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I confess I haven't followed the trial closely. It's really kind of a show from what I've seen. It's real purpose is to provide propaganda for the Administration showing 'we brought Saddam to justice'. And I'm okay with that.
I wonder if anyone has thought about the sentencing of the guy. He may be a killer, but show me a head of state in any major power that hasn't got blood on his hands. Is executing a former head of state such a good idea? Think of the precident. Who amongst them wouldn't have a warrant waiting for them somewhere?
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Saddam Hussein Takes the Stand Saddam Hussein testified Wednesday for the first time at his trial, insisting he still was Iraq's leader and calling the proceedings a "comedy," but the chief judge closed the trial to the public because he said the defendant was making political speeches.
The deposed president, wearing a black suit and standing before the chief judge while reading his remarks, addressed the Iraqi people about the bloody wave of sectarian violence that has rocked the country since the bombing of a major Shiite shrine last month.
"What pains me most is what I heard recently about something that aims to harm our people," Saddam said. "My conscience tells me that the great people of Iraq have nothing to do with these acts."
Chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman interrupted Saddam, saying he was not allowed to give political speeches in the court.
"I am the head of state," Saddam replied.
"You used to be a head of state. You are a defendant now," Abdel-Rahman said.
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Prosecution Asks For Death Penalty Against SaddamA prosecutor has asked for the death penalty against former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and two of his co-defendants, saying today that the former Iraqi leader and his regime committed crimes against humanity in a “revenge” attack on Shiite civilians in the 1980s.
The closing arguments brought the eight-month-old Baghdad trial into its final phase, and after today's session, the court adjourned until July 10, when the defence will begin making its final summation.
Saddam, dressed in a black suit, sat silently, sometimes taking notes, as chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi delivered his arguments, listing the evidence against each of the eight defendants.
Concluding his remarks, al-Moussawi asked for the death penalty against Saddam, his half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and Taha Yassin Ramadan, a former senior regime member.
“They were spreading corruption on earth … and even the trees was not save from their oppression,” he said.
“Well done,” Saddam muttered sarcastically.
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Hardly surprising. Has there been any discussion on how he might be executed, I wonder?
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Quote:
First Amongst Daves said:
Hardly surprising. Has there been any discussion on how he might be executed, I wonder?
Saddam Hussein Sentenced To Death by Hanging
Saddam Hussein, the iron-fisted dictator who ruled Iraq for nearly a quarter of a century, was found guilty of crimes against humanity Sunday and sentenced to death by hanging.
The so-called Butcher of Baghdad, who was president of Iraq from 1979 until he was deposed by Coalition forces in April 2003, was convicted of the 1982 killings of 148 Shiites in the city of Dujail.
The visibly shaken former leader shouted "God is great!" as Iraq's High Tribunal announced his sentence.
Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of the former Revolutionary Court, were sentenced to join Saddam on the gallows for the Dujail killings after an unsuccessful assassination attempt during a Saddam visit to the city 35 miles north of Baghdad.
The trial brought Saddam and his co-defendants before their accusers in what was one of the most highly publicized and heavily reported trials of its kind since the Nuremberg tribunals for members of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime and its slaughter of 6 million Jews in the World War II Holocaust.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061105/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraqShiites praise, Sunnis protest verdict By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 40 minutes ago BAGHDAD, Iraq - Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Shiites poured into the streets of the capital to rejoice at the death sentence for Saddam Hussein, but the former dictator's fellow Sunnis paraded through his hometown chanting, "We will avenge you Saddam." Both Saddam and the Shiite prime minister who has sought his execution called on their countrymen on Sunday to end the sectarian violence that has pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war, but the starkly differing reactions to the verdict and sentence throughout the country — though largely peaceful on Sunday — stoked fears that worse was to come. In Sadr City, the Shiite stronghold of northeast Baghdad, youths took to the streets dancing and singing, despite a curfew declared for Sunday over the most restive parts of the country. "Execute Saddam," they chanted. Many carried posters of Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical anti-American cleric whose Mahdi Army militia effectively runs the district. "This is an unprecedented feeling of happiness," said 35-year-old Abu Sinan. "The verdict declares that Saddam is paying the price for murdering tens of thousands of Iraqis," he said. Police said at least three people, including a two-year-old child, were killed and eight wounded in clashes between gunmen and Iraqi police