Saddam gets death sentence

[JanaknJanet 1]

Saddam gets death sentence

"The death sentences automatically go to a nine-judge appeals panel, which has unlimited time to review the case. If the verdicts and sentences are upheld, the executions must be carried out within 30 days."

Do you really think it will happen???

BAGHDAD -- Saddam Hussein was convicted and sentenced today to hang for crimes against humanity in the 1982 killings of 148 people in a single Shiite town, as the ousted leader, trembling and defiant, shouted "God is great!"

As he, his half brother and another senior official in his regime were convicted and sentenced to death by the Iraqi High Tribunal, Saddam yelled out, "Long live the people and death to their enemies. Long live the glorious nation, and death to its enemies!" Later, his lawyer said the former dictator had called on Iraqis to reject sectarian violence and refrain from revenge against U.S. forces.

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

"The verdict placed on the heads of the former regime does not represent a verdict for any one person. It is a verdict on a whole dark era that has was unmatched in Iraq's history," Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's Shiite prime minister, said.

Some feared the verdicts could exacerbate the sectarian violence that has pushed the country to the brink of civil war, after a trial that stretched over nine months in 39 sessions and ended nearly 3 1/2 months ago. Clashes immediately began in north Baghdad's heavily Sunni Azamiyah district. Elsewhere in the capital, celebratory gunfire rang out.

"This government will be responsible for the consequences, with the deaths of hundreds, thousands or even hundreds of thousands, whose blood will be shed," Salih al-Mutlaq, a Sunni political leader, told the Al-Arabiya satellite television station.

Saddam and his seven co-defendants were on trial for a wave of revenge killings carried out in the city of Dujail following a 1982 assassination attempt on the former dictator. Al-Maliki's Islamic Dawa party, then an underground opposition, has claimed responsibility for organizing the attempt on Saddam's life.................

[I'm Gone 60]

Ok so the show trial found him guilty and they hang him, we are still stuck in the middle of a mess.

[Veiled Princess 1]

Ok so the show trial found him guilty and they hang him, we are still stuck in the middle of a mess.

[eric&gen 0]

Maybe they should put Saddam back in charge of IRAQ under US watching him to make sure he doesn't abuse his power. He could be some kind of figure scaring the ####### out of the people of IRAQ thinkg oh no Saddam is back. It might work to whip that country back in its place might not work.

Edited November 5, 2006 by eric&gen

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Saddam gets death sentence

"The death sentences automatically go to a nine-judge appeals panel, which has unlimited time to review the case. If the verdicts and sentences are upheld, the executions must be carried out within 30 days."

Do you really think it will happen???

Yes it will. I don't see why it wouldn't. It's not like former dictators are never executed - although they disappear into exile most of the time. They shot Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife back then, too.

[mawilson 2,133]

Somehow it feels wrong to kill him, even considering all the atrocities he's committed.

[Sharon 1]

Somehow it feels wrong to kill him, even considering all the atrocities he's committed.

No way, man. I'd willingly be first in line to place the noose around that #######'s neck.

Then get 4 horses....

[mawilson 2,133]

Somehow it feels wrong to kill him, even considering all the atrocities he's committed.

No way, man. I'd willingly be first in line to place the noose around that #######'s neck.

Then get 4 horses....

Hmm. Why would you want to kill someone you've never even met?

What he did ever do to you?

[mybackpages 0]

Somehow it feels wrong to kill him, even considering all the atrocities he's committed.

Had my hesitations about coming into this thread, but glad to see this.

Edited November 6, 2006 by mybackpages

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Saddam gets death sentence

"The death sentences automatically go to a nine-judge appeals panel, which has unlimited time to review the case. If the verdicts and sentences are upheld, the executions must be carried out within 30 days."

Do you really think it will happen???

Yes it will. I don't see why it wouldn't. It's not like former dictators are never executed - although they disappear into exile most of the time. They shot Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife back then, too.

Also, William Tolbert of Liberia (executed in 1980 on Samuel Doe's orders) and Old (Zulfiqar Ali) Bhutto of Pakistan ("judicially murdered", in his daughter's words, by Gen. Zia).

However, more dictators have been explicitly murdered without resort to courts (rigged or otherwise).

[Ban Hammer 14,291]

Somehow it feels wrong to kill him, even considering all the atrocities he's committed.

are you turning liberal on us?

Somehow it feels wrong to kill him, even considering all the atrocities he's committed.

No way, man. I'd willingly be first in line to place the noose around that #######'s neck.

Then get 4 horses....

sharon for president

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Somehow it feels wrong to kill him, even considering all the atrocities he's committed.

Among Iraqis, your feelings would probably be shared by a minority other than PRO-Saddamists.

And I can also remember sweet distributions in Comilla (Bangladesh) and parts of Sindh in 1988 after Gen. Zia's death (in this case, murdered by his successor as ACOS Aslam Beg--but explicitly).

[MrMrsKnight 1]

Somehow it feels wrong to kill him, even considering all the atrocities he's committed.

I agree.... it feels wrong. I'd rather have him spend his life in jail or doing some kind of community service.... anything. I don't know, it's done now.

[Ban Hammer 14,291]

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Somehow it feels wrong to kill him, even considering all the atrocities he's committed.

I agree.... it feels wrong. I'd rather have him spend his life in jail or doing some kind of community service.... anything. I don't know, it's done now.

You may need to think on it via another avenue. What you have is one dictator who had certainly eliminated opponents to get to (and continue holding onto) power. We now have someone who's gotten into that position after the first dictator was deposed (with outside help--historically, others have been deposed WITHOUT)--in a country which never has been democratic.

Basically, Maliki has taken power (with Bush Jr.'s help) in such a circumstance--the former dictator while alive will be an ongoing threat, and therefore (in Maliki's view) needs to be removed. So ideas of any democratic country (including taking account of anti-death-penalty activists/petitions) will not be used here.

Rather stark, but....