Plus look at the models we already have.
Posted on 06/30/2004 4:46:00 AM PDT by kattracks
BAGHDAD, June 30 (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein, who brutalised Iraqis for decades, said good morning and sought to ask some questions when the United States handed him over to Iraqi justice on Wednesday, a witness said.Saddam, who was captured hiding near his hometown of Tikrit in December, looked in good health as he appeared before an Iraqi judge in the first legal step towards a trial for the cruelties he inflicted during his 35 years of power.
"Saddam said good morning and asked if he could ask some questions," Salem Chalabi, a lawyer leading the work of a tribunal that will try the former dictator, told Reuters.
"He was told he should wait until tomorrow," said Chalabi, who was in the courtroom where Saddam and 11 of his former lieutenants were turned over to Iraqi legal custody.
But many of the other former Iraqi officials were nervous and agitated, said Chalabi, who has received numerous death threats since taking on the task of helping amass evidence against Saddam and preparing a special tribunal to try him.
Saddam, 67, is accused by Iraqis of torturing and killing hundreds of thousands of people with the help of officials in his Baath party. Saddam became president in 1979, but had already been Iraq's strongman since a Baathist coup in 1968.
His former lieutenants appeared nervous and some were hostile as they were told they would be charged on Thursday.
Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for his role in poison gas attacks, including one that killed about 5,000 Iraqi Kurds in Halabja in 1988, appeared especially rattled.
"He looked very scared. He was shaking," said Chalabi.
Saddam will remain in the physical custody of U.S. forces. He and the 11 others are to be charged on Thursday.
Saddam fled when U.S. forces entered Baghdad on April 9 last year after making a final defiant public appearance near a mosque in the capital. He was then filmed, looking disoriented, unkempt and with a bushy beard, as U.S. military doctors examined him after his capture on December 13.
Among others to be handed over were former Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz; Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother and adviser; Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, his secretary; Sabawi Ibrahim, Saddam's maternal half-brother; Watban Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother and adviser; and Aziz Salih Numan, Baath Party regional commander and head of the party militia.
These men and others among the 55 most wanted Iraqis on a U.S. list are seen as witnesses who could help prove a chain of command linking Saddam to crimes against humanity.
Saddam will be charged with ordering the 1988 massacres of Kurds, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, according to Chalabi.
According to AP it will be televised.
They'll stop shaking soon enough.
Thanks. This isn't this first time I've mixed up my henchmen.
Pete
SUUU--EEEE---CCIIIDDEEE!
Well, the acronym is "HFWWTPUDCAGMOICASSTPPAMD", which is too long.
So let's use an acronym for it.
"H".
Of course.
The attorney will appeal to the UN and ICC.
OK. As long as you don't mean "appeal" in a legal sense.
His argument will be:
'since the US forces took Saddam into custody, Saddam must be tried in a US court, regardless of his being turned over to the Iraqi government, because that government did not exist at the time Saddam was in power and, thus, has no relevant legal position to try Saddam for crimes.'
He might try to make that argument, but the issue is already settled: Many German war criminals were tried by governments set up after WWII, including the Allied occupation government of Germany.
The attorney will also appeal to the 9th Circuit and SC.
He might try, I suppose. What's he got to lose? But I doubt that even the 9th Circuit is dotty enough to try to assert appellate jurisdiction over Iraqi courts, and if they are they'll get slapped down by the Supremes, probably 9-0.
The attorney will be granted a US trial for Saddam Hussein.
And even if this were to happen, the Iraqis would simply point out that US courts have no jurisdiction over the government of Iraq. Our own government might not have the guts to stand up to our black-robed masters, but the Iraqis aren't simply going to roll over at the command of American judges.
This is stupidity. Kill Saddam NOW! After you finally put Pandora back in the box you don't hand the key over some incompetant boobs in a land where Pandora fans are plentiful. He should never have been taken alive or allowed to survive interrogation.
Have they announced the time that it will be televised yet?
hopefully
Genocidal Aversion Party. GAP. I like it!
Send him to Travis County TX. The Keep Austin Weird Libs here would acquit him in a heartbeat.
Only if we restore his riches first. Austin likes Millionaire Killers, right?
How about I smack him around with a Lousiville Slugger?
Plus look at the models we already have.
Wassamatter? Made you speechless with finding such an appropriate picture so quickly? :o)
Hell fits the bill perfectly!
Satan would need to recuse himself. South Park teaches us that Saddam and Satan are lovers.
Just think what these monsters' victims must have felt and must have gone through in their last hours of life...it is with fervent hoped that with the execution of these thugs the pictures of the innocent victims will be shown as well.....
Let's get this baby rollin
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