, showed that 14,298 civilians, 1,348 police and 627 soldiers were killed in the violence that raged in the country last year.

The Associated Press accounting, gleaned from daily news reports from Baghdad, arrived at a total of 13,738 deaths. The United Nations has said as many as 100 Iraqis die violently each day, which translates into 36,500 deaths annually.

In Samarra, demonstrators were allowed to enter a Shiite shrine through a side door after threatening violence, and marched through carrying a mock coffin and photo of the dictator.

The demonstration in the Golden Dome, shattered in a bombing by Sunni extremists 10 months ago, suggests that many Sunni Arabs may now more actively support the small number of Sunni militants fighting the country's Shiite-dominated government. The Feb. 22 bombing of the shrine triggered the current cycle of retaliatory attacks between Sunnis and Shiia, in the form of daily bombings, kidnappings and murders.

Monday's protest came on a day that saw the U.S. military kill six Iraqis during a raid on the offices of a prominent Sunni political figure, who was suspected of giving al-Qaida in Iraq fighters sanctuary.

Until Saddam's execution Saturday, most Sunnis sympathized with militants but avoided taking a direct role in the sectarian conflict - despite attacks by Shiite militia that have killed thousands of Sunnis or driven them from their homes. The current Sunni protests, which appear to be building, could signal a spreading militancy.

Sunnis were not only outraged by Saddam's hurried execution, just four days after an appeals court upheld his conviction and sentence. Many were also incensed by the unruly scene in the execution chamber, captured on video, in which Saddam was taunted with chants of "Muqtada, Muqtada, Muqtada."

The chants referred to Muqtada al-Sadr, a firebrand Shiite cleric who runs one of Iraq's most violent religious militias. He is a major power behind the government of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Many Sunnis are also upset that Saddam was put to death the day that Sunni celebrations began for Eid al-Adha, a major Muslim festival. The judge who first presided over the case that resulted in Saddam's death sentence said the former dictator's execution at the start of Eid was illegal according to Iraqi law, and contradicted Islamic custom.

The law states that "no verdict should implemented during the official holidays or religious festivals," said Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin, a Kurd.

Rizgar presided over Saddam's trial on charges he killed 148 Shiite men and boys in Dujail, north of Baghdad, in a botched assassination attempt in 1982. The judge was removed from the case after Shiite complaints that he was too lenient.

In a Sunni neighborhood in northern Baghdad, hundreds of demonstrators mourned the executed leader. Some praised the Baath Party, the outlawed nationalist group that under Saddam cemented Sunni Arab dominance of Iraq.

"The Baath party and Baathists still exist in Iraq, and nobody can marginalize it," said Samir al-Obaidi, 48, who attended a Saddam memorial in the Azamiyah neighborhood.

In Dor, 77 miles north of Baghdad, hundreds more took to the streets to attend the dedication of a giant mosaic of Saddam. Children carried toy guns and men fired real weapons into the air.

Mourners at a mosque in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit slaughtered sheep as a sacrifice. The mosque's walls were lined with condolence cards from tribes in southern Iraq and Jordan who were unable to travel to the memorial.

Saddam's eldest daughter briefly attended a protest Monday in Jordan - her first public appearance since her father was hanged.

"God bless you, and I thank you for honoring Saddam, the martyr," said Raghad Saddam Hussein, according to two witnesses. She addressed members of the Professional Associations - an umbrella group of unions representing doctors, engineers and lawyers - in the group's office parking lot in west Amman.

In the midst of the protests, U.S. forces continued operations in Iraq.

Six Iraqis were killed in a U.S.-led raid on the Baghdad offices of a top Sunni politician, Saleh al-Mutlaq. The U.S. military and Iraqi police said they suspected the offices were being used as an al-Qaida safe house.

Al-Mutlaq is a senior member of the National Dialogue Front, which holds 11 of the 275 seats in Iraq's parliament.

U.S. forces said they took on heavy fire from automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades as they sought to enter the building. Ground troops were backed by helicopters that "engaged the enemy with precision point target machine gun fire," the military said.

It was unclear whether the deaths resulted from the ground assault or fire from U.S. helicopters.

Associated Press Television News footage showed masses of rubble in the area and what appeared to be a long smear of blood where a body had been dragged across the floor of one of the buildings.

Walls were pitted with what appeared to be bullet and shrapnel holes.

