I am not crying over Saddam, but it is a joke to say he "given a fair trail" as Bush claims and lies again to the American people. 3 of Saddam's lawyers were murdered. The judge resigned from the case. Sentencing Saddam to death merely on the bases of evidence r/t the killings in Dujail in 1982 was NOT a fair trial. Saddam no doubt was guilty, but be did NOT get a fair trail. That is the conclusion of columnist Bronwen Maddow who writes the World Briefing column in The Times of London; Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program for Human Rights Watch; and lawyer extraordinaire Noah Feldman. Those of the sources critical of this trial that I am aware of. There are many other experts who say this was NOT a fair trial. I think that the conclusion that Saddam did NOT get a fair trial is the overwhelming consensus among legal experts. Saddam did not give his victims a fair trail, but we are supposed to be better than he.
Note Saddam did not wear a hood, and only the noose was shown being placed around his neck. There has been no video released as of yet and no audio was made (according to the article below).
Finally, note the the violence in Iraq continues (see second new story below). No doubt George W. Bush will continue to deny that a raging civil war is underway in Iraq. If no civil war is happening why is Bush preparing to send 17,000 to 20,000 or more additional U.S. troops to Baghdad in an effort to stem the violence? Saddam may be dead, but we can count on continued violence in Iraq, and a continuing stream of lies from the mouth of George W. Bush.
Bush has told the truth lately about one thing. As Jonathan Zimmerman wrote in the Christian Science Monitor on Dec 27: "I must tell you, I'm sleeping a lot better than people would assume," Bush recently told People magazine. Bush slept through Hurricane Katrina. Now he is reported by his own spokesman to have slept through Saddam's execution.
Hussein executed with 'fear in his face' quote:
POSTED: 0944 GMT (1744 HKT), December 30, 2006
STORY HIGHLIGHTS:
• NEW: Iraqi TV airs video of noose placed around Hussein's neck
• Hussein refused to wear black hood
• Bush praises Iraqis for giving fair trial
• Celebrations break out in Baghdad and Michigan
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi dictator who spent his last years in captivity after his ruthless regime was toppled by the U.S.-led coalition in 2003, was hanged before dawn Saturday for crimes committed in a brutal crackdown during his reign.
The execution took place shortly after 6 a.m. (10 p.m. Friday ET), Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, told Iraqi television.
"This dark page has been turned over," Rubaie said. "Saddam is gone. Today Iraq is an Iraq for all the Iraqis, and all the Iraqis are looking forward. ... The [Hussein] era has gone forever." (Watch noose placed around Hussein's neck Video)
Al-Iraqiya state television aired videotape of Hussein's last moments several hours after the execution.
The video showed Hussein, dressed in a black overcoat, being led into a room by three masked guards.
The broadcast only showed the execution to the point where the noose was placed over Hussein's head and tightened around his neck. No audio was heard.
Rubaie, who witnessed the execution, said the former leader was "strangely submissive" to the process.
"He was a broken man," he said. "He was afraid. You could see fear in his face."
Rubaie said that Hussein carried with him a copy of the Quran and asked that it be given to "a certain person." Rubaie did not identify that person.
On Al-Arabiya television, Rubaie said the execution took place at the 5th Division intelligence office in Qadhimiya. He said Hussein refused to wear a black hood over his head before execution and told him "don't be afraid."
White House deputy press secretary Scott Stanzel said President Bush was asleep when the execution took place and was not awakened. The president had been briefed by national security adviser Stephen Hadley before retiring and was aware the hanging was imminent, Stanzel said.
~~~snip~~~
Car bomb kills at least 30 in Kufa quote:
POSTED: 1043 GMT (1843 HKT), December 30, 2006
STORY HIGHLIGHTS:
• NEW: Car bomb kills at least 30 in Kufa
• 108th U.S. soldier killed, making December deadliest month in 2006
• Nine killed, including Shiite cleric, by suicide bomber
• Two Iranian diplomats in U.S. custody for a week are free
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A parked car bomb exploded in a local market in the southern Iraqi Shiite town of Kufa on Saturday, killing at least 30 civilians and wounding 45 others, the Interior Ministry said.
The historic town of Kufa is part of the key southern province of Najaf, which U.S. troops handed over security control to Iraqi troops and police last week, and has a strong Shiite identity.
