Saddam Urges Iraqis to Seek Coexistence

Saddam Urges Iraqis to Seek Coexistence
Dec 27, 5:56 PM (ET)

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Saddam Hussein urged Iraqis to embrace "brotherly coexistence" and not to hate U.S.-led foreign troops in a goodbye letter posted on a Web site Wednesday, a day after Iraq's highest court upheld his death sentence and ordered him hanged within 30 days.

A top government official, meanwhile, said Saddam's execution could proceed without the approval of Iraq's president, meaning there were no more legal obstacles to sending the deposed dictator to the gallows.

One of Saddam's attorneys, Issam Ghazzawi, confirmed to The Associated Press in Jordan that the Internet letter was authentic, saying it was written by Saddam on Nov. 5 - the day he was convicted by an Iraqi tribunal for ordering the 1982 killings of 148 Shiite Muslims in Dujail.

"I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking," said the letter, which was written in Arabic and translated by the AP.

"I also call on you not to hate the people of the other countries that attacked us," it added, referring to the invasion that toppled his regime nearly four years ago.

more -

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20061227/D8M9FKG80.html

That's all. He wasn't exactly a humanitarian in life. But perhaps his words will actually do some good where his actions did not.

Bake

dead man walking.

Raises hand.

No matter how brutal or bad he is, I feel sorr for him. (An that's NOT sarcasm)

Saddam will be more victim than villian, and George W. Bush will be more brutal and more murderous than he is. God I hate this war.

Only GWB could turn a creep like Saddam into a sympathetic figure.

Capital punishment is so brutal. Most of the world no longer practices it, except for those less advanced countries such as our own.

This is all happening just because George likes to put people to death.

-85% Jimmy

was brutal. We will never know the truth about Saddam. I don't believe his accusers.

We know the truth about * and we can see he has killed more humans that Saddam ever could.

Saddam needs to live and * needs to die. I hate this BushWar too.

but this takes the cake.

If it is even possible for them to get any worse ...

Those who are looking for any provocation to stir up more violence/reprisals, etc. and who see the US as behind Saddam's trial and execution will take this as their cue. Most of the military experts/commentators I've seen are syaing exactly that.

If things can possibly get worse over there, they will.

Bake