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2005-07-18 Iraq-Jordan

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Posted by Steve White 2005-07-18 00:00|| || Front Page|| [10329 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 If convicted in that relatively minor case, Saddam could be hanged without ever standing trial on wider and more contentious charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. Many Iraqis say they would prefer swift punishment to a long trial.

Oh, very nice. Can you imagine the screams from the Forces Of Moonbattery if they can't drag the US into Saddam's trial, and it simply turns into a purely local matter?

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2005-07-18 00:44|| 2005-07-18 00:44|| Front Page Top

#2 Fear not, ol Saddam will most likely see several trials. Following Dujayl, there should be at least three more in which he stars: the Anfal campaign, the 1991 intefadeh, and a more general political/religious repression case.

My semi-well-informed guess is that Saddam was added to the Dujayl case because of political pressure (the case was originally referred in February, was returned to the Investigative Chamber, and is now sent back to the Trial Chamber) to get him in the ringer somewhere in the vicinity of the constitutional referendum or subsequent general election. It's very unfortunate. The Dujayl case was originally going to be the shake-down cruise for the Tribunal -- and they need one, naturally. Now, instead, they will take the field for the first time in something akin to Game 7 of the World Series.

A key objective here is that the trials in fact tell the narrative of the former regime's crimes. The civil law system typically has fairly brief trials, and the evidence is not as much on display as in our jury-based trials, since the panel of judges has studied the case file intensively before courtroom proceedings begin. In this case, the Tribunal has been urged to conduct the trials with an eye towards laying out the whole story for the country and the world, above and apart from the normal legal requirements of the proceedings.

I don't think the Tribunal will invest the effort they are in compiling the major cases, only to have Saddam convicted in the minor Dujayl case and strung up quickly - notwithstanding political currents in Iraq. Time will tell.

Posted by Verlaine in Iraq 2005-07-18 02:03|| 2005-07-18 02:03|| Front Page Top

#3 I'm just on pins and needles waiting to see if he is guilty or innocent.

Posted by 2b 2005-07-18 07:52|| 2005-07-18 07:52|| Front Page Top

#4 You and Howard Dean, 2b. (Actually, that was OBL, but I'm sure he gives Saddam the presumption of innocence, too. He's not Karl Rove, after all.)

Posted by Jackal">Jackal 2005-07-18 09:44|| home.earthlink.net/~sleepyjackal/index.html]">[home.earthlink.net/~sleepyjackal/index.html] 2005-07-18 09:44|| Front Page Top

#5 Give him to the women.

Posted by mojo">mojo 2005-07-18 11:01|| 2005-07-18 11:01|| Front Page Top

#6 Lawyer Wants Saddam Trial Moved From Iraq
LONDON (AP) - A lawyer for Saddam Hussein said Monday that Iraq's insurgency has made Baghdad far too dangerous a venue for the former leader's trial, and that the proceeding should be moved to another country. ``Do you fancy spending a year or more in Baghdad, going to court five days a week? Would you feel safe there? `` lawyer Giovanni di Stefano said in an interview with The Associated Press. ``Baghdad couldn't even prevent the recent kidnapping and killing of the Egyptian ambassador. There are also many Iraqis who want to see Saddam executed and many others who want to see him freed. That means the defense and prosecution would both be in danger there,'' di Stefano said.
He said Saddam's defense team has contacted the Swedish government about the possibility of holding such a trial in Sweden. But in Stockholm on Monday, Swedish Justice Ministry spokesman Alexander Valentin said that he was not aware of any official request.

Nah, it wouldn't be fair to make the witnesses travel that far. I know, how about holding it in Kuwait or Iran?

Posted by Steve">Steve 2005-07-18 13:06|| 2005-07-18 13:06|| Front Page Top

#7 [vigilante rant]
Sometimes civilization's legal mechanisms, as we know them, just make no sense. Holding a trial for Saddam is proof. I fully understand the reasons and arguments for applying the same methodology in all cases - equality under the Law.

I also understand that it falls on its face more often than we'd like to admit, for a myriad number of reasons. Each occurrence where the system fails, and everyone knows it failed, erodes our confidence in justice just a smidgen. Our respect, our trust, our sense of that promised equality dies a tiny death with every judicial failure - whether technical or otherwise. At some point, even the most charitable and forgiving among us, I'm referring to sane people here, feels at least a twinge of sympathetic pain when "the system" is derailed. Cynicism fills each of these little chinks and cracks in the armor of civilization generated by these failures.

