Saddam Hussein to receive death penalty
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/mid...st/6117910.stm

"The former Iraqi president was convicted by a Baghdad court for his role in the killing of 148 people in the mainly Shia town of Dujail in 1982."

I... Almost didn't expect this to happen. I'm not an advocate of the death penalty, nor am I vehemently against it, but after so much of this I'm actually going to have to say I wholeheartedly agree with this verdict... Yet there's something disconcerting about the fact that he's to be hanged.

He's being given the right to an appeal, but prospects for his success are dodgy at best.

Haha I just wanted to create a thread like this but then I saw yours ;)

Well, I totally expected this and you cannot tell me that there hasn't been any influence from the "coalition". Of course, it will take ages until the sentence will be executed.

The entire trial has been a farce in my opinion, though.

On the other hand, Saddam has been a real asshole during the trial, so that's what he gets fucking around with the judges.

It is quite an illusion to think that Iraq will become a more peaceful nation now, though.

He's guilty... big woop, this was common knowledge before the guy was found in that hole in the ground. Why they needed a trial to document this is beyond me.

As far as peace is concerned, it is har to tell. The Shiites are celebrating and the Sunnis are vowing revenge.

...what?

I believe it's called "due process of law". You might have heard of it; liberalism is really big on it.

Iraq is not the most librial country that I know of, I got a feeling if the U.S did not back the trial, there may have not been a trial at all.

There has been a trial or do you think the pictures were made in Hollywood Studios?

Oh I know that there was a trial, that is why I mentioned that if the U.S did not back it, there may have not been one. Your sig looks more that it was made in Hollywood Studios :biggrin:

So now he can be a martyr, that's good. They should have at least given him his request to be executed in the military fashion, by firing squad.

Oh, and I just can't wait for the internet to be flooded with photoshopped images of his hanging corpse.

I don't think he had a fair trial; in fact it was quite farcical from what was reported. Not that it matters. Everyone knew he was guilty from the beginning, all that was in question was how much the new "government" of Iraq would milk it for themselves and their allies. I have no doubt that the execution of Saddam will only add to the anarchy that currently prevails in the new Iraq. I wonder how Iran will react to the greater chaos.

Somehow I think Shias and Sunnis are too busy killing each other already to care about Saddam.

Finally vindication for 9/11 am i rite friends?

http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/1...etrosesnh6.gif

The odd thing is about Iraqi law is that the sentence must be carried out 30 days after the appeal is exhausted (and it sounds like that will be in about a month). So all the other trials that were being planned, they just won't matter. He'll be dead before they even get started.

What was the link between Saddam and 9/11 again?

Killing one person really makes up for the deaths of others. Oh well.

he was the dude in the plane right?

Really? What is?

Death by hanging. Wonder if it'll be public.

They'd better hurry up if they want to get the hanging in before the midterm elections as well. This wasn't planned at all either, you know, happening days before a crucial vote. I mean, only conspiracy nuts think in those kind of terms.

Malcolm Smart, Director of the Middle East and North Africa for Amnesty International:

I know he is an evil and unrepenting man; but how you can call this a fair trial is beyond me, and to kill the man is to just sweep the problem under the rug, theres no victory here on the 'war on terror' Mr. Blair. He probably does deserve to be killed (yet who are we to say), but how you can uphold this verdict from such a incompetent, negligent, polictally strung and dispicable trial is beyond me, espeically from those tout a new 'democratic' Iraq dictated to by the United States.

I love the timing of this charade which comes days before the US votes in mid-term elections.

I think that's the joke...

These trials have about as much precedence as Nuremberg, so I don't think anybody's really going to care.

How could you actually find an impartial judge/jury in Iraq anyway?

Also,

Does anyone else find this completely hilarious? If the statement's true, then what the hell's the point of the trial other than having a dog and pony show?

There is no other purpose RR. He was going to be found guilty regardless of how the trial was setup. Saddam's lawyer defending him too well? He's dead. We can just blame it on some guys in Iraq, I mean, the country is in chaos, what else would you expect?

Bear in mind that we're superimposing American liberties upon a country that has strictly opposed American influences for years. The idea that Hussein was entitled to a fair trial seems almost ridiculous when you realize that he spent his entire tenure relentlessly preventing the erection of a fair judicial system in Iraq. Such was the nature of his dictatorship: if someone so much as spoke ill of you, that was enough reason for Hussein to have you killed. Public trials were only a formality to a foregone conclusion.

Why do you think Hussein has been so smug during the whole process? He knew that Iraq had nothing resembling a balanced judicial system, so there was little point in doing anything to sway public opinion. He was being subjected to the same mock justice system he helped create. Even Saddam can appreciate a little irony.

But the larger point is that he was tried before an Iraqi court and was sentenced as per Iraqi law. As Suddam is a citizen of Iraq, this seems most fair. Execution may not be the most palatable resolution but it's consistent with the punishments Saddam has doled out upon others, and it is a matter for Iraqis to decide.

NOT AMERICANS.

Yeah, I figured they would have wanted to give him the death sentence. And even though I am not a supporter of the death penalty, I would partially have to agree he deserves this at the very least. I mean, he ordered to killed hundreds of thousands of people, and probably never blinked an eye. I can see why the people are so pissed off.