Difference between revisions of "Saddam Hussein"
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'''Saddam Hussein''' Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti, April 28, 1937 – December 30, 2006) was the [[Sunni]] President of [[Iraq]] from July 16, 1979<ref>http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aasaddambio.htm</ref> to December 14, 2003<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3317429.stm</ref>. Sadam brought change and [[secularization]] to an otherwise faith-based and religiously guided society. Saddam was a social revolutionary and a modernizer, following other modern [[Socialist]] movements and the Nasser model. To the consternation of Islamic conservatives, his government gave women freedoms and offered them high-level government and industry jobs. Saddam also created a Western-style legal system, making Iraq the only country in the Persian Gulf region not ruled according to traditional Islamic law (Sharia). Saddam abolished the Sharia law courts, except for personal injury claims. | '''Saddam Hussein''' Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti, April 28, 1937 – December 30, 2006) was the [[Sunni]] President of [[Iraq]] from July 16, 1979<ref>http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aasaddambio.htm</ref> to December 14, 2003<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3317429.stm</ref>. Sadam brought change and [[secularization]] to an otherwise faith-based and religiously guided society. Saddam was a social revolutionary and a modernizer, following other modern [[Socialist]] movements and the Nasser model. To the consternation of Islamic conservatives, his government gave women freedoms and offered them high-level government and industry jobs. Saddam also created a Western-style legal system, making Iraq the only country in the Persian Gulf region not ruled according to traditional Islamic law (Sharia). Saddam abolished the Sharia law courts, except for personal injury claims. | ||
Revision as of 13:20, October 3, 2007
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti, April 28, 1937 – December 30, 2006) was the Sunni President of Iraq from July 16, 1979[1] to December 14, 2003[2]. Sadam brought change and secularization to an otherwise faith-based and religiously guided society. Saddam was a social revolutionary and a modernizer, following other modern Socialist movements and the Nasser model. To the consternation of Islamic conservatives, his government gave women freedoms and offered them high-level government and industry jobs. Saddam also created a Western-style legal system, making Iraq the only country in the Persian Gulf region not ruled according to traditional Islamic law (Sharia). Saddam abolished the Sharia law courts, except for personal injury claims.
Iran Iraq War
During the 1980s, during the Iran-Iraq War, the United States considered Saddam Hussein to be a friend and assisted him with loans [3] up until the time of the Iranian initiative under President Reagan when U.S. policy shifted. Fearing the threat to Iraq's neighbors, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the Gulf States if a militarized Iraq under Saddam emerged from the war intact, the U.S. through intermediaries began selling TOW missiles to Iran in what has come to be known as the Iran/Contra affair, to break the deadlock and tip the balance in favor Iran.
He was one of the few modern leaders who used weapons of mass destruction, specifically chemical weapons, in war; and was the instigator of at least two wars: the Iran-Iraq War during the 1980s and Iraq's August, 1990, invasion of Kuwait.
War on Terror
In 2003 a "coalition of the willing" invaded Iraq to force a change of regime from Saddam's Ba'athist party to a constitutional liberal democracy. A further aim was to break the alliance between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, though this link has never been proven. [4].
Eygptian President Hosni Mubarek and Libyan Socialist General Secretary Muammar Gaddafi in negotiations with Saddam Hussein relayed a message through Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Spanish President Jose Maria Aznar to UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W. Bush that Saddam feared assassination and would be willing to avoid removal by force and voluntarily go into exile, provided Saddam was allowed to take $1 billion dollars and "all the information he wants about weapons of mass destruction." [5][6][7][8]
Trial and Execution
Captured by U.S. forces on December 13, 2003, Saddam was brought to trial under the Iraqi interim government set up by U.S.-led forces. On November 5 2006, a tribunal found him and 6 other codefendants guilty of charges related to the executions of 148 Iraqi Shi'ites suspected of planning an assassination attempt against him. He was consequently sentenced to death by hanging. Following the sentence being affirmed on appeal, he was executed on December 30, 2006.
References
- ↑ http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aasaddambio.htm
- ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3317429.stm
- ↑ http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/
- ↑ http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/033jgqyi.asp
- ↑ Saddam Risked His Life for WMD Secrets, WeeklyStandard.com. Spetember 29, 2007.
- ↑ Scoop for Spanish Daily: Transcript of Private 2003 Bush Talk Promising Iraq Invasion, Editor & Publisher, September 26, 2007.
- ↑ Report Says Hussein Was Open To Exile Before 2003 Invasion, He Is Said to Have Sought $1 Billion and Information on Arms, By Karen DeYoung and Michael Abramowitz, Washington Post, September 27, 2007; Page A17.
- ↑ Llegó el momento de deshacerse de Sadam, El Pais, 26/09/2007. (In Spanish).
