BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Preparations are under way to execute two of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants in the next few days, but the details still must be worked out with the U.S. military, Iraqi media and a government official said Wednesday. Saddam's half brother Barzan Ibrahim, a former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, were originally scheduled to die with Saddam. But their execution was delayed until after Islam's Eid al-Adha holiday, which ends Wednesday for Iraq's majority Shiites.In Washington, a lawyer for al-Bandar asked Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday to block the U.S. military from transferring custody of the condemned man to Iraqi authorities. U.S. courts have so far declined to intervene.
| Um, no. |
| Louise is always more concerned with the rights of odious defendants than with their victims. |
A government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information, told the AP that final arrangements still needed to be made with U.S. officials about the time and place of the executions. The American military was expected to transport the two men from prison to the execution site.
Barzan and al-Bandar's executions were delayed so that Saddam could be "executed on a special day," al-Rubaie told state-run Al-Iraqiya television on Saturday.
| And special it was! |