Artist Whose Sculpture Replaed Saddam's Statue Dies

[Hissyspit]

Source: The West Australian

Artist whose sculpture replaced Saddam’s statue dies

Iraqi artist Bassem Hamad al-Dawiri, whose sculpture replaced Saddam Hussein’s statue after it was toppled in central Baghdad following the US-led invasion, has died in a car accident, the Association of Iraqi Artists said today. He was 34. Al-Dawiri was driving on the road from Baghdad to the southern city of Kut, 160km south-east of Baghdad, to visit relatives on Wednesday when a tyre blew out, causing his car to flip over, said association chief Qassim al-Sabti.

- snip -

Images of US Marines hauling down Saddam’s statue on Firdos Square on April 9, 2003, and jubilant Iraqis pelting it with garbage and shoes defined the moment Baghdad fell to US-led forces, a prelude to what many hoped would be democracy and freedom in a new Iraq.

Within a month, Baghdad’s interim authorities erected the sculpture created by al-Dawiri and a group of artists he assembled on top of a concrete cylinder where the larger-than-life replica of Saddam wearing a suit, his right arm stretched out, once stood. Al-Dawiri’s work - a modernist structure, with branches reaching toward the sky and a crescent moon shape balancing a ball - was supposed to represent the freedom and unity among Iraq’s Sunnis, Shi’ites and Kurds.

- snip -

In 2005, al-Dawiri erected a memorial statue for 18 children killed in a suicide car bomb attack earlier that year in Baghdad’s mostly Shi’ite impoverished eastern New Baghdad area. The bomber blew up his four-wheel drive as US troops were distributing lolly and toys to the children. Months later, that statue was blown up by explosives planted underneath.

- snip -

The sculptor is survived by his wife, who is expecting the couple’s first child.


Read more: http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=182&ContentID=41229

[msongs]

1. at least he wasn't murdered by the republican party's Blackwater paramilitaries nt

[stillcool]

4. How would we know?

With a reported 180,000 employees through U.S. government contracts, I wonder how anyone can say what is going on in that country...

There are now 630 companies working in Iraq on contract for the US government, with personnel from more than 100 countries offering services ranging from cooking and driving to the protection of high-ranking army officers. Their 180,000 employees now outnumber America's 160,000 official troops.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/contract/2007/0801privatewar.htm

From Sourcewatch:

The following is a list of Private Military Corporations (PMCs).
PMCs list
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Private_Military_Corporations/list_of_PMCs

From Globalsecurity:

Mercenary / Private Military Companies (PMCs)
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/pmc-list.htm

[Algorem]

2. will they fake a huge crowd at his funeral?

[dickbearton]

11. Exactly, the whole thing was another example of Bush propaganda...

The Generals are too stupid to see they are complicit in the
treason and war crimes of George Bush. Like Bush, some of them
would not survive another Nuremberg Trial.

[TomInTib]

3. I know the guy who bought that Hussein sculpture.

Harlan Crow, Dallas, Texas.

I was at a reception at his house in the Summer of '04.

He said he was going to bring it to Dallas, "In a few months, when this is all over and everything cools down".

Good effing luck on that, Harlan.

You would not believe the stuff that guy owns.

[leftchick]

5. he sounds like an asshole

no one I would like to meet.

[TomInTib]

6. Total asshole.

When in Dallas, I would go to these "events" at his house just to drink hundreds of dollars worth of fine wines and eat foods that were out of this world.

[silverweb]

7. He certainly is.

Check this out: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Harlan_Crow

[RaleighNCDUer]

10. "Crow has an unusual hobby of collecting statues of both past and present tyrants, including

including Adolf Hitler and Fidel Castro."

Does he have his "W" statue yet?

[silverweb]

15. I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

n/t

[silverweb]

8. I'd like to see the sculpture.

"Al-Dawiri’s work - a modernist structure, with branches reaching toward the sky and a crescent moon shape balancing a ball - was supposed to represent the freedom and unity among Iraq’s Sunnis, Shi’ites and Kurds."

Nice concept. The sculpture sounds interesting, but I can't find a picture of it anywhere.

[burrowowl]

13. Does someone have a link to pic of new sculpture?

[Benhurst]

9. Ah, yes, the pulling down of Saddam's statue, one of the great, staged, propaganda

events of our glorious illegal and immoral invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Goebbels would have so proud!

Too bad about the young sculptor, though.

[Lautremont]

12. Zombie Saddam has claimed his first victim.

[daleo]

14. I suppose it could have been an accident

"a tyre blew out, causing his car to flip over"

It could be a cover story too. Having this person die as a result of a roadside bombing would be bad optics.