The U.S. death toll, meanwhile, climbed to at least 3,002 by the final day of 2006 as the American military reported the deaths of two more soldiers in an explosion Sunday in Diyala Province, northeast of the capital. With the announcement, the Associated Press count of fatalities showed that at least 113 U.S. service members died in December. That makes it bloodiest month of 2006.

Iraqi authorities Monday reported that 16,273 Iraqis - including 14,298 civilians, 1,348 police and 627 soldiers - died violent deaths in 2006. The total exceeds the Associated Press count by more than 2,500.

On the first day of the New Year, Iraqi Police reported finding the 40 handcuffed, blindfolded and bullet-riddled bodies in Baghdad. A police official, who refused to be named out of security fears, said 15 of the bodies were discovered in the mainly industrial Sheik Omar district of northern Baghdad.

An Iraqi worker for the Algerian Embassy in Baghdad was shot to death, police said.

Also Monday, the Iraqi government raided and sealed the offices of a privately owned television station, charging it had incited violence and hatred in its programming. In its coverage of the execution of Saddam over the weekend, a newscaster had worn black mourning clothes.

The satellite television channel Al-Sharqiya, which broadcasts from Dubai, remained on the air late Monday. The station is owned by Saad al-Bazzaz, a one-time chief of radio and television for Saddam.

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/gen?gui...0102-1830424537

[ABLAT Staff]

3,000 Jordanians protest Saddam's execution


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST Jan. 5, 2007

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the largest pro-Saddam demonstration to date, some 3,000 protesters marched through the Jordanian capital on Friday to lash out at American and Shi'ite Muslim influence in the Arab world.

The protesters, mostly from Sunni Muslim or leftist opposition groups, accused Iran of being involved in the hasty hanging of the former Iraqi dictator, who was executed Saturday in Baghdad.

"Death to America and to Iran," shouted the crowd, who marched from a mosque in down town Amman after the noon prayers, bearing portraits of Saddam and waving the Iraqi flag.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...Article/Printer

[ABLAT Staff]

Saturday, January 6, 2007

FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU
'Saddam' terror group
says it's targeting U.S.
Palestinians threaten, form 'resistance organization' named after hanged dictator

Posted: January 6, 2007
12:43 p.m. Eastern

By Aaron Klein

© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
JERUSALEM – Palestinians in the Gaza Strip today announced the formation of what they say is a new "resistance" group to carry out attacks against the United States, Israel and Iran in the name of executed former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

The new purported organization, the Saddam Hussein Martyrs Brigades, will "hit America, Israel, Iran and all the traitors to our people," according to a pamphlet distributed today in the densely populated Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis and obtained by WND.

"The Zionists and Americans will not dream of more invasion because the reaction of our wing will be very painful. The cells of our organization are spread all around Palestine," the pamphlet stated.

Israeli and Palestinian security sources could not immediately confirm the formation of the purported new group.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip this weekend mourning ceremonies continued for Hussein, who was hanged one week ago after being sentenced to death for crimes against humanity.

In the northern West Bank town of Yabed, near Jenin, about 500 people yesterday participated in a march for Hussein. They also opened a mourning tent in his honor.

In Halhoul, near Hebron, hundreds of Palestinians reportedly attended a rally in honor of Hussein, waving flags of several Palestinian terror groups. Rally-goers burned the Israeli and American flags, and chanted slogans against Iran and against Iraqi Shiite leaders who opposed Hussein.

Pictures of Hussein alongside late PLO leader Yasser Arafat were posted throughout Gaza and the West Bank.

Iranian leaders last week hailed the death of Hussein. Iran and Iraq engaged in a bitter war from 1980-1988. Many Iranian Shiites saw Hussein as an enemy in part due to his violent repression of Iraqi Shiites.

Hussein was considered a hero to most Palestinians. His final words last week reportedly included "Palestine is Arab."

During the first Gulf War in 1991, Palestinians cheered Hussein's missile attacks on Israel, chanting "Beloved Saddam, strike Tel Aviv," as the Scud missiles flew overhead. Some scuds fell short and landed in Palestinian areas.

Hussein further endeared himself to the Palestinians during the latest Palestinian intifada, or terror war, which began in September 2000. The Iraqi dictator donated about $25,000 to the family of each Palestinian suicide bomber and $10,000 for each Palestinian killed while committing attacks against Israel. The stipends amounted to an estimated $35 million.

