Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Blair 'delighted' at Mittal's £2 mn gift
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has thanked NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal for his contribution of £2 million to the ruling Labour Party and said he was "delighted" to receive such a sizeable donation from one of the "world's most successful businessmen". Mittal, President and Chief Executive of world's largest steel company Arcelor-Mittal, on Tuesday announced the donation to Labour Party, commending PM Blair's record since he came to power in 1997. "I am delighted that Mittal, who is one of the world's most successful businessmen, has made such a generous donation. I thank him for his continued support for the Labour party," Blair said. Mittal, the world's fifth richest men, is a major supporter of the party and donated a similar amount in 2005. "I am a long-term supporter of the Labour party and the work it has done in the United Kingdom to improve the overall prosperity and prospects of the country since coming to office in 1997," Mittal, said, in a statement. A previous gift of £125,000 in the 2001 general elections prompted a political row when it emerged that Blair later wrote in support of his company, LNM, when it was trying to land a lucrative contract in Romania. The latest donation comes as the Labour party struggles to avoid a financial disaster in the wake of allegations being investigated by police that several wealthy businessmen who lent Labour money for the last general elections were rewarded by being nominated for peerages.
Wipro Q3 net profit up 46% at Rs 738.9 cr
Software major Wipro on Wednesday posted a 46.28 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 738.9 crore for the quarter ended December 31, as compared to Rs 505.1 crore for the same quarter last year. The total revenue of the company increased by 45.82 per cent to Rs 3,651.1 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, from Rs 2,503.7 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago, Wipro informed the Bombay Stock Exchange on Wednesday. “Our global IT business delivered good volume growth primarily driven by robust performance of our energy and utilities vertical, technology infrastructure services and enterprise application services. Our financial services and retail businesses delivered more than 50 per cent YOY growth,” Wipro Chairman Azim Premji said. Premji also said that the software biggie has brought down its attrition rates in both the IT and BPO businesses. He said that he expected revenue from the global IT services and products businesses to be approximately around $685 million for the quarter ending March 2007. The group posted a net profit of Rs 765.4 crore for the quarter ended December 31, as against Rs 543.5 crore in the same quarter last year. The total revenue of the group increased to Rs 3,979 crore for the December quarter from Rs 2,743.9 crore in the year-ago period.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Hindus resist pollution to bathe in Ganges festival
Hindu holy men brandishing spears and tridents charged into the sacred Ganges on Monday, after threats to boycott the world's largest religious festival over pollution failed to dent devotees' fervour.
The ritual bathing kicked off the most auspicious day yet in the six-week Ardh Kumbh Mela, or Half Pitcher festival, where tens of millions of pilgrims gather to wash away their sins and free themselves from the earthly cycle of reincarnation.
Chanting battle cries to Lord Shiva, holy men dressed in saffron robes and other naked and ash-smeared "sadhus" ran into the river to the sound of drums for the first "Royal Bath" as dawn broke over the Ganges.
"The water is dirtier than last time. It's like neglecting my mother. This river is the source of all life," Naga Baba Triveni Puri, a naked holy man whose dreadlocked hair had not been cut in 18 years, said as he smoked cannabis after a dip.
After thousands of holy men had threatened to boycott a festival that records show is more than 2,000 years old, authorities last week released fresh water from an upstream dam to clear up what many locals said was filthy and greenish water.
Industrial discharges, sewage, pesticides and the rotting remains of dead bodies have increased pollution levels in the Ganges over the years despite government promises to clean-up India's most sacred river.
The ritual bathing kicked off the most auspicious day yet in the six-week Ardh Kumbh Mela, or Half Pitcher festival, where tens of millions of pilgrims gather to wash away their sins and free themselves from the earthly cycle of reincarnation.
Chanting battle cries to Lord Shiva, holy men dressed in saffron robes and other naked and ash-smeared "sadhus" ran into the river to the sound of drums for the first "Royal Bath" as dawn broke over the Ganges.
"The water is dirtier than last time. It's like neglecting my mother. This river is the source of all life," Naga Baba Triveni Puri, a naked holy man whose dreadlocked hair had not been cut in 18 years, said as he smoked cannabis after a dip.
