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Al Arabiya TV is reporting that Saddam Hussein has been executed.

From Reuters news:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – U.S.-backed Iraqi television station Al Hurra said
Saddam Hussein had been executed by hanging shortly before 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Saturday.

ABC News International has a postmortem with the following garbage:

Economic sanctions led by the United States and imposed by the United Nations continued. They caused enormous hardship to the Iraqi people, but Saddam seemed politically impervious.

It figures, had I written this sentence it would have read as follows:

The United States and the United Nations imposed economic sanctions on Saddam Hussein. In an effort to provide humanitarian support the Oil For Food program was created. Under normal circumstances this would have eased the burden on the Iraqi people but Saddam Hussein took the opportunity to impose greater hardship by using their suffering in a propaganda war that the mainstream media still reports to this day. Saddam undercut the United States behind its back with help from other nations represented in the United Nations and withheld much needed food and medical supplies from the Iraqi people.

Even in Hussein’s death the people at ABC fail to cover most basic of reports correctly. At least they managed to get the following correct:

Saddam Hussein, who ruled Iraq with an iron fist for 24 years, has been hanged, a senior U.S. official in Baghdad said. Saddam was 68 and had been in U.S. captivity since his apprehension by U.S. forces in December 2003, eight months after his regime was toppled.

The AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Saddam Hussein, the shotgun-waving dictator who ruled
Iraq with a remorseless brutality for a quarter-century and was driven from power by a U.S.-led war that left his country in shambles, was taken to the gallows and executed Saturday, Iraqi state-run television reported.

It was a grim end for the 69-year-old leader who had vexed three U.S. presidents. Despite his ouster, Washington, its allies and the new Iraqi leaders remain mired in a fight to quell a stubborn insurgency by Saddam loyalists and a vicious sectarian conflict.

Also hanged were Saddam’s half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court.

State-run Iraqiya television news announcer said “criminal Saddam was hanged to death and the execution started with criminal Saddam then Barzan then Awad al-Bandar.”

The station earlier was airing national songs after the first announcement and had a tag on the screen that read “with Saddam’s execution marks the end of a dark period of Iraq’s history.”

The AP is also true to form with their closing drive by that falls minutely short of painting him as a popular figure:

While he wielded a heavy hand to maintain control, Saddam also sought to win public support with a personality cult that pervaded Iraqi society. Thousands of portraits, posters, statues and murals were erected in his honor all over Iraq. His face could be seen on the sides of office buildings, schools, airports and shops and on Iraq’s currency.

Yeah, it’s not like Saddam controlled the country by fear or had any of those statues erected by himself. Don’t forget, he received something like 100% of the vote the last time he ran the country. He was loved so much that nobody voted against him despite the years of murder and torture. Stupidity must be a requirement for front line AP reporting.

Others: Michelle Malkin, Wizbang, Captains Quarters, Hot Air

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