Mideast analysts say Hussein's support for the Palestinian cause was mostly aimed at gaining widespread support throughout the Arab world.

http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53659

[ABLAT Staff]

Alaska Stargazers Excited About Comet

By MARY PEMBERTON (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
January 11, 2007 10:45 PM EST
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Nothing can keep dedicated stargazers from trying to get a glimpse of the brightest comet seen in decades - not even temperatures as low as 40 below zero.

There hadn't been a lot of buzz about Comet McNaught, discovered just last year. But as the comet got closer to the sun, it brightened and the word spread - the comet was special.

Martin Gutoski drove to a lookout about five miles north of Fairbanks on Tuesday evening, when skies were especially cold and clear - good comet-viewing weather, even if it was frigid.

The amateur astronomer waited for sunset and watched as the sky turned salmon red and darkened. He turned his attention toward the spot on the horizon where the sun set.

"It is a very large spike, almost a vertical spike at sunset. ... I was more than impressed with it," he said.

Comet McNaught, discovered last year by Australian astronomer R.H. McNaught, is expected to remain visible throughout the Northern Hemisphere through Friday, when it will come to within 16 million miles of the sun and be obscured by the sun's glare. After that, it will eventually emerge for people in the Southern Hemisphere to enjoy.

Five hundred miles north of Fairbanks in Barrow, at the top of North America, Glenn Sheehan said he hadn't heard anything about a comet until a colleague spread the word that something was different overhead.

In Barrow's long, dark winter, something new in the sky is always welcome, Sheehan said. The sun set there on Nov. 18, not to rise again until Jan. 23.

"The only other outdoor distraction today was a polar bear and two cubs going through here," he said Wednesday.

Sheehan, executive director of the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium, went out to take a look Monday afternoon. He said he wasn't sure what the object was, briefly entertaining the thought that it was a plane.

"That didn't make sense, and I gave up and started calling people to find out," he said.

Comets are collections of ice, gas and dust that orbit the sun and usually have two tails, one made of dust and the other of ionizing gases.

NASA astronomer Tony Phillips says Comet McNaught is the brightest comet visible from Earth in 30 years. It is six times brighter than Hale-Bopp in 1997, and 100 times brighter than Halley's Comet when it appeared in 1986, Phillips told The Associated Press on Thursday.

"It will remain a spectacular comet for weeks, perhaps months, in the Southern Hemisphere," Phillips said. "It could emerge as the brightest comet in recorded history."

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/top?gui...70111-846506297

[ABLAT Staff]

Major investment bank issues warning on strike against Iran

Michael Roston
Published: Monday January 15, 2007

Bank sees February or March timeline if Israel strikes

Warning that investors might be "in for a shock," a major investment bank has told the financial community that a preemptive strike by Israel with American backing could hit Iran's nuclear program, RAW STORY has learned.

The banking division of ING Group released a memo on Jan. 9 entitled "Attacking Iran: The market impact of a surprise Israeli strike on its nuclear facilities."

ING is a global financial services company of Dutch origin that includes banking, insurance, and other divisions. The report was authored by Charles Robertson, the Chief Economist for Emerging Europe, Middle East, and Africa. He also authored an update in ING's daily update, Prophet, that further underscored the bank's perception of the risks of an attack.

ING's Robertson admitted that an attack on Iran was "high impact, if low probability," but explained some of the reasons why a strike might go forward. The Jan. 9 dispatch, describes Israel as "not prepared to accept the same doctrine of ‘mutually assured destruction’ that kept the peace during the Cold War. Israel is adamant that this is not an option for such a geographically small country....So if Israel is convinced Iran is aiming to develop a nuclear weapon, it must presumably act at some point."

Sketching out the time line for an attack, Robertson says that "we can be fairly sure that if Israel is going to act, it will be keen to do so while Bush and Cheney are in the White House."

Robertson suggests a February-March 2007 timeframe for several reasons. First, there is a comparable situation to Israel's strike on Iraq's nuclear program in 1981, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's political troubles within Israel. Second, late February will see Iran's deadline to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 1737, and Israel could use a failure of Iran and the UN to follow through as justification for a strike. Finally, greater US military presence in the region at that time could be seen by Israel as the protection from retaliation that it needs.

In his Jan. 15 update, Robertson points to a political reason that could make the assault more likely – personnel changes in the Bush administration may have sidelined opponents of attacking Iran.