After thousands of holy men had threatened to boycott a festival that records show is more than 2,000 years old, authorities last week released fresh water from an upstream dam to clear up what many locals said was filthy and greenish water.
Industrial discharges, sewage, pesticides and the rotting remains of dead bodies have increased pollution levels in the Ganges over the years despite government promises to clean-up India's most sacred river.
Saddam's aides hanged
Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's co-defendants - his half brother and the former head of Iraq's revolutionary court were both hanged today, just two weeks after Saddam's execution. Saddam's half brother Barzan Ibrahim, was the former intelligence chief. The other - Awad Hamed al-Bandar headed Iraq's Revolutionary Court. Both, along with Saddam, were found guilty in the killing of 148 Shiite Muslims, prompted by the 1982 assassination attempt on the former dictator. The execution of the two, who were initially to be hanged along with Saddam, had been delayed by Iraqi authorities after there was a huge outcry over the manner in which Saddam's execution took place.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Friday, January 12, 2007
Who is Arun Sarin?
Arun Sarin is the chief executive officer of Vodafone Group Plc, the United Kingdom-based global mobile operator.He has been mandated by the company's board of directors to pursue a cash offer for India's fourth-largest mobile firm Hutchison Essar. Vodafone's move to enter the fray to buy out Hutch-Essar has heated up the race with Reliance Communications chairman Anil Ambani too eyeing to pick up a stake in the telecom firm.
Vodafone boss Sarin was also non-executive director of Vodafone, Charles Schwab Corp, Cisco Systems and Gap Inc, till such time as he took over as Vodafone CEO.
An India-born United States citizen and Indian Institute of Technology graduate with a Bachelor in Science (Engineering), Sarin gained a Master in Science (Engineering) and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of California, at Berkeley in 1978.
The race of Hutch-Essar: Coverage
Vodafone boss Sarin was also non-executive director of Vodafone, Charles Schwab Corp, Cisco Systems and Gap Inc, till such time as he took over as Vodafone CEO.
An India-born United States citizen and Indian Institute of Technology graduate with a Bachelor in Science (Engineering), Sarin gained a Master in Science (Engineering) and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of California, at Berkeley in 1978.
The race of Hutch-Essar: Coverage
He started his career as a management consultant before moving, in 1984, to the Pacific Telesis Group in San Francisco. Commencing in corporate development, he was instrumental in the company acquiring the first cellular licences in the US as well as winning the first cellular licence in Germany and a personal communications network licence in the United Kingdom.
He was subsequently appointed as chief financial officer and chief strategy officer at Pacific Bell, before moving on to become vice-president and general manager, San Francisco Bay Area Telephone Company, a Pacific Bell division with 12,000 employees.
Following the demerger from Pacific Telesis of the mobile and paging businesses to form AirTouch Communications, Arun was appointed senior vice-president, corporate strategy and development, where he was instrumental in developing and implementing a growth strategy encompassing partnerships and acquisitions, which included the merger with the US West wireless business.
On becoming the president and the chief executive officer, AirTouch International, Sarin was responsible for the acquisition of wireless licences in several overseas territories and establishing the management teams of these new ventures.
He then became president and CEO of AirTouch Communications where he was responsible for managing the cellular and paging operations in 14 countries and was a key negotiator in the successful acquisition of AirTouch by Vodafone Group Plc. Within the combined business he was CEO US/Asia Pacific region, managing the group's operations in the US, Asia and Australia.
In addition, he headed the Global Technology division, responsible for the introduction of wireless internet services.
In 2000, with the successful merger of Vodafone AirTouch's US businesses with those of Bell Atlantic and GTE to form Verizon Wireless, Sarin, whilst maintaining a non-executive directorship of Vodafone AirTouch Plc, became CEO of Infospace.
In 2001 he joined Accel-KKR Telecom, a telecom investment and management business, where he evaluated numerous opportunities in the telecommunications industry around the world and oversaw the acquisition of Bell Canada's Yellow Pages business.