~~~snip~~~
US welcomes Saddam hanging, Europe opposes execution AFP - The United States has joined its arch-foe Iran in hailing the justice of Saddam Hussein's execution, but European powers opposed the use of capital punishment even though they condemned the former dictator's crimes in Iraq.
Saddam's death angers many Arabs, foes rejoice
quote:
By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent
Reuters 5:46 am EST Sat 30 Dec 2006
Saddam Hussein's execution on Saturday angered many Arabs, but even some who felt the former Iraqi leader deserved to die voiced a sense of justice denied.
Many said his hanging for crimes against humanity, on the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha, would worsen violence in Iraq.
"I don't have any sorrow or compassion for the man, but the timing is very stupid and Muslims will think this was done to provoke their feelings," said Ehab Abdel-Hamid, 30, a novelist and senior editor at Cairo's independent al-Dostour newspaper.
Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, told Al Jazeera television:
"Arab public opinion wonders who deserves to be tried and executed: Saddam Hussein who preserved the unity of Iraq, its Arab and Islamic identity and the coexistence of its different communities such as Shi'ites and Sunnis ... or those who engulfed the country in this bloody civil war?"
No immediate street protests were reported in Arab capitals, where Muslims were preoccupied with the Eid al-Adha holiday.
In Afghanistan, which preceded Iraq as the first target in the U.S.-declared "war on terror," a top commander of the resurgent Islamist Taliban movement said Saddam's death would galvanize Muslim opposition to the United States.
"His death will boost the morale of Muslims. The jihad in Iraq will be intensified and attacks on invader forces will increase," Mullah Obaidullah Akhund told Reuters by telephone.
News of Saddam's death shocked Palestinians, many of whom had seen him as an Arab hero for his missile attacks on Israel during the 1991 Gulf War that ended Iraq's occupation of Kuwait.
People in Gaza, alerted by text messages or phone calls, hurried home after Eid prayers in mosques to watch the news and to slaughter sheep for the traditional Muslim feast.
"What is he (Saddam), a sheep? I think the Americans wanted to tell all Arab leaders who are their servants that they are like Saddam, nothing but a sheep slaughtered on the day of Eid," said a worshipper called Abu Mohammad Salama.
Mushir al-Masri, a lawmaker of the governing Islamist Hamas movement, said: "The execution of President Saddam Hussein was a proof of the criminal and terrorist American policy and its war against all forces of resistance in the world."
FLAWED JUSTICE
In Kuwait, where Saddam is reviled for his 1990 invasion, Ahmed al-Shatti, a Health Ministry official, said the Iraqi leader was a criminal whose trial had been incomplete.
"He did not answer for the crime of occupying Kuwait and the atrocities he committed in Kuwait," Shatti said, arguing that Arabs should not be angry about his death but about U.S. failure to bring democracy, stability and development to Iraq.
In Shi'ite non-Arab Iran, Deputy Foreign Minister Hamid Reza Asefi said the hanging of the man who led Iraq into a costly war with the Islamic Republic in the 1980s was a victory for Iraqis.
But Yousef Molaee, an Iranian international law expert, took the view that the dawn execution was a failure for justice.
"Saddam's crimes in the eight-year war against Iran, such as chemical bombardments, remained unanswered because of the hasty and unfair trial," state news agency IRNA quoted him as saying.
In Mecca, Sunni Arab pilgrims voiced outrage that Iraqi authorities had executed Saddam on a major religious holiday.
"His execution on the day of Eid...is an insult to all Muslims," said Jordanian pilgrim Nidal Mohammad Salah.
Ahmed Al Mudaweb, a political editor at Bahrain's Al Watan newspaper, predicted that the former Iraqi president's hanging would spur the insurgency by his fellow Sunnis in Iraq.
"He will become a kind of martyr, and his status as a political figure will increase," he said.
Khalaf al-Alayan, a Sunni Iraqi lawmaker, told Al Jazeera from Jordan: "This was an act of vengeance against Iraq."
Jordanians, once fervently pro-Saddam, said his execution for the 1982 killings of about 150 Shi'ites, was incongruous.
"He surely wasn't the only tyrant in the world. The irony is he was tried and hanged for a small crime when he committed worse," said Aline Saeed, a marketing director.
Mohamed Habib, deputy leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's strongest opposition group, said Saddam had been judged by an Iraqi government that was not fully sovereign.
"His execution will have grave consequences and will deepen the ethnic and sectarian violence in Iraq," he said.