Preisdent Bush recently removed General John Abizaid as commander of US forces in the Middle East and John Negroponte as Director of National Intelligence, both of whom have said attacking Iran is not a priority or the right move at this time. The deployment of Patriot missile batteries, highlighted in President Bush's recent White House speech on America's Iraq policy, also pointed to a need to defend against Iranian missiles.

The ING memo was first sent to RAW STORY as an anonymous tip and confirmed Monday by staff in the bank's emerging markets office, who passed along the Jan. 15 update. The full PDF documents can be downloaded at this link for the Jan. 9 report, and this link for the Jan. 15 update. A screenshot of the first page is provided below.

On Monday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Al-Arabiya that while his country would hold talks with the United States "under appropriate conditions," the Jerusalem Post reported, but that it "would never conduct similar discussions with Israel, since it didn't recognize the Jewish state's existence."

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/Major_in...ng_on_0115.html

[ABLAT Staff]

Saddam's secret weapons exports
Iraqi dictator's bombs used in war against south Sudanese Christians

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: January 28, 2001
1:00 a.m. Eastern

Editor's note: As reported in the New York Times recently, Saddam Hussein is rebuilding factories that produce weapons of mass destruction inside Iraq. But what about the weapons Saddam has shipped out of Iraq and safely into other countries? And what are the details of Iraq's assistance in the Islamic genocidal killing fields of south Sudan? WorldNetDaily international correspondent Anthony C. LoBaido, who made two trips inside Iraq last fall -- in addition to visiting Jordan, Kurdistan and Denmark in pursuit of this story -- presents a revealing look at this dangerous scenario.
By Anthony LoBaido
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has smuggled weapons of mass destruction into Algeria, Sudan and Libya -- and has played an ongoing role in the war in Sudan between the Islamic government of Khartoum and the black, mostly Christian and animist South Sudanese People's Liberation Army, WorldNetDaily has learned.

The chilling story comes via the Iraqi-Kurdish doctor, Hassan Abdul Salaam (a Muslim name meaning "Soldier of Peace"), who earlier shared with WorldNetDaily from his home in a repatriation camp here his revelations about Hussein's biological weapons program.

Salaam was conscripted into the Iraqi army where he served as a doctor. He was able to treat many Kurds and Iraqi soldiers injured in the fighting. Additionally, Hassan explained to WorldNetDaily how he learned from Iraqi military experts about how to survive a biological and chemical attack. Moreover, Salaam described in intimate detail the Iraqi biological and chemical weapons programs and their connections to Russian and Chinese military advisers -- experts on biological and biochemical war.

Chillingly, Hassan also documented that Saddam's top weapons henchman -- a certain Dr. Hassan Izbah -- is entertaining members of Japan's Aum Shin Rikyo cult, which was found guilty of conducting the infamous nerve-gas attack in Tokyo a few years ago. Izbah is the point man Saddam uses to work with various cults and terror groups around the world.

Now, a few months after arriving safely in Denmark and having been debriefed by Interpol and the Danish Intelligence Service, Salaam has told WorldNetDaily about Saddam's weapons shenanigans -- thanks to the courageous help of the Danish Red Cross.

"The U.N. Security Council does not want to know the truth about Iraq's weapons. Consider that Russia and China are Iraq's allies -- and that France maintains close relations with Iraq. They all sit on the Security Council opposed to the U.S. and British bombings and sanctions against Saddam," said Salaam.

"When I was conscripted into the Iraqi army's biological weapons unit, I learned a lot about their military technology in this regard," Salaam said. "Artillery shells loaded with toxins and poisons: botulism, anthrax -- you name it, he's got it. I estimate over 8,000 liters of anthrax, 200 tons of VX nerve gas and an unknown quantity of agent 15. What Saddam and Dr. Izbah don't have on hand, they get from the North Koreans or the Russians ... or others."

Agent 15, according to MI-6, the British intelligence agency, is a non-lethal nerve gas that causes hallucinations, disabling enemy troops for several hours.

"Iraq is a major connecting point for global criminals and outcast regimes," Salaam continued. "Eastern European communists, the murderous Algerians -- and Libya -- had military officers visit our unit. Sudan as well. Most people know about the genocide in Sudan committed by the Islamic government against the black Christians. Those poor south-Sudanese -- they are worse off than even us Kurds."