He was subsequently appointed as chief financial officer and chief strategy officer at Pacific Bell, before moving on to become vice-president and general manager, San Francisco Bay Area Telephone Company, a Pacific Bell division with 12,000 employees.
Following the demerger from Pacific Telesis of the mobile and paging businesses to form AirTouch Communications, Arun was appointed senior vice-president, corporate strategy and development, where he was instrumental in developing and implementing a growth strategy encompassing partnerships and acquisitions, which included the merger with the US West wireless business.
On becoming the president and the chief executive officer, AirTouch International, Sarin was responsible for the acquisition of wireless licences in several overseas territories and establishing the management teams of these new ventures.
He then became president and CEO of AirTouch Communications where he was responsible for managing the cellular and paging operations in 14 countries and was a key negotiator in the successful acquisition of AirTouch by Vodafone Group Plc. Within the combined business he was CEO US/Asia Pacific region, managing the group's operations in the US, Asia and Australia.
In addition, he headed the Global Technology division, responsible for the introduction of wireless internet services.
In 2000, with the successful merger of Vodafone AirTouch's US businesses with those of Bell Atlantic and GTE to form Verizon Wireless, Sarin, whilst maintaining a non-executive directorship of Vodafone AirTouch Plc, became CEO of Infospace.
In 2001 he joined Accel-KKR Telecom, a telecom investment and management business, where he evaluated numerous opportunities in the telecommunications industry around the world and oversaw the acquisition of Bell Canada's Yellow Pages business.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Saddam Hussein’s last moments on earth
Clutching a Koran and refusing a hood, Saddam Hussein went to the gallows before sunrise on Saturday, executed by vengeful countrymen.
It was a grim end for the 69-year-old leader who had vexed three United States of America presidents.
"We wanted him to be executed on a special day," National Security adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie told state-run al-Iraqiya.
"It was very quick. He died right away," one of the official Iraqi witnesses told Reuters, saying the ousted president’s face was uncovered, he appeared calm and said a brief prayer as Iraqi guards walked him to the gallows and put the noose round him.
Shortly before the execution, Saddam’s hat was removed and Saddam was asked if he wanted to say something, al-Askari said.
"No I don’t want to," al-Askari, who was present at the execution, quoted Saddam as saying. Saddam repeated a prayer after a Sunni Muslim cleric who was present.
"Saddam later was taken to the gallows and refused to have his head covered with a hood," al-Askari said. "Before the rope was put around his neck, Saddam shouted: ‘God is great. The nation will be victorious and Palestine is Arab’."
Saddam briefly struggled when he was taken from his cell
Saddam was executed at a former military intelligence headquarters in Baghdad’s Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah, al-Askari said. The neighborhood is home to the Iraqi capital’s most important Shiite shrine, the Imam Kazim shrine.
"We heard his neck snap," Sami al-Askari, a political ally of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, told news agencies after the indoor execution at a Justice Ministry facility in northern Baghdad.
A political adviser of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, al-Askari said Saddam briefly struggled when he was taken from his cell in an American military prison but was composed in his last moments.
He said Saddam was clad completely in black, with a jacket, trousers, hat and shoes, rather than prison garb.
Al-Askari said the government had not decided what to do with Saddam’s body. Issam Ghazzawi, a member of Saddam’s defense team, said he was worried the body would be buried in an unmarked location.
Saddam was hanged for crimes against humanity, a dramatic, violent end for a leader who ruled Iraq by fear for three decades before he was toppled by a US invasion four years ago.
The former president recited the Muslim profession of faith "There is no God but God and Mohammed is his prophet" but made no other remark as uniformed guards took him to the scaffold.
Execution procedure took just a few minutes
Saddam, 69, was bound and shackled but his face was uncovered as he met his death.
"We took him to the gallows and he was saying some few slogans. He was very, very, very, broken," Iraqi National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie said.
They watched as a judge read out the sentence to Saddam Hussein. The former Iraqi leader was carrying a copy of the Koran and asked for it to be given to a friend.
The noose was then placed around his neck. When the hangman stepped forward to put the hood over his head, Saddam Hussein made it clear he wanted to die without it.
