Early Morning News

   Iraq's former vice- president ( Taha Yassin Ramadan ) got the noose early Tuesday ( 3:05am ) For his part in the killing of 148 Shia Iraqis in Dujail, according to an official in the prime minister's office.

    Ramadan was originally sentenced to life in prison for murder, forced deportation and torture back in November but an appeals court said that the sentence was to lenient and passed the case back to the High Tribunal and demanded that he be sentenced to death.  Source

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   Here is one more of the signs of progress that the Bush administration says we are seeing in Iraq.

    Police in Baghdad say that they have found bodies of some 30 people who were shot in various Baghdad districts.    Source

   Here are a few thoughts from the Iraqi citizens on things since the U.S. began it's occupation of the country.

Reuters Alertnet

* "We have faced terrorism on a scale we didn't know existed in the past four years. Everybody has lost someone close but we can always remain optimistic that everything will improve once everyone agrees using violence for political gain is wrong." - Ahmed Riyadh, 28, barber.

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* "After four years I can say that the country is lost. We never expected this would happen. We were hoping to live like a European country, not to be living like this." - Salih Abu Mehdi, 43, security guard and father of six children.

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* "The Americans came to rob Iraq and to end the Islamic religion... They rebuild what they destroy and we have no security." - Mohammed Ameen, bookshop owner.

* "Are they serious in bringing us democracy when they have lost their own democracies. I watched anti-war protestors in Washington being arrested by police. The Americans have not benefited Iraq and whoever says the opposite is like an ostrich with its head underground." - Marwan Abdul-Karim, 27, works in a mobile phone store.       Read More Here

 

IceRocket tags: news, Iraq, democracy, bush