"We worked diligently in labs that were set up by the Russians -- mobile units like domes the Eskimos live in, but bigger. The security around the workstations was incredible. The firepower and caliber of the soldiers was like a Special Forces operation. Muzahm Tassab al-Hassan and Abd-al-Rizzaq Shihab from Saddam's military industrial complex were also on hand. They are missile experts -- not doctors -- though real tough soldiers.

We worked with many toxins, preparing them for shipment out of Iraq. We had to work at odd hours, too, because the Iraqis were aware of the times the American satellites would be passing by overhead. I know these biological weapons were headed for Sudan, Libya, Algeria and possibly to some underground movements in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan. And, of course, the PLO can't wait to get their hands on them. But Saddam wants to use them on Israel himself so, as long as Saddam is alive, the PLO won't get any biological weapons from Iraq."

Asked how he could go along with participating in preparing these weapons for export, Salaam added, "It was very difficult for me -- until they put a gun to my head when I protested. I wanted to live to see my wife and children again." The doctor's family was being held in an Iran-based refugee camp under the watchful eye of Iraqi agents. He eventually managed to escape the Iraqi army and find safety in Iran, then Turkey, and finally asylum in Denmark.

"I know I can't undo what I've done, except to tell the intelligence agencies and the media what Saddam is up to," Salaam explained. "Even if the Iraqi assassins hunt me down and kill me off like Hussein Kamal [another Iraqi defector who exposed Saddam's weapon's programs to the CIA and Mossad station chiefs in Amman, Jordan], I will have fulfilled my duty before both Allah and mankind."

Saddam's war on Sudanese Christians

Piecing together Saddam's exports is tricky business. As WorldNetDaily has reported, Saddam's own company -- Asia -- is a billion-dollar enterprise. Asia exports oil, water, toys, food and baby needs to Turkey, Jordan and other states in the region. Even the Kurds get a piece of this action. America, the UK, Jordan and Turkey allow Asia to operate unencumbered, feeling that such trade is beneficial to the Kurds.

More problematic, however, is the fact that Saddam and his regime have constructed weapons plants in Sudan and smuggled weapons of mass destruction into Algeria. Moreover, Iraq built a biological-warfare laboratory complex in Libya 240 miles southwest of Tripoli. Another biological warfare complex built to produce botulism and anthrax was set up under the innocuous name of "General Health Laboratories."

The U.S. Defense Department has publicly stated that it has "no non-nuclear [method] to take out Libya's underground biological weapons facility at Tarhunnah." A conventional attack, says the Pentagon, will only stop production at the facility for one month or so.

The Tarhunnah plant was built as a sideshow to Gadhafi's "Great Manmade River Project," built with the help of a giant South Korean construction firm. Former CIA director John Deutch has called this plant "the largest underground chemical weapons plant in the world."

During the second term of the Reagan administration, the U.S. bombed Libyan cities Tripoli and Behghazi. Gadhafi has denied the existence of the Tarhunnah plant. Few, if any, in the West believe him.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration is holding secret talks with Libya's ambassador to the United Nations. The talks center on the impending verdict in the Pan Am flight 103 bombing trial. Some 259 people were killed in the Dec. 21, 1988, bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. The men on trial are two highly trained Libyan intelligence agents, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima.

The conclusion of the trial reportedly will pave the way for Libya to restore "normal" ties with the U.S. and the European Union.

U.N. Ambassador James Cunningham, British U.N. Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock and Libyan U.N. representative Abuzed Omar Dorda are meeting to work out the details of the agreement.

In light of the Khartoum government's use of biological and biochemical weapons against the black south-Sudanese Christians, one may wonder: What are the conditions inside Sudan? South African missionary Peter Hammond of Frontline Fellowship is just one of many Westerners who have documented this horrendous holocaust.

According to a House Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, in the early 1990s, the "Iraqis moved into the area of the Red Sea mountain range -- in Madabay in Khawr Ashraf, Port Sudan, in the region of Dalawat on the Red Sea near Hala'ib and the city of Tawker in the region of Karnakanat. The Iraqis brought into these installations high-tech equipment and computers, missiles, defense systems, anti-aircraft systems and radar systems.

By late 1993, the regions surrounding these installations were experiencing strict security measures and 24-hour armed patrols roam around it. In some areas, such as in the Port Sudan area, shepherds and nomads were completely removed from security zones within a 60-kilometer circumference.

Meanwhile, teams of Iraqi intelligence, military and commando officers arrived in Khartoum in the summer of 1995 to assist the Sudanese armed forces against what the Iraqis now called 'foreign intervention in Sudan.'"