in Baghdad's dominantly Sunni Azamiyah district. Residents said rockets and mortars began falling on the area beginning Saturday night and blamed Mahdi Army fighters. Saddam was sentenced to death by Iraq's High Tribunal for crimes against humanity, along with his half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of the former Revolutionary Court. Three other defendants received lesser sentences and one was acquitted. "This is the fate of all those who violated the sanctity of the citizens and shed the honest blood. This is the disgraceful end to the person who brought ordeals, pains and reckless wars to this country," Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said in a television address to the nation following the verdict. "I say to all deluded remnants of the previous regime: The period of Saddam and his party is gone as did other dictators' like Mussolini and Hitler," said al-Maliki, who was forced into exile during Saddam's rule. He called for an end to sectarian violence. Saddam issued a similar call, said his lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi. "His message to the Iraqi people was 'pardon and do not take revenge on the invading nations and their people,'" al-Dulaimi said. "The president also asked his countrymen to 'unify in the face of sectarian strife.'" In Tikrit, deep in the Sunni heartland north of Baghdad where support for Saddam runs hand-in-hand with deep distrust of Iraq's new Shiite-dominated government, gunshots rang out from rooftops and street corners as Saddam addressed the court. Sunni insurgents with AK-47s and heavy machine guns paraded in scores of vehicles in defiance of the curfew. A crowd about 1,000, including some policemen and many people holding aloft pictures of Saddam, chanted: "We will avenge you Saddam." "The violence will only rise in the area after the hanging of Saddam, but the Americans care nothing about spilled Iraqi blood," said Mohammed Abbas, a 60-year-old retired teacher. "We are tribal people ... when any ordinary member of our tribe is killed, we will kill one from the enemy tribe, to say nothing of an important person like Saddam," Abbas said. The U.S. military announced the deaths Saturday of a soldier in fighting in western Baghdad and a Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7, who died from non-hostile causes Saturday in Anbar province. At least 13 U.S. troops have died in Iraq this month. Celebrations were heady but mostly peaceful throughout the predominantly Shiite south, where Saddam's elite Republican Guard massacred thousands during a failed uprising in 1991. A line of cars festooned with plastic flowers wound through the streets of the holy city of Najaf, and crowds burned portraits of Saddam and his family. Salih Mahdi said Saddam's sentencing would help heal the loss of his brother Ali, who was 22 when he was arrested in Saddam's 1982 crackdown on the Dawa party, then an underground opposition and now linked to the prime minister. Ali Mahdi has not been seen since. Mahdi, a retired civil servant, cursed Saddam and sobbed, saying: "You are cruel and cowardly and it was our misfortune that you ruled and terrorized us." Celebratory gunfire also rang out in Kurdish neighborhoods across the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, where 40-year-old Khatab Ahmed sat on a mattress in his living room to watch the trial coverage with his wife and six children. "Thank God I lived to see the day when the criminals received their punishment," said Ahmed, a taxi driver.
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I posted it here almost 3 years ago, and I'll say it again: Saddam ought to be crucified, it ought to be done in a large stadium where people can watch, get drunk, etc. It ought to be televised. All news channels ought to carry it. Of course, Rebok, Dell, and Budwieser ought to be the sponsors! A lottery should be drawn to see which one of the lucky spectators gets to throw some rocks at Saddam while he's struggling and bleeding on the cross. If they put a small seat on the cross to facilitate being able to breathe, Saddam ought to be up there for a few days, in agony and suffering. But it would never make up for what he did. Fun thought, though. 
"I offer you a Vulcan prayer, Mr Suder. May your death bring you the peace you never found in life." - Tuvok. 
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I hope for the peace in Iraq (no pun intended) for justice that Saddam will be tried for all his crime, at least those involving him being guilty for murder.
"Batman is only meaningful as an answer to a world which in its basics is chaotic and in the hands of the wrong people, where no justice can be found. I think it's very suitable to our perception of the world's condition today... Batman embodies the will to resist evil" -Frank Miller
"Conan, what's the meaning of life?"
"To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women!"
-Conan the Barbarian
"Well, yeah."
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Rack MisterJLA!
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Noooooooooo! Please! I want to negotiate!
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Quote:
Saddam Hussein said:
Noooooooooo! Please! I want to negotiate!
Pretty soon your ghost will be an alt.
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I wonder who'll come up with "Ghost of Saddam" as an alt?
"I offer you a Vulcan prayer, Mr Suder. May your death bring you the peace you never found in life." - Tuvok.
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It can't be any worse than those "talking sex toys" so relax, guy!
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Quote:
Saddam Hussein said:
It can't be any worse than those "talking sex toys" so relax, guy!
