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The following are excerpts from an interview with Syrian-based Iraqi politician Mish'an Jabouri, the owner of Arrai TV, which aired on Arrai TV on December 27, 2009.
Mish'an Jabouri: It will be hard for history to forget the moment of Saddam's execution. It was like the moment [Libyan rebel] Omar Al-Mukhtar went to the gallows...
Interviewer: It is a difficult moment for anyone...
Mish'an Jabouri: It was a significant moment, recorded on video. It was not just talk. Not just something somebody said or witnessed...
Interviewer: It was live on TV.
Mish'an Jabouri: Yes. Saddam Hussein acted courageously. He entered the annals of history, and God granted him an end he could be proud of.
I was talking to your colleagues two or three days ago. I recall that in 1993, my mother sent me a letter to Turkey, where I was residing at the time. She said to me: "Only the women are left." They even arrested her chauffeur. Even the people who brought us gas canisters were afraid to enter our home. Nobody could enter our home. All my sisters' husbands and all my cousins were arrested. Everybody who was close to my mother was in jail. Of course, some of them were executed, and others escaped execution.
One of them visited me in Damascus, and I asked him about those days. He returned to Iraq three days ago. I asked him to tell me everything that President Saddam Hussein had done. My mother sent me a letter, saying that no one dared even to bring us gas canisters. They were afraid...
Interviewer: They stopped at the door...
Mish'an Jabouri: That’s right. But the way Saddam Hussein was executed made me forgive him.
[...]
The way he walked to the gallows is worthy of respect. Therefore, no matter what Mish'an, Al-Maliki, or anybody says – at that moment, Saddam Hussein entered the annals of history.
Of course what preceded that moment is controversial. Some support him, and others are against him, but he will surely be treated fairly by history. Personally, I believe that he committed some grave mistakes, which caused the suffering of millions of people, and brought America to Iraq. Nevertheless, I am convinced that the moment he walked up to the gallows turned him into a hero in the eyes of his followers, and made him courageous in the eyes of us all.
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