time line

30 December, 0610 hours, Saddam Hussein hanged in Baghdad Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi dictator who spent his last years in captivity after his ruthless regime was toppled by the U.S.-led coalition in 2003, was hanged before dawn Saturday at 6:10 a.m. (10 p.m. Friday ET) for crimes committed in a brutal crackdown during his reign. Hussein was convicted and sentenced to death for his role in the 1982 Dujail massacre, in which 148 Iraqis were killed after a failed assassination attempt against the then-Iraqi president.

Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, told Iraqi television, "This dark page has been turned over.” "Saddam is gone. Today Iraq is an Iraq for all the Iraqis, and all the Iraqis are looking forward. The [Hussein] era has gone forever." Al-Iraqiya state television aired videotape of Hussein's last moments several hours after the execution. Rubaie, who witnessed the execution, said the former leader was "strangely submissive" to the process. "He was a broken man," he said. "He was afraid. You could see fear in his face." Rubaie said that Hussein carried with him a copy of the Quran.

The execution took place at the 5th Division intelligence office in Qadhimiya, outside the heavily fortified Green Zone. His death was witnessed by 14 Iraqi officials, no Americans were present. Rubaie said Hussein refused to wear a black hood over his head before execution.

White House deputy press secretary Scott Stanzel said President Bush was asleep when the execution took place and was not awakened. The president had been briefed by national security adviser Stephen Hadley before retiring and was aware the hanging was imminent. The White House issued a statement praising the Iraqi people for giving Hussein a fair trial. "Fair trials were unimaginable under Saddam Hussein's tyrannical rule," The statement read. "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."

Two other codefendants, Barzan Hassan, Hussein's half-brother, and Awwad Bandar, the former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court were also found guilty and had been expected to face execution with Hussein, but Rubaie said their executions were postponed. "We chose to postpone Barzan and Awwad's execution to a later date because we wanted to have this day to have an historic distinction," he said. "We wanted to have one specific date for Saddam so people remember this date to be linked to Saddam's execution and nothing else."

720th	December 2006 Battalion Time Line ~~~~~ 720th Military Police Battalion Reunion Association History Project ~~~~~	89th Bde.
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