"I offer you a Vulcan prayer, Mr Suder. May your death bring you the peace you never found in life." - Tuvok.
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Quote:
Beardguy57 said:
I wonder who'll come up with "Ghost of Saddam" as an alt?
Or Zombie Saddam?
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Your spitball shooters can't hurt me anymore!
You're all fucked now!
AAAAA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
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Wow. Iraqi justice is SWIFT
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Anybody have John Constantine's cel number?
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Quote:
Saddam Hussein's Ghost said:
Your spitball shooters can't hurt me anymore!
You're all fucked now!
AAAAA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Damn that Saddam!! That was fast!
"I offer you a Vulcan prayer, Mr Suder. May your death bring you the peace you never found in life." - Tuvok.
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Quote:
dogbert said:
Anybody have John Constantine's cel number?
Either him, or call Ghostbusters!!!
"I offer you a Vulcan prayer, Mr Suder. May your death bring you the peace you never found in life." - Tuvok.
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Quote:
Beardguy57 said:
Quote:
dogbert said:
Anybody have John Constantine's cel number?
Either him, or call Ghostbusters!!!
Nah, Constantine didn't get a sequel.
If he does his job right, neither will Saddam.
(Pictures horror franchise featuring the ghost of Saddam murdering beutiful, nubile college girls in various ways)
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Quote:
Saddam Hussein said:
It can't be any worse than those "talking sex toys" so relax, guy!
Talking sex toys? Oh please!
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Oh, dear GOD, I can see the "Ghost of Saddam" horror movie franchise in about 16 years from now...
" When Ghost Saddam attacks!"
Part 16.
Rated "B" for boring!
"I offer you a Vulcan prayer, Mr Suder. May your death bring you the peace you never found in life." - Tuvok.
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I hope the hangman does a good job. Saddam should should be well hung.
"My friends have always been the best of me." -Doctor Who
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I can tell by the position of the sun in the sky, that is time for us to go. Until next time, I am Lothar of the Hill People!
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I'm disappointed he received death. But I'm hardly surprised. The Pope (or, "Bendy", as I call him in private) and I agree on this: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2006/11/05/2252602-ap.htmlQuote:
AP) - Saddam Hussein's death sentence was celebrated by some on Sunday as justice deserved or even divine, but denounced by others as a political ploy two days before critical U.S. midterm congressional elections.
Worldwide, the range of reactions - including a European outcry over capital punishment and doubts about the fairness of the tribunal that ordered Saddam to hang - reflected new geopolitical fault lines drawn after America's decision to invade Iraq in 2003 and depose its dictator.
The European Union welcomed the verdict but said Saddam should not be put to death. At the Vatican, Renato Cardinal Martino, Pope Benedict's top prelate for justice issues, called the sentence a throwback to "eye for an eye" vengeance.
"This is not the way to present the new Iraq to the world, which is different from Saddam, who was behind hundreds of thousands of deaths as well as death penalty sentences," said Hands Off Cain, an Italian organization working to rid the world of capital punishment.
Islamic leaders warned that executing Saddam could inflame those who revile the U.S., undermining President Bush's policy in the Middle East and inspiring terrorists.
"The hanging of Saddam Hussein will turn to hell for the Americans," said Vitaya Wisethrat, a respected Muslim cleric in Thailand, which has its own Islamic insurgency in the country's south.
"The Saddam case is not a Muslim problem but the problem of America and its domestic politics," he said. "Maybe Bush will use this case to tell the voters that Saddam is dead and that the Americans are safe. But actually the American people will be in more danger with the death of Saddam."
Bush called the verdict "a milestone in the Iraqi people's efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law."
Praising the Iraqi judiciary for its independence, the White House denied arranging for the verdict to be announced just two days before pivotal elections in which Democrats are fighting for control of Congress.
"The idea is preposterous," said Tony Snow, Bush's spokesman.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter MacKay called Saddam's trial "open" and "transparent", but said it would be preemtive to pass judgements or make public declarations until the appeal process was over.
"Obviously there is an impact on the ground that we have to be very cognizant of, but I suspect as with most processes, this will delay the inevitable," MacKay said.
Yet there was a touch of contempt as well, reminiscent of the international response when the United States failed to find the weapons of mass destruction Bush insisted had made Saddam such a threat.
Intervening militarily was "a grave error," said Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, whose country withdrew its troops from Iraq, contending that conditions there have worsened since the U.S.-led invasion.
