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Iraq

Iraq prepares for rapid Saddam execution

2006-12-28

EFL & EFC. AFP. FOAD.

Iraq was preparing for the rapid execution of former dictator Saddam Hussein, with the US-backed government eager to bring his chapter in the country's bloody history to an end.

Justice Minister Hashem al-Shibli said Saddam's death sentence for crimes against humanity -- upheld by an Iraqi appeal court on Tuesday -- would be rubber stamped by the presidency and the prison service would hang him.

In a defiant open letter to his former subjects, the man who ruled Iraq with an iron first from 1979 until the 2003 US-led invasion said he would go to the gallows as a "sacrifice" and urged Iraqis to unite against their enemies. "I sacrifice myself. If God wills it, He will place me among the true men and martyrs," wrote Saddam in the letter, which his lawyer said was penned last month for release if his death sentence was upheld.

Judges have ordered that Saddam die within 30 days but, while Shibli said the execution process will get underway rapidly, it could be delayed by the onset of the four-day Eid al-Adha holiday, due to start at the end of the week. Saddam and two regime cohorts were convicted of crimes against humanity on November 5, after a court heard they ordered the deaths of 148 Shiite men from the village of Dujail in an act of collective punishment.

Shiite politicians welcomed Saddam's imminent demise as a blow to his remaining supporters that could take the heat out of the Sunni-led insurgency. Shiite lawmaker Baha al-Araji from radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's bloc called for Saddam to be hanged this week as an "Eid present for Iraqis".

But Sheikh Khalaf al-Ilayan, whose National Dialogue Council is part of the main Sunni alliance in parliament, accused Iran and the United States of putting pressure on the court and predicted more bloodshed.

Saddam's disbanded Baath Party also threatened to attack US interests and "retaliate by any means, anywhere in the world, if the US administration undertakes its crime" of dispatching the 68-year-old to the gallows.

Swing, bitch.

Posted by:.com

#8 From Drudge's pixels to ~~God's ear~~ the Iraqis' rope.

Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-12-28 18:46

#7
Drudgereport.com says hanged by Sunday

Posted by: Master of Obvious 2006-12-28 18:39

#6 OT to AC, thanks for being imprudent back in 1969.

Posted by: Shipman 2006-12-28 13:52

#5 I assume DOE means Dept of Energy, not Dept of Education... ;-)

Posted by: trailing wife 2006-12-28 12:23

#4 Haaaaa Ha!

Posted by: bigjim-ky 2006-12-28 10:38

#3 Speaking of secret weapons, there are some new technology applications that really could swing the tide dramatically against the insurgents. The technology itself is well understood and available but contractor bungling and bureaucratic inertia

Contractors, why do they hate us?

Posted by: Besoeker 2006-12-28 10:18

#2 Speaking of secret weapons, there are some new technology applications that really could swing the tide dramatically against the insurgents. The technology itself is well understood and available but contractor bungling and bureaucratic inertia have resulted in a glacial pace for the deployment cycle.
Part of this is because the lead agency is the dread DoE, even worse than DoD in getting new ideas to the field where they are needed. Nevertheless, there is some real hope for a dramatic improvement in counter-insurgency technique during the next few months.

Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2006-12-28 06:29

#1 It is an under-reported fact that many of Saddam's former officers in the Baathist elements of the insurgency have continued to entertain serious hopes of restoring the dictator to power. My experience with Baathist sympathizers was that this is even more widespread among the rank and file. Saddam himself has referred to this several times during his trial and his American quisling lawyers have supported the assertion.

The standard media response was simply to laugh this off as a doomed psychopath's delusions, something like Hitler's last-days ravings about "secret weapons" that would turn the tide of war. (And let us not forget that there was a lot of substance to Nazi claims of super-weapons, though the allies had them trumped with the atomic bomb.)

The reason for the lack of emphasis on this desire to restore Saddam is obvious: media shills would not want anyone to think that something as simple as hanging one criminal could derail a large part of the insurgency. It just does not fit with the media-left worldview that terrorism and insurgency could spring from anything but the most deep-rooted and legitimate motives; poverty, oppression, colonialism, etc.

At the risk of belaboring the obvious (often necessary with LLL lurkers about), just stringing the bastard up will not end the Baathist insurgency entirely, especially in the short run. They will pander to the media and the Democratic Congress, for example, by representing all of their subsequent attacks as Dire Revenge for the hanging. Of course, these are attacks they would have carried out whether Saddam swung or not, but the usual suspects are desperately willing to be taken in by the claim.
It fits their "cycle of violence" meme perfectly and they are loathe to even consider other possibilities, even very obvious ones.

In the longer term, support for the Baathist elements will decline, probably at a precipitous rate. This will not eliminate AQ and the Tater Tots, though AQ may have a hard time of it in some areas without Baathist support, but it will allow our resources to be concentrated better.

Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2006-12-28 06:21

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