We laugh at it, as the pic with this article demonstrates, because we've become cynical in varying degrees. Too many failures, aided and abetted by the likes of the ACLU, secured through clever antics and courtroom shenanigans by Big Money Star Lawyers, or tiny technical mistakes by overworked and understaffed Police Depts leaves us boggled and suspicious and resentful and angry and, yes, cynical. Our expectations are constantly being lowered. Our outrage - at everything from simple lies to exaggerated advertising claims to getting screwed in a business deal to having a retiree lose everything to a swindler to seeing a pedo walk free to knowing the murderer should die, not get 3 squares a day, a custom diet, big-screen cable-TV, a weight room, law library, and A/C - instead of the noose or a needle - finds no outlet, eating us up from the inside out. Many of us have lost faith in the system. Some have replaced that need to believe, for it is a near-universal human hunger to belong to something greater and better and worthy of our aspirations, with foolish causes, absurd belief systems and ideologies, and mental disorders characterized by obsessive dementia.

These failures are far more powerful negatives than when the system delivers what we deem as justice are positives. One attaboy does not equal one hundred awdumbshits, as we've been told by the wags -- precisely the opposite is the truth of it. As with an unfaithful spouse, nothing actually ever restores the faith. Once burned, the fear of pain is greater than the anticipation of pleasure. Replay your memory tapes - the proof is there.

Justice has devolved into wanking for wanking's sake.

Examples abound... I could probably offend almost everyone, equally - lol, by listing a few hundred people who are breathing my air, but shouldn't be. So sayeth the Alley Oop of RB. Knuckle-dragger, mouth-breather, thug, killer, and rescuer of lost kittens stuck in trees.
[/vigilante rant]

Shoot the prick. One .22LR behind the ear and let it rattle around in there a bit. Be done with it.

Posted by .Oop 2005-07-18 15:13|| 2005-07-18 15:13|| Front Page Top

#8 Dot Opp or .Opp is a fine name for just about any weird activity. Check my ID Ima Dot Opp, check my pass Ima with the band, you know Dot Opp dood, where's my SUV! It's a marrooon Dot Opp. I still say spring for the Grand Opp Package, it's got the WildCat hide interior.

Posted by Shipman 2005-07-18 16:12|| 2005-07-18 16:12|| Front Page Top

#9 My Rottweiler died Friday. I loved that dog. I really don't give a shit about Saddam Hussein. He is an asshole.

Posted by John Q. Citizen 2005-07-18 20:53|| 2005-07-18 20:53|| Front Page Top

#10 THIS SITE STILL SUCKS. YOU ARE ALL DUMBYA ASS KISSING REDNECKS.

Posted by Janice 2005-07-18 22:53|| 2005-07-18 22:53|| Front Page Top

#11 Speaking of sucking, shine my knob, Janice.

Posted by .com 2005-07-18 22:54|| 2005-07-18 22:54|| Front Page Top

#12 you always were the sweet-talker, PD. Janice? Over here next?

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2005-07-18 23:03|| 2005-07-18 23:03|| Front Page Top

#13 Well, you know what Robbie sez, some enjoy a bit o' the rough. Slap her - hard - she likes it that way - or so the vacuum gauge indicates.

Posted by .com 2005-07-18 23:07|| 2005-07-18 23:07|| Front Page Top

#14 You actually have penises?? I thought it was a loose thread from your shirts! Seeing as they are so tiny.

Posted by Janice 2005-07-18 23:12|| 2005-07-18 23:12|| Front Page Top

#15 Lol, the bitch is back, Frank. I knew she wouldn't be able to stay away.

It's not nice to talk with you mouth full - overflowing, actually. Get back to work. You're not done, yet - I like 'em sloppy.

Posted by .com 2005-07-18 23:30|| 2005-07-18 23:30|| Front Page Top

#16 move the burqa back dammit

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2005-07-18 23:43|| 2005-07-18 23:43|| Front Page Top

#17 Jebus sister Ima thinkn you must be lost.

Posted by Sock Puppet 0â Doom 2005-07-18 23:48|| 2005-07-18 23:48|| Front Page Top

#18 We promise to dump her in front of her rock when we're done, Spo'D. Honest, heh.

Posted by .com 2005-07-18 23:52|| 2005-07-18 23:52|| Front Page Top

14:16 PorKoran
00:05 .com
23:55 Kalle (kafir forever)
23:52 .com
23:48 Sock Puppet 0â Doom
23:43 Frank G
23:30 .com
23:27 .com
23:17 MunkarKat
23:12 Janice
23:08 Sock Puppet 0â Doom
23:07 .com
23:06 Jan
23:06 Kalle (kafir forever)
23:03 .com
23:03 Bomb-a-rama
23:03 Frank G
22:59 GK
22:58 Thrinesing Snoth9926
22:58 Jan
22:57 macofromoc
22:54 .com
22:53 Janice
22:49 Kalle (kafir forever)