The House report is filled with troubling information.

The Iraqi units were deployed to guard Saddam's weapons of mass destruction -- or WMD inside Sudan -- to train the Sudanese in intelligence gathering and to restructure the Islamic Sudanese Army in the same manner as the Iraqi Republican Guard.

Iraqi troops fought in south Sudan near Pibor against the black Christian SPLA army in the fall of 1995. About 120 Iraqi crews arrived in Pibor with tanks and uniforms marked with the insignia of the Iraqi Republican Guard. Iraqi artillery forces shelled SPLA camps in Torit with napalm bombs and wounded or killed over 250 people.

The Iraqi air force dropped chemical bombs on Kadugli and the Namang mountains in southern Sudan. Eyewitnesses reported that "deaths and injuries occurred among residents" and that "there was a big change in the color of the corpses and of animals and trees." Chemical warfare of this type has been well-documented in Afghanistan and Southeast Asia.

Other biological and/or chemical attacks were carried out at Nimule and at Kuya -- near Juba, Sudan's southern capital. The Tulushi-Tulus mountains area was also similarly attacked.

Near Soba, outside Khartoum, the Iraqis and the Sudanese also carried out tests of chemical agents in the desert. In May 1997, residents got sick when winds shifted suddenly and carried residues into populated areas.

By the summer of 1997, Khartoum completed the building of a new and far more sophisticated chemical weapons production factory in the region of Kafuri, north of Khartoum on the banks of the Blue Nile. The Kafuri facility includes laboratories, testing and prototype production sites for both chemical weapons -- including nerve agents -- and biological weapons, as well as storage sites for bulk chemicals and weapons loaded with both chemical and biological payloads.

Among the chemical weapons tested in Kafuri are 122mm and 152mm artillery shells, as well as rocket and tactical missile warheads. In building this factory, the Sudanese relied on technical assistance from Iraq and Iran. Additional expertise came from Egypt, Croatia, Bulgaria and Russia -- all recruited by Iraqi intelligence on behalf of the Sudanese. The key experts who helped with this program have been residing in a luxurious dormitory inside the compound.

The Yarmook Industrial Complex is another area of concern for the West. This military-controlled strategic installation covers an area of 10 by 20 kilometers in southern Khartoum. There are over 300 small buildings and sheds in seven clusters in the compound. The complex includes a production line for chemical agents, as well as production facilities for military equipment and weapons connected with the use of chemical weapons. These include warheads, bombs and canisters, as well as protective gear and special modifications to combat vehicles carrying these weapons.

In addition, the compound includes a special medical clinic, sports facilities, a mosque and a high-security living site where Muslim foreign experts from Iraq, Iran and Bulgaria live in two dormitories. There are also guesthouses for senior project advisers from Iraq and Iran. Moreover, there is a small farm ensuring the supply of fresh milk, vegetables and dates for the WMD workers. The famine and scorched-earth policies pursued by Khartoum in south Sudan do not affect the eating habits of these doomsday scientists.

Well-protected underground storage sites are found at several other locations as well.

The Sudanese military has recently begun training pilots and artillery officers in maintaining and using chemical weapons in a special school set up in the Wadi Seidna military compound. Osama bin Laden is building his own chemical weapons facility near the Islamic Center in Khartoum.

Playing hide and seek

Just as the American and British bombing of Iraq has continued since 1991 out of the media spotlight, so too has Saddam's transfer of WMD out of Iraq occurred below the radar of United Nations weapons inspectors.

In fact, it was not until 1994 that Germany's intelligence service became the first international spy agency to take inventory and document Saddam's WMD programs. The Iraqi dictator had even purchased needed items from Austria, Switzerland and Germany to upgrade those programs.

What else does Saddam have hidden inside Sudan? Consider the following:


A WMD facility was built during 1995 in an area near Wau in the Bahr-el-Ghazal province in southwestern Sudan, some 300 kilometers from the Uganda border.

Fissionable material, documents and weapons' subsystems were shipped via Jordan, utilizing Sudanese diplomatic mail privileges.

About 27.5 pounds of U-235, which had been originally supplied to Iraq by France for use in the French-built Osiraq research reactor, has been passed on to Ain Oussera, a town in Algeria.
Where will this game end?

Salaam believes he has the answer: "America and the West must acknowledge that the continued bombing of Iraq is not the answer to curtailing Saddam's WMD program. As you say in English, `the cat's already out of the bag.'"

