First off, hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and I'm glad to finally be back blogging.
First thing I saw when I opened up the internet was this video in which Carlotta Bradley of the Associated press alleges that Saddam's final words were a Muslim prayer denouncing God:
In this new video, you hear garbled exchanges with onlookers and Saddam's final words. In Arabic he shouted a muslim prayer and exclaimed, "No God, just Allah, and Mohammed, his messenger. No God, just Allah!"
This is what Saddam REALLY said:
"I witness there is no god but Allah and that Mohammed is His messenger."
This is a traditional Muslim prayer for a man on his deathbed. Note the subtle difference between what Saddam actually said and what the AP reported. Some could claim they say the same thing, but they don't. The AP claims the muslim prayer says there is "No God. Just Allah." The muslim prayer actually says there is "no God BUT Allah" ie, Allah is their name for God and what Saddam is saying is that there is only one true God. That's the same thing Christians will say as well. There is no God but the One God. So what the AP reported is that Saddam said, "No God, just God." which is a meaningless statement. Instead of what he really said, which was "there is no God but God." which actually means something quite different.
Unfortunately, it is necessary for the AP to spread the false translation on the internet because we have an evangelical Christian military trying to get their followers to believe that Saddam is saying "there is no God." They're trying to rouse the rabble into buying into their Religious Crusade against all Islam and the "Godless" muslims.
It wasn't the only propaganda coming out of Saddam's death. CNN alleged that these were Saddam's last words:
As a noose was tightened around Hussein's neck, one of the executioners yelled "long live Muqtada al-Sadr," Haddad said, referring to the powerful anti-American Shiite religious leader.
Hussein, a Sunni, uttered one last phrase before he died, saying "Muqtada al-Sadr" in a mocking tone, according to Haddad's account.
That's not what really happened according to Riverbend:
And no- not the celebrations BBC are claiming. With the exception of a few areas, the streets are empty.
Now we come to CNN. Shame on you CNN journalists- you're getting lazy. The least you can do is get the last words correct when you write a story about an execution. Your articles are read the world over and will go down in history as references. You people are the biggest news network in the world- the least you can do is spend some money on a decent translator. Saddam's last words were NOT "Muqtada Al Sadr" as Munir Haddad claimed, according to the article below. If anyone had seen at least part of the video they showed on TV, you'd know that...
...From the video that was leaked, it was not an executioner who yelled "long live Muqtada al-Sadr". See, this is another low the Maliki government sunk to- they had some hecklers conveniently standing by during the execution. Maliki claimed they were "some witnesses from the trial", but they were, very obviously, hecklers. The moment the noose was around Saddam's neck, they began chanting, in unison, "God's prayers be on Mohamed and on Mohamed's family..." Something else I didn't quite catch (but it was very coordinated), and then "Muqtada, Muqtada, Muqtada!" One of them called out to Saddam, "Go to hell..." (in Arabic). Saddam looked down disdainfully and answered "Heya hay il marjala...?" which is basically saying, "Is this your manhood...?".
Someone half-heartedly called out to the hecklers, "I beg you, I beg you- the man is being executed!" They were slightly quieter and then Saddam stood and said, "Ashadu an la ilaha ila Allah, wa ashhadu ana Mohammedun rasool Allah..." Which means, "I witness there is no god but Allah and that Mohammed is His messenger." These are the words a Muslim (Sunnis and Shia alike) should say on their deathbed. He repeated this one more time, very clearly, but before he could finish it, he was lynched.
So, no, CNN, his last words were not "Muqtada Al Sadr" in a mocking tone- just thought someone should clear that up. (Really people, six of you contributed to that article!)
January is almost here. The new Democratic majority that is supposed to reverse this madness is about to take charge. But instead of withdrawing, we're escalating the war in Iraq. Impeachment is "off the table". Typing the word "Iraq" into the new Majority Leader, Harry Reid's issues box returns the 404 message "Item not found". Evangelical nutcases are in charge of our military. And our media is using propaganda against our own citizens in violation of the law, so that we all hate the "godless" muslim.
Happy Fucking New Year.