Saddam Hussein's cruelty

[Centauri]

I have always wondered if I would ever see the footage that shows precisely when Saddam Hussein came to power. Christopher Hitchens speaks of it in some of his speeches. It's a terrifying story.

Saddam calls a large meeting for the Baath Party. He then reads out the names of 60 members at the meeting, who are swiftly taken away by guards.

He then acquires forced confessions from other members, who had their daughters and mothers kidnapped by Saddam's guards the night before.

The remaining members are gripped with fear. Out of sheer relief from not being named as traitors, they begin crying and then screaming out praise for Saddam Hussein as their great leader. Saddam sits back and smokes a big, fat cigar. The Party was his, and he was the ruler. To show their commitment, he decides that all the remaining members be sent outside to shoot the traitors point-blank in the head, which they did.

Christopher Hitchens mentioned that this tape was rare footage. As it turns out, this footage has been included in a documentary and is available on YouTube. I watched it, and was completely gripped by it.

This six-part documentary shows how a nation was crushed under Saddam Hussein's heel, and how masses of innocent people were tortured, gassed and murdered by a dictator. I'm not easily perturbed, but I was shocked by the content in this documentary.














And this is the pure definition of arrogance, where he stands defiantly in front of the judge who issues the death sentence:



And then the hanging: