2007: Taha Yasin Ramadan, Iraqi Vice-President
March 20th, 2013 Headsman
On this date in 2007, Saddam Hussein‘s former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan was hanged for helping conduct the 1982 Dujail Massacre of Shia Iraqis in revenge for an assassination plot against Saddam.
Pushing 70, the Kurd was a longtime pillar of the Iraqi Ba’ath party and had served in a variety of posts since it took power in 1968. For instance, he brought his management expertise to the Ministry of Industry: “I don’t know anything about industry. All I know is that anyone who doesn’t work hard will be executed.”
He was noted for his role in orchestrating Saddam Hussein’s terrifying 1979 internal purge.
While the first operations of America’s 2003 invasion took place on March 19, it was March 20, 2003 local time that the land invasion proper commenced. That made Ramadan’s execution a fourth-anniversary gift to the occupier’s preposterous foreign policy blunder.
Which was all too bad, since Ramadan had also floated a 2002 plan to avert conflict: have Saddam Hussein fight a duel with George W. Bush. Of course, the offer was declined. “An irresponsible statement,” replied the spokesman of a government that was at that moment engaged in a mendacious campaign to justify its coming aggressive war with creative fables about Iraq’s nuclear capacity.
On this day..
- 2020: The Nirbhaya Gang Rapists - 2020
- 1738: Nicolas Doxat de Demoret - 2019
- 1549: Thomas Seymour, more wit than judgment - 2018
- 1954: Ernst Jennrich, for 17 June 1953 - 2017
- 1916: Abraham Bevistein, child soldier - 2016
- 1531: Sikke Freriks, Menno Simons inspiration - 2015
- 1899: Martha Place, the first woman electrocuted - 2014
- 1428: Matteuccia di Francesco, San Bernardino casualty - 2012
- 1393: John of Nepomuk, Bohemian rhapsody - 2011
- 1897: Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling, Pearl Bryan's murderers - 2010
- 1809: Mary Bateman, the Yorkshire Witch - 2009
- 1933: Giuseppe Zangara, who is not on Sons of Italy posters - 2008
Entry Filed under: 21st Century,Capital Punishment,Crimes Against Humanity,Death Penalty,Execution,Hanged,History,Iraq,Occupation and Colonialism,Politicians,Ripped from the Headlines,USA,Wartime Executions
Tags: 2000s, 2007, iraq war, march 20, saddam hussein, taha yasin ramadan
“I don’t know anything about industry. All I know is that anyone who doesn’t work hard will be executed.” Sounds like a great slogan for a Despair Inc. demotivational poster!