Although some voiced doubts that Saddam would actually be hanged, the International Federation for Human Rights denounced the death sentence, warning that it "will generate more violence and deepen the cycle of killing for revenge in Iraq." The Council of Europe called it "futile and wrong" to execute Saddam.
Louise Arbour, the UN high commissioner for human rights, urged Iraq to ensure a fair appeals process and to refrain from executing Saddam even if the sentence is upheld.
In Pakistan, an opposition religious coalition claimed American forces have caused more deaths in Iraq in the past 3 1/2 years than Saddam did during his 23-year rule, and insisted Bush should stand trial for war crimes.
"Who will punish the Americans and their lackeys who have killed many more people than Saddam Hussein?" asked Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a senior legislator from the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal coalition, which is critical of Pakistan's military cooperation with the United States.
In the Arab world, some Muslims saw the sentence as divine retribution, but others decried it as a farce.
"Saddam is being judged by traitors, Americans and Iranians, and those who came on the backs of American tanks," said Mahmoud al-Saifi of the Arab Liberation Front.
Iran, which fought an eight-year war against Saddam's Iraq and is a bitter opponent of the United States, praised the death sentence and said it hoped that Saddam - denounced by one legislator as "a vampire" - still would be tried for other crimes.
Key U.S. allies - including Britain and Australia - welcomed Sunday's verdict, which had been widely expected.
"Appalling crimes were committed by Saddam Hussein's regime. It is right that those accused of such crimes against the Iraqi people should face Iraqi justice," British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said in a statement.
Amnesty International questioned the fairness of the trial, and international legal experts said Saddam should be kept alive long enough to answer for other atrocities.
"The longer we can keep Saddam alive, the longer the tribunal can have to explore some of the other crimes involving hundreds of thousands of Iraqis," said Sonya Sceats, an international law expert at the Chatham House foreign affairs think tank in London.
"The problem really is that this tribunal has not shown itself to be fair and impartial - not only by international standards, but by Iraqi standards," she said.
Chandra Muzaffar, president of the Malaysian-based International Movement for a Just World, also voiced concerns that Saddam's trial "violated many established norms of international jurisprudence."
Even so, "Saddam was undoubtedly a brutal dictator, and even though I wouldn't subscribe to the death penalty, he deserves to be punished severely for the enormity of his crimes," he added.
Konstantin Kosachyov, the Kremlin-allied head of the international affairs committee in Russia's State Duma, or lower house of parliament, said the sentence would deepen divisions in Iraq.
But Kosachyov expressed doubts that Saddam would actually be executed.
The verdict, he said, was mostly symbolic - "retribution that modern Iraq is taking against Saddam's regime."
It will be interesting to see if this makes a difference in the elections. Certainly Saddam's guilt provides for one positive outcome from the invasion. With Iraq a heavy consideration on voters' minds, this might make it almost worthwhile.
I also have reservations about the impartiality of the judges. I would have preferred an international panel of judges, although being tried by Iraqis certainly has the veneer of more appropriate justice.
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Saddam will become a Martyr; and we all know that Martyrs can be inspiring, even many centuries after they have been executed.
"I offer you a Vulcan prayer, Mr Suder. May your death bring you the peace you never found in life." - Tuvok.
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Quote:
Beardguy57 said:
Saddam will become a Martyr; and we all know that Martyrs can be inspiring, even many centuries after they have been executed.
He very well might be. But keeping him alive could be equally dangerous as his supporters will constantly take hostages, kill diplomats and innocents in attempts to free him.
 Racks be to MisterJLA
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VERY true, Chant! At least killing the bastard will eliminate the risk of his supporters attempting all manner of evil things to free Saddam.
"I offer you a Vulcan prayer, Mr Suder. May your death bring you the peace you never found in life." - Tuvok.
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Hess was imprisoned for decades in Spandau. He was not a role model for Germans.
Of course, Nazi Germany in 1947 is a lot different to American Iraq in 2006. The Germans were exhausted and the country was wrecked. The same cannot be said of Iraq.
Working out where to imprison Saddam is very problematic, I confess. It couldn't be in Iraq or anywhere in the Middle East, because he'd be a major securtiy risk. And it couldn't be outside of Iraq, because then he would be imprisoned by Crusaders as part of a Jewish conspiracy.
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Quote:
First Amongst Daves said:
It will be interesting to see if this makes a difference in the elections. Certainly Saddam's guilt provides for one positive outcome from the invasion. With Iraq a heavy consideration on voters' minds, this might make it almost worthwhile.