Beyond the Arab world, few Muslims seemed ready to defend Saddam, but many doubted that full justice had been done.
In Pakistan, Liaqat Baluch, a leader of a six-party opposition alliance of conservative religious parties, said Saddam was a "bad guy" but his trial had been unfair.
Remember when Bushco claimed that killing Saddam's evil offspring would stem the violence in Iraq? Now, Bush himself admits that "bringing Saddam to justice" by hanging him will not end the violence in Iraq. On one hand Bush claims that Saddam's execution is an(other) "important milestone", but on the other hand Bush admits Saddam's death won't halt Iraq violence. So What The Fuck exactly is this "important milestone"? What the hell are we fighting for in Iraq?
Joy of Capture Muted at the End quote:
December 30, 2006
News Analysis
By JEFF ZELENY
The New York Times
CRAWFORD, Tex., Dec. 29 — The capture of Saddam Hussein three years ago was a jubilant moment for the White House, hailed by President Bush in a televised address from the Cabinet Room. The execution of Mr. Hussein, though, seemed hardly to inspire the same sentiment.
Before the hanging was carried out in Baghdad, Mr. Bush went to sleep here at his ranch and was not roused when the news came. In a statement written in advance, the president said the execution would not end the violence in Iraq.
After Mr. Hussein was arrested Dec. 13, 2003, he gradually faded from view, save for his courtroom outbursts and writings from prison. The growing chaos and violence in Iraq has steadily overshadowed the torturous rule of Mr. Hussein, who for more than two decades held a unique place in the politics and psyche of the United States, a symbol of the manifestation of evil in the Middle East.
Now, what could have been a triumphal bookend to the American invasion of Iraq has instead been dampened by the grim reality of conditions on the ground there. Mr. Hussein’s hanging means that the ousted leader has been held accountable for his misdeeds, fulfilling the American war aim most cited by the White House after Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction proved nonexistent.
But that war is now edging toward its fifth year, and the sectarian violence that has surged independent of any old Sunni or Baathist allegiances to Mr. Hussein has raised questions about what change, if any, his death might bring.
~~~snip~~~
“There’s no doubt his hatred is mainly directed at us,” the current president said, speaking to a Republican fund-raising crowd in Houston on Sept. 26, 2002. “This is the man who tried to kill my dad.”
For his part, Mr. Hussein referred to the younger Mr. Bush as “son of the viper.” He delivered a famous snub of the 41st president, constructing a mosaic of the elder Bush’s face on the floor of the Rashid Hotel, perfectly positioned to be repeatedly stepped on. After the American troops reached Baghdad, they crushed the mosaic.
When Mr. Hussein was captured, the president said: “Good riddance, the world is better off without you.” But he dismissed suggestions that a family grudge played a role in shaping his Iraq policy or influenced his decision to go to war. “My personal views,” he said, “aren’t important in this matter.”
But Mr. Buchanan, a longtime observer of the Bush political family in Texas, said that these were no ordinary archenemies and that setting aside personal views entirely seemed impossible.
“I think the president will see this as justice done and may well feel some sense of vindication, in part because of the attempt on his father’s life,” he said. “It’s definitely part of the drama.”
~~~snip~~~
Bush hails Saddam's execution but warns violence to continue quote:
by Olivier Knox
AFP 6:52 am EST Saturday 30 December 2006
US President George W. Bush has hailed Saddam Hussein's execution as "an important milestone" on the road to building an Iraqi democracy but warned it will not end deadly violence there.
"Saddam Husseins execution comes at the end of a difficult year for the Iraqi people and for our troops," Bush said in a statement released as he prepared to usher in 2007 at his Texas ranch.
"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," he said late Friday.
Bush learned at 6:15 pm (0015 GMT) from US national security adviser Stephen Hadley that Saddam would go to the gallows in a few hours, but was fast asleep when the execution occurred, said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel.
The ousted dictator was hanged around 9:00 pm Texas time (0300 GMT), Iraqi officials said, as the violence-wracked country braced nervously for possible reprisals by his remaining supporters.
"The president concluded his day knowing that the final phase of bringing Saddam Hussein to justice was underway," Stanzel told reporters. Asked whether that meant Bush was asleep when it happened, Stanzel replied: "That's correct."
