Chemical Ali executed

[Josephus]

I thought they killed him long ago:

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/01/201012514645847464.html

Ali Hassan al-Majid, the cousin of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, has been executed in Iraq for crimes against humanity, a government spokesman said.

Al-Majid, nicknamed "Chemical Ali", received his fourth death sentence last week, for ordering the gassing of Kurds in the Iraqi village of Halabja.

"The condemned Ali Hassan al-Majid has been executed by hanging until death today," spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said on Monday.

In March 1988, Iraqi jets swooped over the village of Halabja and sprayed it with a deadly mix of mustard gas and the nerve agents Tabun, Sarin and VX.

Three-quarters of the victims in the five-hour assault were women and children. It is thought to have been the deadliest gas attack ever carried out against civilians.

Dabbagh said in a statement that al-Majid was not subjected to any abuse during the execution, unlike when Saddam Hussein was hanged in December 2006.

Death sentences

Al-Majid was first sentenced to hang in June 2007 for his role in the military campaign against ethnic Kurds, which took place between February and August 1988.

In December 2008, he received another death sentence, this time for his part in crushing a Shia revolt after the 1991 Gulf War.

Al-Majid was sentenced to death again in March 2009 for his role in killing and displacing Shia Muslims in 1999, then for a fourth time in January this year for the 1988 gas attack that killed around 5,000 Kurds.

Iraq's presidency council approved his execution at the end of February 2008, but legal wrangling held up the execution.

Rise to power

Al-Majid owed his rise in Iraq's government to his cousin and president, Saddam Hussein, who came to trust few beyond his Sunni Muslim clan based around Tikrit, north of Baghdad.

He played a key role in the purge of the Baath party in 1979, when Saddam, formally installed as head of state, sat on the stage of an auditorium and watched "traitors" being led away to their deaths after their names were called out.

In August 1990, after the invasion of Kuwait, Saddam had appointed him military governor of what was deemed to be Iraq's "19th province", but replaced him three months later for fear his brutal reputation was strengthening the hand of Kuwait's allies.

When a US-led coalition expelled Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1991, Saddam appointed al-Majid interior minister to help stamp out the Shia rebellion sweeping southern Iraq.

[The Brain]

FACT: THE BRITS WERE JUST AS BAD IN 1920

[The Brain]

I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes.

Churchill.

[Drakken]

FACT: THE BRITS WERE JUST AS BAD IN 1920

At least the Brits were using the Official Table of Drops in 1920.

I hope this time they used the right length of rope and a sober, competent hangman. A botched hanging is a wasted hanging and the last one was heavily wasted.

[Josquius]

Churchill sucked.

[Barrister]

Churchill sucked.

You suck.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Marty does semi professionally.

[grumbler]

I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes.

Churchill.

I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. We have definitely adopted the position at the Peace Conference of arguing in favour of the retention of gas as a permanent method of warfare. It is sheer affectation to lacerate a man with the poisonous fragment of a bursting shell and to boggle at making his eyes water by means of lachrymatory gas.

I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes. The moral effect should be so good that the loss of life should be reduced to a minimum. It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gasses: gasses can be used which cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave no serious permanent effects on most of those affected.

Churchill.

[Darth Wagtaros]

I thought this was was called Chemical Ali by some US PR flack in who thought it would look good on those stupid cards. 

[Fate]

Churchill was a pussy. Nuke from orbit and you'll minimize all important causalities.

[DGuller]

Another high-ranking Iraqi dead.  When will the violence stop in that cursed land?