Obviously, I'm happy to see Saddam get what he deserves, but I don't think it will have any effect on the elections.
This outcome was already written into people's expectations the day he was caught, and now the issue is not Saddam but how to fight the terrorists and contain sectarian violence.
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Quote:
the G-man said:
Quote:
First Amongst Daves said:
It will be interesting to see if this makes a difference in the elections. Certainly Saddam's guilt provides for one positive outcome from the invasion. With Iraq a heavy consideration on voters' minds, this might make it almost worthwhile.
Obviously, I'm happy to see Saddam get what he deserves, but I don't think it will have any effect on the elections.
This outcome was already written into people's expectations the day he was caught, and now the issue is not Saddam but how to fight the terrorists and contain sectarian violence.
The conviction is some sunshine in a thunderstorm, though. Sectarian violence doesn't have the same immediately apparent finality.
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My moral compass, Britain's The Economist magazine, yesterday applauded the conviction, particularly as it was not a victor's show trial: all participants were Iraqi, although some of the prosecutors were trained by Americans and the trial itself was funded by the US.
On the other hand it pointed out that one fo Saddam's lawyers had his brothers murdered: one judge stood down for being a former Ba'athist, and another judge refused to refer to Saddam as a "dictator". It commented that such thigns were to be expected in a "transitional justice system."
Given the problems with the trial, I would have preferred for him to get life. in any event, the mandate fo the court requires the death penalty be automatically appealed, so we shall see what happens.
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I agree with Dave on this one.
As I said in the other thread, I feel execution is warranted to insure the security of the state by making sure killers can't kill again. In this case however, Hussein is most probably never going to be able to kill anyone. Saddam's lost his nation and his power and thus has no ability to further murder people. One could argue that he'd kill someone else physically, but his MO as a dictator was to let others kill for him, so I don't buy that.
Right now, I'm speaking as a Catholic; the only real judge Saddam's going to face is God. I truly think that he's never going to get the chance to sin again, so I have no problem with him being allowed to continue breathing.
Still, it's not my decision. And because he's apart of the Iraqi constituence, they have a right to do what they want with him. Moreover, because they actually gave him the right to a trial, I'm not going to blame them for their choice.
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Officially "too old for this shit" 15000+ posts
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Officially "too old for this shit" 15000+ posts
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 43,951 Likes: 6 |
Quote:
Pariah said:
Still, it's not my decision. And because he's apart of the Iraqi constituence, they have a right to do what they want with him. Moreover, because they actually gave him the right to a trial, I'm not going to blame them for their choice.
Aye.
Saddam's victims never got trials before their death sentences.
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Joined: May 2003
Posts: 19,633
I walk in eternity 15000+ posts
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I walk in eternity 15000+ posts
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 19,633 |
Saddam Calls for Reconciliation in Court By SINAN SALAHEDDIN and ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writers 2 hours ago Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein listens to testimony during ... BAGHDAD, Iraq - A somber and subdued Saddam Hussein called on Iraqis to "forgive, reconcile and shake hands" as he returned to court Tuesday for his Kurdish genocide trial two days after being sentenced to death in a separate case. Iran urged Iraq to disregard calls for clemency and hang the ousted president, saying Saddam's "very existence is anti-human." The startling call from Saddam came after he rose during the afternoon session to question the testimony of the witnesses, who told of a mass killing of Iraqi Kurds in the 1987-88 Operation Anfal crackdown on Kurdish guerrillas. Saddam then calmly spoke about how the Prophet Muhammad and Jesus Christ asked for forgiveness for those who had opposed them. "I call on all Iraqis, Arabs and Kurds, to forgive, reconcile and shake hands," Saddam said before resuming his seat. The former president's demeanor was far different from his combative performance Sunday, when another court convicted him in the deaths of about 150 Shiite Muslims following an assassination attempt against him in the town of Dujail in 1982. Saddam and two others were sentenced to death by hanging. Four co-defendants received lesser sentences and one was acquitted. Saddam thundered "Long live the people and death to their enemies" when the sentence was imposed. On Tuesday, however, Saddam, dressed in a dark suit and white shirt, sat quietly along with the six other defendants in the Anfal case, calmly taking notes as four Kurdish witnesses gave their testimony. Saddam's goal in making the statement was unclear. However, the remarks followed at least two other public declarations by Saddam in recent weeks in which he urged national unity _ perhaps to secure a more favorable place in history or to encourage contacts between the Americans and his supporters. One statement, released