Taking aim at critics of the special judicial process that led to Saddam's conviction, Bush emphasized that he "was executed after receiving a fair trial -- the kind of justice he denied the victims of his brutal regime."
"Fair trials were unimaginable under Saddam Hussein's tyrannical rule. 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.
Saddam's death came as the US president planned to unveil a change in strategy in Iraq within about two weeks, amid heavy pressure from the US public to bring home the roughly 140,000 US soldiers there.
"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," said Bush.
US officials said the toppled dictator's execution would play no role in what course the embattled Bush would chart in Iraq, where nearly 3,000 US soldiers have died and many more have been wounded.
"We are reminded today of how far the Iraqi people have come since the end of Saddam Husseins 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," said Bush.
~~~snip~~~
AMERICA blog: Saturday, December 30, 2006 by Joe in DC - 12/30/2006 12:25:00 AM quote:
Bush was asleep when Hussein was executed but he managed to put out a statement anyway. He has made America pay a very heavy price to take down Saddam. We've lost almost 3,000 soldiers. Ten of thousands have been permanently disabled. Hundreds of billions have been spent. The U.S. has lost power and prestige in the world. Our leaders lied to us and to the world. There were no weapons of mass destruction. Our own intelligence agencies maintain that the war in Iraq has inspired new terrorists and made our country less safe. We're stuck in a war that our President chose to start, but it's a war he can't end.
So, Bush got Saddam's scalp. But has it been worth it?
Insurgency set to outlive SaddamLast Updated: Saturday, 30 December 2006, 11:12 GMT - BBC News
By David Loyn
BBC world affairs correspondent
The death of Saddam Hussein is unlikely to have the beneficial effect that such a drastic step should have.
It was the end of an inevitable process that began when Saddam Hussein was found in a "spider hole" on 14 December 2003, but his capacity to upset the plans of his opponents is as strong in death as in life.
Before he fell from power, Saddam Hussein left specific instructions to his supporters.
He knew that they could not defeat the American-led invasion force on the conventional battlefield, so he ordered his men to loot and disrupt the civilian infrastructure and join forces with Islamists rebels.
Those tactics continue to prevent the effective stabilisation of Iraq, and the insurgency now has a momentum of its own that will outlive Saddam.
'Victor's justice'
If anything, his death will tend to strengthen the hand of Sunni insurgents in recruiting people to their cause.
They ask: "What do we have to lose?" as they see their Shia rivals running the armed forces and the police.
For these hardliners, the death of Saddam is "victor's justice", carried out amid the extraordinary facilities of the high-security, sanitised international Green Zone.
| The imposition of the death penalty - an inherently cruel and inhumane punishment - in the wake of an unfair trial is indefensible
Human Rights Watch |
The transparency of the trial, every stage of which was broadcast, does not change their view.
The new sectarianism, unleashed in earnest after the destruction of the Samarra shrine in February 2006, is now altering the geography of the capital, Baghdad, as militias mark out their zones of influence.
The celebrations in Shia areas at the death of Saddam will only make these divisions worse.
The celebrations of those who do welcome his death are real of course.
No-one can deny the pleasure now felt by many who suffered at the hands of Saddam's tyrannical regime.
In particular, there are genuine celebrations among the Marsh Arabs in the south, who had their way of life destroyed in a genocidal frenzy after their failed uprising in 1991, and the Kurds in the north, always threatened by Saddam.
Fair trial?
But even here, there will be questions over the trial itself.
Human Rights Watch, who observed every day of the process along with another NGO, brought out a harsh verdict on the quality of justice in this case.
Their conclusion was that this was not a fair trial, and the soundness of the verdict is questionable.
In this case, they say "the imposition of the death penalty - an inherently cruel and inhumane punishment - in the wake of an unfair trial is indefensible".
They criticised the management of the trial, protection given to witnesses, the lack of material given to the defence (making this a "trial by ambush"), and prejudicial comments made by Iraqi politicians.
They also criticised the defence for using the courtroom as a political grandstand.
There are also questions over the long and detailed examination of some of the evidence in the Dujail case [for the killing of 148 Shias in the village of that name in the early 1980s], while Saddam's trial for the deaths of far more people in Kurdish areas was rushed through ahead of the execution.
Considering that this was the first trial of this scale since the Nuremberg trials at the end of World War II, the disappointment of legal observers that it did not set a higher standard is great.
But then in Iraq, nothing has quite turned out as expected.
