Iraqi-Americans: 'Now there's peace, Saddam is dead'

Story Highlights

• NEW: American Muslims celebrate execution
• Democrats welcome news of Hussein's death
• President cites Iraqis' "resolve to move forward"
• White House says Bush was asleep when Hussein was executed

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(CNN/AP) -- Grinning and with tears in his eyes, 13-year-old Ali Al-Najjar of Michigan watched his father celebrate the death of Saddam Hussein.

"This is the first time I've seen my dad this happy," the Dearborn teenager told The Associated Press. His father directs a local mosque.

"I've been praying for this all my life," said Ali.

According to the AP, a crowd of about 200 Iraqi-Americans cheered outside a Dearborn mosque, chanting "Now there's peace, Saddam is dead" in English and Arabic.

They danced, sang, some dropping to their knees and crying, the AP reported.

Many draped Iraqi and American flags on their shoulders, heads, and car hoods.

The city is home to one of the largest communities of Muslims in America.

Detroit has a strong Iraqi community of Chaldeans, who are Catholic, Kurds, and Arabs.

Many from Iraq fled their homeland during the rule of Saddam.

In Dearborn, Dave Alwatan was among those who gathered at the Karbalaa center, according to the AP.

He wore an Iraqi flag around his shoulders and grinned, flashing a peace sign at everyone he passed.

"Peace," he said, smiling and laughing. "Now there will be peace for my family."

Alwatan, 32, an Iraqi-American, said Saddam's forces tortured and killed family members that were left behind after he left Iraq in 1991, the AP said.

Others expressed a similar sense of relief.

"I feel like I lost something all my life and today it is found," Moshtaq al-Bazaz told the news wire.

The AP interviewed others about the longterm fallout of Saddam's execution.

Some local Arab-American leaders predicted that Saddam's execution will increase violence overseas and leave the Iraqi people unsettled.

Osama Siblani, publisher of The Arab American News and chairman of several local Arab-American organizations, said Saddam's death sentence is one more casualty in a war that has killed thousands, and it will not solve the power struggle among Iraqi religious groups.

"The execution might bring some amusement and accomplishment to the Bush administration, but it will not help the Iraqi people," Siblani said.

Edward Odisho, 68, an Iraqi refugee since 1981 who now lives in Morton Grove, Illinois, said it will take time for Iraqis to recover from Saddam's reign.

"It will take one to two generations to eradicate the garbage left over from Saddam Hussein and to re-establish a healthy generation," said Odisho, a linguistics professor at Northeastern Illinois University.

Rauf Naqishbendi, 53, an Iraqi Kurd from Halabja who now lives a few miles south of San Francisco moved to the U.S. in 1977.

"Psychologically the execution is good news, and people will feel that justice has been served," he told the AP. "But the reality is that it's not going to bring back my family members who he killed."

Bush: 'Saddam received a fair trial'

President Bush, able to claim few victories in the war in Iraq, issued a satisfied but measured statement about 90 minutes after former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was executed.

"Fair trials were unimaginable under Saddam Hussein's tyrannical rule," the president said. "It is a testament to the Iraqi people's resolve to move forward after decades of oppression that, despite his terrible crimes against his own people, Saddam Hussein received a fair trial. This would not have been possible without the Iraqi people's determination to create a society governed by the rule of law."

The White House said Bush was asleep at the time of the execution but was briefed by national security adviser Stephen Hadley before going to bed.

In his statement, the president acknowledged that things have not gone well since Hussein was chased from power by coalition forces in 2003.

"Saddam Hussein's execution comes at the end of a difficult year for the Iraqi people and for our troops," he said. "Bringing Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the violence in Iraq, but it is an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain, and defend itself, and be an ally in the war on terror."

The president praised the troops fighting the war and expressed optimism tempered by the reality of sectarian fighting and political problems in the United States and in Iraq.

"We are reminded today of how far the Iraqi people have come since the end of Saddam Hussein's rule -- and that the progress they have made would not have been possible without the continued service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform," he said.

"Many difficult choices and further sacrifices lie ahead. Yet the safety and security of the American people require that we not relent in ensuring that Iraq's young democracy continues to progress."

Democrats also welcomed the news of Hussein's death. "Iraq has closed one of the darkest chapters in its history and rid the world of a tyrant," said Joseph Biden of Delaware, incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, called Hussein "a brutal tyrant and murderous dictator."

"Now it is time for the people of Iraq to work to reconcile their differences and to heal the wounds of the past," he said. "Only that process will end the violence that has prevented Iraq from moving forward."

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