Will the rest of scoundrels, masquerading as rulers of the Middle East, ever learn the lessons of history?
As Saddam Hussain's hour nears, here is a sampling of how some of his predecessors passed away. Information extracted from Wikopedia.
Nuri al-Sa'id and the Iraqi Royal Family
On July 14, 1958, as the royal family descended: King Faisal II; the Prince 'Abd al-Ilah; Princess Hiyam, Abdul Ilah's wife; Princess Nafeesa, Abdul Ilah’s mother, Princess Abadiya, the king’s aunt; and several servants. When all of them arrived in the courtyard they were told to turn towards the palace wall, and were all shot down by Captain Abdus Sattar As Sab’ a member of the coup led by Colonel Abdul Karim Qassim.
Ali bin al-Hussein's mother Princess Badia the daughter of King Ali and aunt of King Faisal II, her husband Sharif AlHussein bin Ali and their three children. They spent a month in the embassy of Saudi Arabia in Baghdad, whereupon the coup leaders insisted that they leave Iraq and travel to Egypt on ordinary passports.
Nuri went into hiding, and was captured the next day as he sought to make his escape disguised as a woman. He was shot dead that same day, 15 July 1958, and buried, but an angry crowd disinterred his body and dragged it through the streets of the capital, where it was hung up, burned and mutilated.
Abdul Karim Qassim
He was killed after a phony trial by those who led the bloody coup of February 8, 1963. Qassim was executed at the age of 49, his execution receiving support from pan-Arabist elements who had received support from Egypt, Britain and USA
The only ones who were loyal to him in the end was the Communists; no fewer than 5,000 "citizens" were killed in the fighting from 8 to 10 February, and in the relentless house-to-house hunt for Communists that immediately followed. Ba'athists put the losses of their own party at around 80. A source in the First Branch of Iraq’s Directorate of Security told this writer in 1967 that some 340 Communists died at the time. A well-placed foreign diplomatic observer, who does not wish to be identified, set the total death toll in the neighborhood of 1,500. The figure includes the more than one hundred soldiers who fell inside the Ministry of Defense and “a good lot of Communists.”
Abdul Salam Arif
(1921, Baghdad - April 13, 1966) (Arabic: عبد السلام عارف), president of Iraq (1963-1966). On February 8, 1963, he played a leading role in the coup in which the government of Abdul Karim Qassim was overthrown. He became provisional president and was confirmed on November 20, 1963. He at first supported the Ba'ath Party, but withdrew from it following an anti-Ba'ath coup later in 1963. He was killed in a helicopter crash in southern Iraq and his brother Abdul Rahman Arif replaced him.
On December 13, 2004, Abdul Salam Arif's daughter, Sana Abdul Salam and her husband were executed in their home in Baghdad by unknown assailants.[1]
Abdul Salam Arif was a grand nephew of king Faisal I of Iraq.
posted by RandomVoices @ 8:01 PM
