Saddam to be hanged By Sunday

[SlowwHand]

I can't tell what Hussein will say, but in reading Last Statements of condemned prisoners in Texas, up to and including those that professed their innocence until it was the time, the vast majority apologized for their acts.

My guess is, Hussein doesn't even have that much class.

[Jack_www]

Originally posted by Doddler

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui


Yeah, the secularist Saddam Hussein revered by religious fanatics!! What a laugh riot! They'll probably spit on his grave and be happy that he's not there to keep Iraq secular. The Arab nationalists will probably be saddened by his death.

At first glance I pretty much agree with you, but you forget one thing. He is an opponent to the great evil - US/the west - and by that he is in many ways seen as a victim of those countries wars against islam. If he is executioned it isn't a far fetch that he may be claimed as a hero/(dammit - I'm to tired, but I think that you know the right word).

How much do you really think they are being paid for this?! I believe all of Saddam's money was taken by the new government, so his lawyers are getting the standard wage that a court appointed defense attorney would. That and the fear of getting killed would probably be good reason the defense team may be privately relieved the whole thing is over.

Are you for real ? Are you seriously claiming that his defendors are doing it for free ? And the killing - well, I may be wrong, but my impression is that it's the judges and prosecutors that are in danger.

You really have no clue about this whole thing do you? Religious fanatics wanting Saddam back in power? . You must be .

What are you babblening about ? The religious fanatics would probably cut his throath when they find it opportune, but they certainly won't do it while he may be an icon.

[SlowwHand]

Depends on the religious fanatics of which you speak.

[Imran Siddiqui]

At first glance I pretty much agree with you, but you forget one thing. He is an opponent to the great evil - US/the west - and by that he is in many ways seen as a victim of those countries wars against islam. If he is executioned it isn't a far fetch that he may be claimed as a hero/(dammit - I'm to tired, but I think that you know the right word).

"Claiming him as a hero" (they probably won't.. they didn't like him) and wishing he was reinstated are two vastly, vastly different things. The religious fanatics will probably be glad he's gone because then they can get on with running the country.

Are you for real ? Are you seriously claiming that his defendors are doing it for free ? And the killing - well, I may be wrong, but my impression is that it's the judges and prosecutors that are in danger.

How in the world is "his lawyers are [probably] getting the standard wage that a court appointed defense attorney would" = free?

And Saddam's lawyers have been killed as well.

The religious fanatics would probably cut his throath when they find it opportune, but they certainly won't do it while he may be an icon.

An icon to Arab nationalists. Not religious Wahabbists. The fundamentalists don't care if they piss off Arab nationalists... they want to overthrow them in the first place.

[TCO]

Do we really care if/how Saddam blames someone? Just snuff him. No need for speeches. Just do the deed.

[Geronimo]

Saddam certainly deserves any sort of horrible fate but I find myself oddly ashamed by his impending execution. I've decided it must be because it reminds me of how pointless and horribly stupid the invasion that accomplished it has proven to be.

[Jack_www]

The Iraqi Prime Minister Al-Maliki said that their is not going to be any more reviews or delays, but NBC is backing off on the claim that he will be executed by Sunday, but it could still happen. Here is the link:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16389128/

[Jack_www]

Wait a second, I saw something on the news wires that Saddam is already in Iraqi custody, at least according to Saddam's lawers.

[SlowwHand]

Yepper.

Saddam transferred to Iraqi custody: defense lawyer

10 minutes ago

DUBAI (Reuters) - U.S. officials have transferred former Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein to Iraqi custody, the chief defense lawyer told Reuters on Friday.

"The American side has notified us that they have handed over the president to the Iraqi authorities," said Khalil al-Dulaimi, head of Saddam's defense team.

"They told us the president is no longer under the authority of the American forces and they requested us not to go to Baghdad," he said.

Senior Iraqi officials have dismissed mounting speculation, including from Washington, that they could hang Saddam within hours and said some in the cabinet were pushing for it to be put off for a month or more.

But a defense lawyer said he thought Saddam might well die on Saturday after lawyers were told to collect his belongings.

[Jack_www]

also Top Judges in Iraq say Saddam is going to be excuted on Saturday.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16389128/

[SlowwHand]

Going to get busy in the News soon.

Judge: Saddam to be executed by Saturday

By LAUREN FRAYER, Associated Press Writer
12 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq -
Saddam Hussein will be executed no later than Saturday, said an Iraqi judge authorized to attend his hanging. The former dictator's lawyers said he had been transferred from U.S. custody, but an Iraqi official said he was still in the hands of American guards.

