husseinhung

December 29, 2006 at approximately l0:00 PM EST Saddam Hussein has been hanged by the neck until dead.

Reportedly, he was turned over to Iraqi authorities approximately 11:30 AM EST on December 29, 2006. The U.S. has turned over custody of the mass murderer to Iraqi officials, one of the last steps necessary before the execution, Saddam's chief lawyer told FOX News.

An unnamed Iraqi government official in Baghdad told the Associated Press that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had signed the Butcher of Baghdad's death warrant.

"There is no reason for delays," said Munir Haddad, an Iraqi judge on the appeals court that reviewed Saddam's case. He said the execution will occur by Saturday

According to news reports, before his transfer, he met with a couple of his half brothers and turned over his personal remains, with an hour conference. Was reported that none of his family members visited at that time he was under U.S. custody.

Hussein is currently in the midst of another trial, charged with genocide and other crimes during a 1987-88 military crackdown on Kurds in northern Iraq. An estimated 180,000 Kurds died during the operation. That trial was adjourned until January 8, but experts have said the trial of Hussein's co-defendants is likely to continue even if he is executed.

The execution took place outside the heavily fortified U.S. Green Zone, al-Rubaie said, and no Americans were present. "It was an Iraqi operation from A to Z," he said. "The Americans were not present during the hour of the execution. They weren't even in the building."He added that "there were no Shiite or Sunni clerics present, only the witnesses and those who carried out the actual execution were present."On Al-Arabiya television, al-Rubaie said the execution took place at the 5th Division intelligence office in Qadhimiya.

DETAIL PROCEDURES FOR HANGING The machinery for the execution is in place because about 90 prisoners, both Sunni and Shia, have been executed in Iraq since 2004. Saddam is likely to be led to the gallows dressed in an orange prison uniform, his head covered by a cone-shaped black hood.

Saddam, who is being held in a high-security prison in the confines of the Baghdad airport compound, will begin his final hours before a panel of three or four judges. According to an Iraqi government official who has witnessed state executions, one of the judges informs the prisoner that he has the right to write a will and leave letters for relatives. The judges will ask him if he wants to confess to anything or ask forgiveness.

The inmate is then led to a special cell called the waiting room to prepare for his death. He can pray, drink water, smoke cigarettes, work on his will, write instruction on where he should be buried and leave letters for his relatives. The guards will also bring him his last meal. “The prisoners will try to drag it out three or four hours but then finally they just want to get it done,” the official said. “Sometimes, they have pushed it back a day.”

When the prisoner is ready, three or four guards place the hood over his face, guide him to the gallows chamber and lead him up about eight steps on to a metal platform where the hangman waits. The hangman also wears a black hood, which has slits for his eyes.

He lowers the noose around the prisoner’s head. The hangman shifts a lever and a metal trap door screeches open. Otherwise, there is only silence as the man drops 15ft through the trap door. “He dies immediately, so he does not suffer. A doctor comes and checks the heartbeat to make sure he is dead. They lower the body to the ground and cover it with a white cloth, put it on a stretcher and then it is taken to the hospital,” the official said.

Although Saddam’s sons, Uday and Qusay, are buried in the family’s tribal cemetery near Tikrit, it is unclear what will happen to his body. He may be buried in secret to prevent the site becoming a scene of reverence or retribution.

Stats on number deaths he was accountable for: Hundreds of thousands of people died as a result of Saddam's actions.

Saddam had approximately 40 of his own relatives murdered.

1980-88: Iran-Iraq war left 150,000 to 340,000 Iraqis and 450,000 to 730,000 Iranians dead.

1983-1988: Documented chemical attacks by Iraqi regime caused some 30,000 Iraqi and Iranian deaths.

1988: Chemical attack on Kurdish village of Halabja killed approximately 5,000 people.

1987-1988: Iraqi regime used chemical agents in attacks against at least 40 Kurdish villages.

1990-91: 1,000 Kuwaitis were killed in Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

1991: Bloody suppression of Kurdish and Shi'a uprisings in northern and southern Iraq killed at least 30,000 to 60,000. At least 2,000 Kurdish villages were destroyed during the campaign of terror.

2001: Amnesty International report: "Victims of torture in Iraq are subjected to a wide range of forms of torture, including the gouging out of eyes, severe beatings and electric shocks... some victims have died as a result and many have been left with permanent physical and psychological damage."

Human Rights Watch: Saddam's 1987-1988 campaign of terror against the Kurds killed at least 50,000 and possibly as many as 100,000 Kurds.

Refugees International: "Oppressive government policies have led to the internal displacement of 900,000 Iraqis."

Iraq's 13 million Shiite Muslims, the majority of Iraq's population of approximately 22 million, faced severe restrictions on their religious practice.

FBI: Iraqi government was involved in a plot to assassinate former President George Bush during his April 14-16, 1993, visit to Kuwait.

The Iraqi regime has repeatedly refused visits by human rights monitors.

From 1992 until 2002, Saddam prevented the U.N. Special Rapporteur from visiting Iraq.

(Sources: Office of the White House Press Secretary: Life Under Saddam Hussein: Past Repression and Atrocities by Saddam Hussein's Regime; April 4, 2003, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/04/iraq/20030404-1.html; "Iraq: Crimes Against Humanity," State Department, May 7, 2002, http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/nea/iraq/crimes; "Iraq: U.S. Alleges Role in Bush Death Plot," Facts on File May 20, 1993; http: www.2facts.com; http://www.2facts.com/stories/temp/10882temp1993053677.asp)