The execution procedure took just a few minutes. A small group of Iraqis witnessed the execution inside a building at an Iraqi compound known by the Americans as Camp Justice, a secure facility in the northern Baghdad suburb of Khadimeya.
Mouwafak al-Rubaie, who witnessed the execution, told the BBC that the former leader went to the gallows quietly.
"When we received him, he was handcuffed and holding the Koran on his chest. And he sat and the judge read the detailed sentence, or conviction. Then, after that, we took him to the gallows and he was saying some few slogans. He was very, very, very, broken."
But another senior witness to the execution told Reuters : "He seemed very calm. He did not tremble."
Despite fears of a backlash from Sunni insurgents, initial reactions were fairly muted as Iraqis woke to begin a week of religious holidays for Idd al-Adha.
Jubilant Shi’ites danced in the streets of Najaf
Jubilant Shi’ites, oppressed under Saddam, danced in the streets of Najaf and cars blared their horns in procession through Baghdad’s Shi’ite Sadr City slum.
The main Sunni television channel in the capital gave little coverage to the news — though it did show old footage of Saddam meeting former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at a time when Washington helped Iraq against Islamist Iran in the 1980s.
State broadcaster Iraqiya on the other hand ran graphic footage of Saddam’s agents beheading and beating their victims. It promised to air film of the execution later.
Saddam’s daughter Raghd, in exile in Jordan, wants her father buried in Yemen, a source close to the family said.
A senior Iraqi official said the family could claim the body. It might also be sent to Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit, where the governor had declared a four-day curfew.
Saddam Hussein combined a shrewd tactical mind with a taste for violence as he rose from humble beginnings to enjoy three decades of absolute power in Iraq.
But overarching ambition, which saw him invade neighbouring Iran and Kuwait and defy former United States allies who accused him of developing nuclear and chemical weapons, destroyed Iraq’s oil-rich economy and finally brought him down.
Rule crumbled when US tanks swept into Baghdad
Saddam rose from fatherless poverty in Tikrit to seize power in a 1968 coup with his pan-Arab Baath party.
He went from being the Baath’s power-behind-the-throne to Iraq’s presidency in 1979 and invaded Iran the following year, launching a war that lasted eight years and killed hundreds of thousands of people, scarring an entire generation.
His rule crumbled when US tanks swept into Baghdad in April of 2003.
Saddam, meaning "one who confronts" in Arabic, was captured in December of that year when American soldiers found him in a hole near his hometown of Tikrit.
He had vowed to go down fighting, as his sons did months before, but gave up without firing a shot. US forces said Saddam was disoriented when they found him in a pit covered with polystyrene and a rug, near a simple shack in an orange grove.
"I am the president of Iraq, and I want to negotiate," he told the soldiers who found him.
The hut where he had been staying consisted of one room with two beds and a fridge containing a can of lemonade, a packet of hot dogs and an opened box of Belgian chocolates. Several new pairs of shoes lay in their boxes scattered around the floor.
A US general said he was caught "like a rat" and many Arabs who had admired his defiance of the United States were shocked by his failure to fight back.
Iraqis who lived for years under the gaze of proud Saddam statues and posters saw humiliating images of him in custody, mouth held open by a probing medic, an unfamiliar beard streaked grey and dishevelled after months on the run.
Bush hailed death sentence as a milestone for democracy
Saddam was sentenced in November to hang for crimes against humanity for killing, torture and other crimes against 148 Shi’ites following a 1982 attempt on his life.
An appeals court upheld the ruling on Tuesday and he was hanged in Baghdad on Saturday.
In a letter written after his sentencing in November, he said: "I offer myself in sacrifice. If my soul goes down this path (of martyrdom) it will face God in serenity."
US President George W. Bush hailed the death sentence as a milestone for democracy and US officials presented the trial as an Iraqi catharsis, but Iraq is gripped by sectarian and ethnic strife in which tens of thousands of people have died.
Saddam became president in 1979 after using his skills as a street fighter and conspirator to get the Baath party into power. Surrounding himself with relatives from his hometown of Tikrit, he maintained an iron grip on Iraq despite bloody wars, uprisings, coup plots and assassination attempts.
