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The End of Saddam
Dec. 30th, 2006 08:30 am♠
Dec. 30, 2006 - Ali Al Massedy was 3 feet away from Saddam Hussein when he died. The 38 year old, normally Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's official videographer, was the man responsible for filming the late dictator's execution at dawn on Saturday. "I saw fear, he was afraid," Ali told NEWSWEEK minutes after returning from the execution. Wearing a rumpled green suit and holding a Sony HDTV video camera in his right hand, Ali recalled the dictator's last moments. "He was saying things about injustice, about resistance, about how these guys are terrorists," he says. On the way to the gallows, according to Ali, "Saddam said, ‘Iraq without me is nothing.’"
-- Michael Hastings for Newsweek
A fitting end to an infamous career. If nothing else, we have a strengthened sense that there is justice in the world. That is an accomplishment. But it is only the silver lining in the disaster and tragedy that still rules in Iraq. Establishing and running a democratically healthy and thriving society out of that Mesopotamian absolutism is a lot more difficult than killing a tyrant.
xXx
Dec. 30, 2006 - Ali Al Massedy was 3 feet away from Saddam Hussein when he died. The 38 year old, normally Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's official videographer, was the man responsible for filming the late dictator's execution at dawn on Saturday. "I saw fear, he was afraid," Ali told NEWSWEEK minutes after returning from the execution. Wearing a rumpled green suit and holding a Sony HDTV video camera in his right hand, Ali recalled the dictator's last moments. "He was saying things about injustice, about resistance, about how these guys are terrorists," he says. On the way to the gallows, according to Ali, "Saddam said, ‘Iraq without me is nothing.’"
-- Michael Hastings for Newsweek
A fitting end to an infamous career. If nothing else, we have a strengthened sense that there is justice in the world. That is an accomplishment. But it is only the silver lining in the disaster and tragedy that still rules in Iraq. Establishing and running a democratically healthy and thriving society out of that Mesopotamian absolutism is a lot more difficult than killing a tyrant.
