In Hussein's Last Minutes, Jeers and a Cry for Calm

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The Death of Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein, the architect of a ruthless dictatorship that ruled Iraq for nearly three decades, is hanged for crimes against humanity in Baghdad in the early morning of Dec. 30, 2006. Hussein was convicted of mass murder and sentenced to death in November.

A Defense of His Reign

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They took Hussein to a large room with no windows and a staircase leading to a tall, red gallows with a large pit at the bottom.

"It was very cold," Haddad said. "It had the stench of death."

Haddad and Faroun walked with Hussein and his hangmen to the steps of the gallows. Then one of the masked men, Haddad recalled, turned to Hussein and said:

"You have destroyed Iraq, impoverished its people and made us all like beggars while Iraq is one of the richest countries in the world."

Hussein replied: "I did not destroy Iraq. I made Iraq into a rich, powerful country."

Faroun stepped in and ordered the hangman to back away.

Hussein carried a dark green Koran in his clasped hands, witnesses said. At the steps to the gallows, he turned to Faroun and asked him to give the book to the son of his co-defendant Awad Haman Bander. Bander, like Hussein, was sentenced to death for the killings of 148 Shiite men and boys from the northern town of Dujail.

"What if I don't see him?" Faroun asked.

"Keep it until you meet with any of my family members," Faroun recalled Hussein saying.

Hussein took his hat off. The hangmen uncuffed his hands, then placed them behind his back and recuffed them. They also tied his legs together, witnesses said.

One Iraqi official asked him whether he was afraid, Haddad recalled.

"I am not afraid. I have chosen this path," Hussein replied.