His ruthless rule, during which his enemies say hundreds of thousands of people died, largely kept the lid on simmering tensions between Arabs and Kurds and between majority Shi’ite Muslims and the strongman’s once-dominant fellow Sunnis.
Saddam spent the last three years of his life in US custody
Once an ally of the United States, which aided him in his war against Shi’ite Islamist Iran, he was demonised by Western leaders after his army invaded Washington’s ally Kuwait in 1990. His description of the first Gulf War as the "mother of all battles" has entered the lexicon.
For some years, US policy was to contain Saddam but after the September 11 attacks in 2001, Bush chose Iraq as the next target in his "war on terror" after Afghanistan.
Having held on to power with much bloodshed when US-led forces did not follow through on their victory in the 1991 Gulf War, he was eventually toppled in a lightning three-week war.
Despite US efforts to take him out, Saddam eluded their grasp and spent eight months on the run.
Captured in December 2003, Saddam spent the last three years of his life in US custody, the spartan life in a US military cell a far cry from the extravagant luxury of palaces where the bathrooms were famously fitted with gold taps.
When his Dujail trial opened in October last year, he appeared in a neat suit and was defiant from the start, insisting, "I am the president of Iraq" and denouncing the US-backed court.
Playing to a televised gallery and for his place in history, he told the court in July in a typically bravura performance that as a military officer he deserved to be shot, not hanged.
Even in death, there are those who still supported Saddam
In August 2006, Saddam’s second trial started, on charges of war crimes including genocide against Iraqi Kurds. It was not concluded by the time of his death and the charges lapse.
In his final days in a US-run prison, he called on Iraqis to stop fighting each other and instead focus on killing Americans, projecting the image of a father figure in a country formed by European colonial rulers from a patchwork of ethnic and religious communities.
As president, he appealed variously to Arab nationalism, Islam and Iraqi patriotism and would appear in the traditional clothes of an Iraqi peasant, military uniform or Western suits.
In court appearances he appeared tie less in a sober suit and clutching a Koran. His lawyers and co-accused respectfully called him "Mr. President".
During his Dujail trial he said: "Even if they put me in hellfire, God forgive me ... I would say, ‘Fine, for the sake of Iraq’. And I will not cry, for my heart is full of belief."
Even in death, there are those who still supported Saddam. A top commander of Afghanistan’s Taliban said today that the execution of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein would galvanize Muslim opposition to the United States.
Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, a former Taliban defence minister and top insurgent commander, also said Saddam’s execution on the Idd al-Adha Muslim festival — marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca — was a provocation.
"Saddam’s hanging on the day of Eid is a challenge to Muslims," Obaidullah told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
"His death will boost the morale of Muslims. The jihad in Iraq will be intensified and attacks on invader forces will increase," he said. "Thousands of people will rise up with hatred for America."
It was a grim end for the 69-year-old leader who had vexed three United States of America presidents.
"We wanted him to be executed on a special day," National Security adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie told state-run al-Iraqiya.
"It was very quick. He died right away," one of the official Iraqi witnesses told Reuters, saying the ousted president’s face was uncovered, he appeared calm and said a brief prayer as Iraqi guards walked him to the gallows and put the noose round him.
Shortly before the execution, Saddam’s hat was removed and Saddam was asked if he wanted to say something, al-Askari said.
"No I don’t want to," al-Askari, who was present at the execution, quoted Saddam as saying. Saddam repeated a prayer after a Sunni Muslim cleric who was present.
"Saddam later was taken to the gallows and refused to have his head covered with a hood," al-Askari said. "Before the rope was put around his neck, Saddam shouted: ‘God is great. The nation will be victorious and Palestine is Arab’."
Saddam briefly struggled when he was taken from his cell
Saddam was executed at a former military intelligence headquarters in Baghdad’s Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah, al-Askari said. The neighborhood is home to the Iraqi capital’s most important Shiite shrine, the Imam Kazim shrine.
"We heard his neck snap," Sami al-Askari, a political ally of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, told news agencies after the indoor execution at a Justice Ministry facility in northern Baghdad.