last month by his lawyers, urged Iraqis to remember that their goal should be to free the country "from the forces of occupation and their followers" and not "settling scores." In a statement Sunday, Saddam urged Iraqis not to "take revenge on the invading nations and their people" and to unite "in the face of sectarian strife." A nine-judge appeals panel is expected to rule on Saddam's guilty verdict and death sentence in the Dujail case by the middle of January, the chief prosecutor said. That could set in motion a possible execution by mid-February. The death sentence has drawn criticism from European and human rights officials who oppose capital punishment _ regardless of the crime. "Even a person like Saddam Hussein should not be sentenced to death," Manfred Nowak, the U.N. special investigator on torture, said during a human rights forum in Vienna. In Tehran, however, the Iranian government called for the death sentence to be carried out, saying that Saddam was a criminal who deserved to die. "We hope the fair, correct and legal verdict against this criminal ... is enforced," government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham said. "Saddam has both Shiite and Sunni blood on his hands. His very existence is anti-human." Iran and Iraq waged a bitter eight-year war after Saddam invaded the country in 1980. On Tuesday, the court heard testimony from survivors of an Aug. 28, 1988 massacre of more than 30 Kurdish men, who had surrendered after hearing that Saddam offered amnesty to Kurdish rebels. Instead, the witnesses said they were herded together at the base of a hill, where Iraqi soldiers opened fire on them. Only a handful survived. "When they fired in our direction, we all fell to the ground," Qahar Khalil Mohammed testified. "When I went back, I saw my father and two brothers had been killed, as well as 18 of my relatives." Mohammed said an Iraqi medical officer used a broken bottle to clean his wound. Witness Abdul-Karim Nayif said the men had been hiding in caves after an attack on their village near the Turkish border and some had considered suicide. But they decided instead to surrender after Iraqi officers "swore on the Quran" that Saddam's offer of amnesty was genuine, Nayif said. Another survivor, Abdul-Karim Nayif, submitted a video of a mass grave found near the site of the massacre after Kurds gained self-rule in 1991. The video showed numerous human remains. Saddam and his cousin "Chemical Ali" al-Majid are charged with genocide in the Anfal case. The other defendants are accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes. All could be sentenced to death by hanging if convicted. ___ Salaheddin reported from Baghdad, and Reid from Amman, Jordan. Some material from a pool report was included. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- I wonder if he'll resort to begging for mercy and saying if they don't kill him, and let him go, that he'll promise to never do anything bad again?
"I offer you a Vulcan prayer, Mr Suder. May your death bring you the peace you never found in life." - Tuvok.
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Joined: May 2003
Posts: 43,951 Likes: 6
Officially "too old for this shit" 15000+ posts
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Officially "too old for this shit" 15000+ posts
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 43,951 Likes: 6 |
Saying "can't we all just get along" might have seemed just a LITTLE more sincere BEFORE the death sentence, you know?
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Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 30,833 Likes: 7
The conscience of the rkmbs! 15000+ posts
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The conscience of the rkmbs! 15000+ posts
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 30,833 Likes: 7 |
Quote:
Pariah said:
I'm not sure. Iraq has every right to be the one that judges him, but.......
I'm going to optimize this statement here by saying the Iraqi's have every right to be the ones to judge him for crimes, but at the same time, I don't think he actually committed any crimes as a dictator since, by very definition, dictators are allowed to do what they want to/with the country they govern. He did perform a coup on the Republic, but because he succeeded, that means it wasn't really a crime. And the fact that the Iraqi people eventually, albeit reluctantly, accepted his presence solidified his rule as such.
This isn't to say that Saddam's not a dick--Because he certainly is.
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Joined: May 2003
Posts: 43,951 Likes: 6
Officially "too old for this shit" 15000+ posts
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Officially "too old for this shit" 15000+ posts
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 43,951 Likes: 6 |
I dunno. By that argument, everyone at Nuremburg should have gotten off scot free.
I think at some point you need to say that certain actions are just plan and simple violations of 'the natural law' and proceeding accordingly.
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Joined: Jan 2002
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Banned from the DCMBs since 2002. 15000+ posts
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OP
Banned from the DCMBs since 2002. 15000+ posts
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 15,233 Likes: 1 |
Sovereign rights should be no bar to human rights. Being "dictator" doesn't give you the right to torture and kill people. (In any event his actual title was "president".)
Its interesting that he is asking for the Iraqi people to mend fences. Either its a clemency plea, or he's found Allah.
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