The physical transfer of Saddam to Iraqi authorities was believed to be one of the last steps before he was to be hanged, although the lawyers' statement did not specifically say Saddam was in Iraqi hands.

"A few minutes ago we received correspondence from the Americans saying that President Saddam Hussein is no longer under the control of U.S. forces," according to the statement faxed to The Associated Press.

The statement said U.S. officials asked the lawyers to cancel a trip to Baghdad for a last meeting with Saddam, saying he was no longer in American custody.

Munir Haddad, a judge on the appeals court that upheld Saddam's death sentence, said he was ready to attend the execution.

"All the measures have been done," Haddad said. "There is no reason for delays."

In Baghdad, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has signed Saddam's death sentence, a government official said. The official, who refused to be identified by name because he was not authorized to release the information, said that Iraqi authorities were not yet in control of Saddam. The discrepancy could not be explained.

"We have agreed with the Americans that the handover will take place only a few minutes before he is executed," the official said.

The defense team statement called on "everybody to do everything to stop this unfair execution."

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said opposing Saddam's execution was an insult to his victims. His office said he made the remarks in a meeting with families of people who died during Saddam's rule.

"Our respect for human rights requires us to execute him, and there will be no review or delay in carrying out the sentence," al-Maliki said.

Bryan Whitman, a
Pentagon spokesman, said U.S. forces were on high alert.

"They'll obviously take into account social dimensions that could potentially led to an increase in violence which certainly would include carrying out the sentence of Saddam Hussein," Whitman said.

On Thursday, two half brothers visited Saddam in his cell, a member of the former dictator's defense team, Badee Izzat Aref, told The Associated Press by telephone from the United Arab Emirates. He said the former dictator handed them his personal belongings.

A senior commander at the Iraqi defense ministry also confirmed the meeting and said Saddam gave his will to one of his half brothers. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Saddam's lawyers later issued a statement saying the Americans gave permission for his belongings to be retrieved. However, Raed Juhi, spokesman for the High Tribunal court that convicted Saddam, denied that the former leader's relatives visited him.

An Iraqi appeals court upheld Saddam's death sentence Tuesday for the killing of 148 people who were detained after an attempt to assassinate him in the northern Iraqi city of Dujail in 1982. The court said the former president should be hanged within 30 days.

There have been disagreements among Iraqi officials in recent days as to whether Iraqi law dictates the execution must take place within 30 days and whether President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies have to approve it.

In his Friday sermon, a mosque preacher in the Shiite holy city of Najaf called Saddam's execution "God's gift to Iraqis."

"Oh, God, you know what Saddam has done! He killed millions of Iraqis in prisons, in wars with neighboring countries and he is responsible for mass graves. Oh God, we ask you to take revenge on Saddam," said Sheik Sadralddin al-Qubanji, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in
Iraq, known as SCIRI, the dominant party in al-Maliki's coalition.

With at least 72 more Iraqis killed Thursday in violence, U.S. officials and Iraqis expressed concern about the potential for even worse bloodshed following Saddam's execution.

In the latest violence, a suicide bomber killed nine people near a Shiite mosque north of Baghdad on Friday, police said. A round of mortar shells also slammed into al-Maidan square in central Baghdad, wounding ten people and damaging shops and buildings in the area, police said.

Gunmen killed two employees of an oil company and another civilian in Mosul, 250 miles northwest of Baghdad. Two civilians and a policeman were fatally shot in separate attacks in Musayyib, about 40 miles south of the capital, police said.

U.S. troops, meanwhile, killed six people and destroyed a weapons cache in separate raids in Baghdad and northwest of the Iraqi capital, the U.S. military said.

One of the raids targeted two buildings in the village of Thar Thar, where U.S. troops found 16 pounds of homemade explosives, two large bombs, a rocket-propelled grenade, suicide vests and multiple batteries, the military said.

Iraqi forces backed by U.S. troops also captured 13 suspects and confiscated weapons in a raid on a mosque southeast of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Friday.

[SlowwHand]

Popcorn...Get your popcorn... ..







I feel badly for his family. The one's who aren't insane.

[Ecthy]

Popcorn? You're entitled to supporting capital punishment morally, but you actually enjoy watching executions?

[SlowwHand]

Why not? What movies have you gone to see?
I'll bet you a dollar you've gone to see worse, and paid for it.