A political adviser of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, al-Askari said Saddam briefly struggled when he was taken from his cell in an American military prison but was composed in his last moments.
He said Saddam was clad completely in black, with a jacket, trousers, hat and shoes, rather than prison garb.
Al-Askari said the government had not decided what to do with Saddam’s body. Issam Ghazzawi, a member of Saddam’s defense team, said he was worried the body would be buried in an unmarked location.
Saddam was hanged for crimes against humanity, a dramatic, violent end for a leader who ruled Iraq by fear for three decades before he was toppled by a US invasion four years ago.
The former president recited the Muslim profession of faith "There is no God but God and Mohammed is his prophet" but made no other remark as uniformed guards took him to the scaffold.
Execution procedure took just a few minutes
Saddam, 69, was bound and shackled but his face was uncovered as he met his death.
"We took him to the gallows and he was saying some few slogans. He was very, very, very, broken," Iraqi National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie said.
They watched as a judge read out the sentence to Saddam Hussein. The former Iraqi leader was carrying a copy of the Koran and asked for it to be given to a friend.
The noose was then placed around his neck. When the hangman stepped forward to put the hood over his head, Saddam Hussein made it clear he wanted to die without it.
The execution procedure took just a few minutes. A small group of Iraqis witnessed the execution inside a building at an Iraqi compound known by the Americans as Camp Justice, a secure facility in the northern Baghdad suburb of Khadimeya.
Mouwafak al-Rubaie, who witnessed the execution, told the BBC that the former leader went to the gallows quietly.
"When we received him, he was handcuffed and holding the Koran on his chest. And he sat and the judge read the detailed sentence, or conviction. Then, after that, we took him to the gallows and he was saying some few slogans. He was very, very, very, broken."
But another senior witness to the execution told Reuters : "He seemed very calm. He did not tremble."
Despite fears of a backlash from Sunni insurgents, initial reactions were fairly muted as Iraqis woke to begin a week of religious holidays for Idd al-Adha.
Jubilant Shi’ites danced in the streets of Najaf
Jubilant Shi’ites, oppressed under Saddam, danced in the streets of Najaf and cars blared their horns in procession through Baghdad’s Shi’ite Sadr City slum.
The main Sunni television channel in the capital gave little coverage to the news — though it did show old footage of Saddam meeting former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at a time when Washington helped Iraq against Islamist Iran in the 1980s.
State broadcaster Iraqiya on the other hand ran graphic footage of Saddam’s agents beheading and beating their victims. It promised to air film of the execution later.
Saddam’s daughter Raghd, in exile in Jordan, wants her father buried in Yemen, a source close to the family said.
A senior Iraqi official said the family could claim the body. It might also be sent to Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit, where the governor had declared a four-day curfew.
Saddam Hussein combined a shrewd tactical mind with a taste for violence as he rose from humble beginnings to enjoy three decades of absolute power in Iraq.
But overarching ambition, which saw him invade neighbouring Iran and Kuwait and defy former United States allies who accused him of developing nuclear and chemical weapons, destroyed Iraq’s oil-rich economy and finally brought him down.
Rule crumbled when US tanks swept into Baghdad
Saddam rose from fatherless poverty in Tikrit to seize power in a 1968 coup with his pan-Arab Baath party.
He went from being the Baath’s power-behind-the-throne to Iraq’s presidency in 1979 and invaded Iran the following year, launching a war that lasted eight years and killed hundreds of thousands of people, scarring an entire generation.
His rule crumbled when US tanks swept into Baghdad in April of 2003.
Saddam, meaning "one who confronts" in Arabic, was captured in December of that year when American soldiers found him in a hole near his hometown of Tikrit.
He had vowed to go down fighting, as his sons did months before, but gave up without firing a shot. US forces said Saddam was disoriented when they found him in a pit covered with polystyrene and a rug, near a simple shack in an orange grove.
"I am the president of Iraq, and I want to negotiate," he told the soldiers who found him.
The hut where he had been staying consisted of one room with two beds and a fridge containing a can of lemonade, a packet of hot dogs and an opened box of Belgian chocolates. Several new pairs of shoes lay in their boxes scattered around the floor.