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=21497

[ABLAT Staff]

General says U.S. has proof Iran arming Iraqi militias
Posted 1/30/2007 11:06 PM ET

By Jim Michaels, USA TODAY
BAGHDAD — Iran is supplying Iraqi militias with a variety of powerful weapons including Katyusha rockets, the No. 2 U.S. general in Iraq said Tuesday.
"We have weapons that we know through serial numbers … that trace back to Iran," Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno said in an interview with USA TODAY.

His comments came as the Bush administration has been taking an increasingly tough stance against what it alleges is Iranian meddling in sectarian violence in Iraq. Last week, the White House confirmed that the president had authorized U.S. troops to take action against Iranian agents in Iraq who present threats.

On Tuesday, President Bush vowed to crack down on those who supply Iraqi insurgents with arms, though he denied any plans to invade Iran.

"We'll deal with it by finding their supply chains and their agents and … arresting them. … In other words, we're going to protect our troops," Bush told ABC News.

Odierno did not provide further details on how weapons were linked to Iran. The Iranian government has denied providing weapons to Iraqi militias.

Most weapons supplied by Iran end up in the hands of Shiite extremists, Odierno said.

He said the weapons include:

•The RPG-29, a rocket-propelled grenade that can fire armor-piercing rounds. It is larger and more sophisticated than the RPG-7 more commonly found in Iraq.

•Katyusha rockets, so large they are generally fired from trucks.

•Powerful roadside bombs, known as explosively formed projectiles, which can pierce armor. The technological know-how and "some of the elements to make them are coming out of Iran," Odierno said.

Several Iranians have been detained in raids inside Iraq, and some remain in custody. The arrests have provided clues about Iranian operations, Odierno said.

"Every time you pick up individuals you learn about how they facilitate themselves within a country," he said.

He did not specify whether the Iranians in custody are cooperating, or whether evidence was seized during the arrest.

Iran's ambassador to Iraq told The New York Times this week that Iran was taking steps to expand military and economic ties with Iraq.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/20...iraq-iran_x.htm

[ABLAT Staff]

"...Syria ready with bio-terror if U.S. hits Iran-variation of smallpox is the biological agent Syria would use..."

"Smallpox has been field-tested, it is highly stable, and highly communicable, especially if you look at some of the strains the Russians manipulated"

"Syria could provide biological weapons to some of the terrorist groups they work with, like Hezbollah in Lebanon"
-----
Monday, March 5, 2007

BIOLOGICAL WAR-FEAR
Syria ready with bio-terror if U.S. hits Iran
Damascus reportedly hiding WMD among commercial pharmaceuticals

Posted: March 5, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Jerome R. Corsi

© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

An American biodefense analyst living in Europe says if the U.S. invades Iran to halt its nuclear ambitions, Syria is ready to respond with weapons of mass destruction – specifically biological weapons.

"Syria is positioned to launch a biological attack on Israel or Europe should the U.S. attack Iran," Jill Bellamy-Dekker told WND. "The Syrians are embedding their biological weapons program into their commercial pharmaceuticals business and their veterinary vaccine-research facilities. The intelligence service oversees Syria's 'bio-farm' program and the Ministry of Defense is well interfaced into the effort."

Bellamy-Decker currently directs the Public Health Preparedness program for the European Homeland Security Association under the French High Committee for Civil Defense.

She anticipates a variation of smallpox is the biological agent Syria would utilize.

"The Syrians are also working on orthopox viruses that are related to smallpox," Bellamy-Decker said, "and it's a good way to get around international treaties against offensive biological weapons development. They work on camelpox as a cover for smallpox."

According to the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota, camelpox is a virus closely related to smallpox, that causes a "severe and economically important disease in camels," but rarely, if ever, causes the disease in humans.

Bellamy-Decker also told WND the North Koreans were working closely with the Syrians on their biological weapons program.

"The Syrians have made some recent acquisitions in regard to their smallpox program from the DPRK," she explained. "Right before the recent Lebanon war, the Syrians had a crash program in cryptosporidium."

According to the Washington State Department of Health, [url= http://www.wnd.com/redir/r.asp?http://www....heet/crypto.htm]cryptosporidium is a one-celled parasite that causes a gastrointestinal illness with symptoms of diarrhea, abdominal cramps, headaches, nausea, vomiting, and a low-grade fever. The symptoms can last for weeks and may result in weight loss and dehydration[/url].

