Saddam Looks on as New Leaders are Named

[seinfeldrules]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050407/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two months after elections, Iraq's new government finally began to take shape Wednesday as lawmakers elected as president a Kurdish leader who promised to represent all ethnic and religious groups. Ousted dictator Saddam Hussein watched the session, broadcast across the country, from his prison cell.

...

Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani was chosen for the largely ceremonial job of president, while Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite, and current interim President Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni Arab, were elected vice presidents.


Talabani's selection and the expected choice of Ibrahim al-Jaafari as prime minister further consolidate the power shift in Iraq, where both the Shiite Arab majority and the Kurdish minority were oppressed, often brutally, under Saddam's Sunni-dominated regime.


Talabani, 71, reached out to all sectors of the country, appealing for them to join with fellow Iraqis who are working "to found a new Iraq, free of sectarian and ethnic persecution, free of hegemony and oppression."


He also urged Iraqi insurgents, who are believed to be mostly Sunni Arabs, to sit down and talk with the new government.

...

Saddam and 11 of his top aides were given the choice of watching a tape of the National Assembly session in their prison and all chose to do so, said Bakhtiar Amin, human rights minister in the outgoing interim government.


Amin said Saddam watched by himself, while the others viewed it as a group at their undisclosed detention center, which is believed to be near Baghdad's airport.


"I imagine he was upset," Amin said. "He must have realized that the era of his government was over, and that there was no way he was returning to office."


Iraq's new presidential council, made up of the president and his two deputies, is to be sworn in Thursday. The three are then expected to immediately name the prime minister.

 

[KoreBolteR]

im glad these evil men actually know that thier time is up.

 

[seinfeldrules]

im glad these evil men actually know that thier time is up.

It must be like a slap in the face. I wonder if al-Jaafari was named PM yet...

 

[SAJ]

It looks as though he has.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1454391,00.html

 

[Bodacious]

Cpt.Stern, how does it feel to be proved wrong, once agian? A Kurd is president,a Sunni is Vice President, and al Jaafari is PM. No Allawi, no Sistani. no druken liar in charge and no theocracy. What now will you say to undermine the democratic process in Iraq?

 

[SAJ]

Say what?
Cptn Stern has the power to undermine Iraqi democracy(tm) ?
And I thought the rumours of his super-powers were unfounded!

 

[GiaOmerta]

Allawi is/was a neuro surgeon. They make a pretty penny, better off with that.

 

[gh0st]

Cpt.Stern, how does it feel to be proved wrong, once agian? A Kurd is president,a Sunni is Vice President, and al Jaafari is PM. No Allawi, no Sistani. no druken liar in charge and no theocracy. What now will you say to undermine the democratic process in Iraq?

Surely hes very happy and excited that American troops and the Iraqi people have succeeded! I bet he's really hoping for the best over there! :thumbs:

 

[kmack]

haha, did they rub salt into his open wounds as well

this is the ultimate degradation for Saddam and I'm glad he gets to watch.

 

[Absinthe]

Surely Bodacious and gh0st are more than pitiful flamebaiters.

Right?