A US general said he was caught "like a rat" and many Arabs who had admired his defiance of the United States were shocked by his failure to fight back.
Iraqis who lived for years under the gaze of proud Saddam statues and posters saw humiliating images of him in custody, mouth held open by a probing medic, an unfamiliar beard streaked grey and dishevelled after months on the run.
Bush hailed death sentence as a milestone for democracy
Saddam was sentenced in November to hang for crimes against humanity for killing, torture and other crimes against 148 Shi’ites following a 1982 attempt on his life.
An appeals court upheld the ruling on Tuesday and he was hanged in Baghdad on Saturday.
In a letter written after his sentencing in November, he said: "I offer myself in sacrifice. If my soul goes down this path (of martyrdom) it will face God in serenity."
US President George W. Bush hailed the death sentence as a milestone for democracy and US officials presented the trial as an Iraqi catharsis, but Iraq is gripped by sectarian and ethnic strife in which tens of thousands of people have died.
Saddam became president in 1979 after using his skills as a street fighter and conspirator to get the Baath party into power. Surrounding himself with relatives from his hometown of Tikrit, he maintained an iron grip on Iraq despite bloody wars, uprisings, coup plots and assassination attempts.
His ruthless rule, during which his enemies say hundreds of thousands of people died, largely kept the lid on simmering tensions between Arabs and Kurds and between majority Shi’ite Muslims and the strongman’s once-dominant fellow Sunnis.
Saddam spent the last three years of his life in US custody
Once an ally of the United States, which aided him in his war against Shi’ite Islamist Iran, he was demonised by Western leaders after his army invaded Washington’s ally Kuwait in 1990. His description of the first Gulf War as the "mother of all battles" has entered the lexicon.
For some years, US policy was to contain Saddam but after the September 11 attacks in 2001, Bush chose Iraq as the next target in his "war on terror" after Afghanistan.
Having held on to power with much bloodshed when US-led forces did not follow through on their victory in the 1991 Gulf War, he was eventually toppled in a lightning three-week war.
Despite US efforts to take him out, Saddam eluded their grasp and spent eight months on the run.
Captured in December 2003, Saddam spent the last three years of his life in US custody, the spartan life in a US military cell a far cry from the extravagant luxury of palaces where the bathrooms were famously fitted with gold taps.
When his Dujail trial opened in October last year, he appeared in a neat suit and was defiant from the start, insisting, "I am the president of Iraq" and denouncing the US-backed court.
Playing to a televised gallery and for his place in history, he told the court in July in a typically bravura performance that as a military officer he deserved to be shot, not hanged.
Even in death, there are those who still supported Saddam
In August 2006, Saddam’s second trial started, on charges of war crimes including genocide against Iraqi Kurds. It was not concluded by the time of his death and the charges lapse.
In his final days in a US-run prison, he called on Iraqis to stop fighting each other and instead focus on killing Americans, projecting the image of a father figure in a country formed by European colonial rulers from a patchwork of ethnic and religious communities.
As president, he appealed variously to Arab nationalism, Islam and Iraqi patriotism and would appear in the traditional clothes of an Iraqi peasant, military uniform or Western suits.
In court appearances he appeared tie less in a sober suit and clutching a Koran. His lawyers and co-accused respectfully called him "Mr. President".
During his Dujail trial he said: "Even if they put me in hellfire, God forgive me ... I would say, ‘Fine, for the sake of Iraq’. And I will not cry, for my heart is full of belief."
Even in death, there are those who still supported Saddam. A top commander of Afghanistan’s Taliban said today that the execution of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein would galvanize Muslim opposition to the United States.
Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, a former Taliban defence minister and top insurgent commander, also said Saddam’s execution on the Idd al-Adha Muslim festival — marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca — was a provocation.
"Saddam’s hanging on the day of Eid is a challenge to Muslims," Obaidullah told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
"His death will boost the morale of Muslims. The jihad in Iraq will be intensified and attacks on invader forces will increase," he said. "Thousands of people will rise up with hatred for America."
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