"Because cryptosporidium is impervious to chlorine," Bellamy-Decker continued, "you could infect the water supply by the bucket full of cryptosporidium, if you know where to get it. The resulting illness would put down a lot of civilians and military who might oppose you going into their country."

"The Syrians have a modus operandi of covert operations and deniability," she stressed, "so biological weapons are absolutely perfect for them."

WND asked Bellamy-Decker if the Syrians have any history of having used biological weapons.

"I believe they are testing biological weapons right now, in Sudan, in the conflict in Darfur," she answered. "There is credible information about flyover activity in Darfur, where little parachutes have been dropped down on the population. This is consistent with dispersal methods in bioweapons attacks. I've also seen evidence of bodies that have been recovered from Darfur that look as if they had been exposed to biological weapons."

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum Feb. 28 to exchange expressions of support and solidarity.

"The Syrians now consider biological weapons as part of their arsenal," Bellamy-Decker said. "The Syrian military is also beginning to plan the eventual integration of biological weapons in its tactical and strategic arsenals."

She referenced an April 2000 article published by Syrian defense minister General Mustafa Talas, titled "Biological (Germ) Warfare: A New and Effective Method in Modern Warfare." The article was republished in a Farsi translation in Tehran.

"All indications suggest that Syria's ultimate objective is to mount biological warheads on all varieties of the long-range surface-to-surface missiles in its possession," Bellamy-Decker maintained. "This is a goal that can probably be achieved within a few years, and it may already have been realized in part."

She argued that instead of producing large quantities of bioweapons agents, Syria is seeking to develop a smaller, but high-quality arsenal, which it can deliver accurately against military and civilian targets.

When asked how Syria might be expected to retaliate against Israel or Europe if the U.S. attacked Iran, she responded, "Syria has most likely forward-deployed some of their covert operatives. Smallpox does not need to be weaponized. Aerosol release is the way to go."

Bellamy-Decker explained the methodology of a terrorist bio-attack:

So with a good primary aerosol release in an airport in Israel or Europe and you could get 100 index cases. If you've made the strain sufficiently virulent, you could have a ratio of 1 to 13 for infectivity, where the normal ratio is 1 to 3. If every index case infects 13 other people, you unfortunately have a great first hit.
"A terrorist bio-attack could go global," she noted. "A good biological hit will spread rapidly with international travel. Smallpox is a better weapon than anthrax. Smallpox has been field-tested, it is highly stable, and highly communicable, especially if you look at some of the strains the Russians manipulated. Syria probably retained some of [its] smallpox strains from the last outbreak back in 1972."

Another risk is the possibility Syria's military might give bioweapons to terrorists.

"We are close to seeing a breakthrough where Syria could provide biological weapons to some of the terrorist groups they work with, like Hezbollah in Lebanon," Bellamy-Decker argued. "The Syrians believe they can vaccinate themselves and they are working within the Syrian military. They're certainly not worried about releasing these biological weapons in a military setting, or even if civilians were infected as well, as long as they are vaccinated. I think it is a real threat."

Bellamy-Decker is presenting a paper at this week's Intelligence Summit in St. Petersburg, Fla. It is expected to focus on the sophisticated state of development of the Syrian bioweapons program.

"The Syrians have developed a rather remarkable bioweapons capability that has gone under the radar of U.S. intelligence," she said. "U.S. intelligence continues to insist that the Syrian capability is not highly developed. The Syrian program mirrors how the Russians have developed their program, as well as Iraq under Saddam Hussein, North Korea, and Iran. The emphasis in the Syrian program is on latent potential and outbreak capability."

Bellamy-Decker explained we should not expect to find stockpiles of biological weapons.

"Stockpiles are just not how biological weapons are done," she said. "With biological weapons, it is not the quantity, but the quality that counts. If you can produce a virulent, communicable strain, then you have a great biological weapon and it doesn't matter how much of it you have, it depends on what the weapon looks like."

Bellamy-Decker also referenced a paper she had co-authored for the European Homeland Security Association (EHSA) titled, "Public Health Security and Preparedness."

This paper is intended to be used as part of a new initiative EHSA is launching in Brussels to hold a quarterly bioterrorism forum bringing together national and international experts with high-level decision-makers "to discuss the threat posed by deliberate disease and the appropriate preparedness and response mechanisms vitally needed to address this threat."

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