Posted on 09/20/2004 5:46:00 AM PDT by tjwmason
Saddam Hussein, now being held in one of his former Baghdad palaces, could go on trial for crimes against humanity as early as next month, the Iraqi interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, said yesterday.
An October trial would offer a powerful political boost to President George W Bush in the run-up to the presidential election on Nov 2.
Dr Allawi, a tough, even ruthless, former neurologist with long-standing links to the CIA and MI6, said he did not expect the trial to take very long and hinted at hopes that it would end with Saddam's execution.
"Maybe he will appear in November or December, but definitely in October the whole issue will start," Dr Allawi told ABC television, referring to the war crimes tribunal set up to try Saddam and his cronies. "I don't think it will take a long time, because the evidence against him is . . . overwhelming. So we hope justice is served."
Asked if that meant a death sentence, Dr Allawi answered: "The death penalty has been restored in Iraq."
News has also emerged about Saddam's physical condition. The New York Times said he was being held in an air-conditioned cell, 10ft by 13ft, in the grounds of one of his former palaces, in what is now a heavily guarded US camp within a camp, known as Camp Cropper.
The former dictator, who wears plastic sandals and an Arab robe, has been in solitary confinement since his capture last December, kept apart from some 80 other high-ranking detainees being held nearby. His diet includes US military MRE instant rations, or "meals-ready-to-eat", though he has been demanding muffins, cookies and cigars.
The former leader is allowed into a small courtyard for three hours a day, where he gardens, placing white-painted stones around each plant he tends.
In his cell, he has a fold-up bed, a small desk and plastic chair, a supply of bottled water and ice, a prayer mat, the Koran and his choice from a Red Cross library of 170 Arabic-language books.
He favours works about the golden era of Iraqi power, nearly 1,000 years ago. He insists that he is the constitutionally elected president of Iraq.
Scans and blood tests have shown that he has an enlarged prostate, a possible warning sign of cancer, but he has refused a biopsy.
The timetable for Saddam's trial has sharply accelerated. Officials once said it could be more than two years before a hearing.
Dr Allawi has his own re-election bid to consider in January's national poll. But he denied political motives for speeding ahead, saying instead that Iraq needed to "bury the past".
Under emergency measures being drawn up by Iraq's independent election commission to take account of the precarious security situation, large parts of the country could be closed down if violence flares on polling day. Dr Farid Ayar, spokesman for the nine-strong commission said: "As soon as our officials see signs of trouble at a polling station they will close it down. We will keep counting votes in areas where there is no fighting."
The measures could lead to no votes at all being cast in insurgent strongholds such as Fallujah should violence continue to flare. It emerged meanwhile that military commanders in Iraq are planning a winter offensive to retake Fallujah before national elections take place, once the US presidential election is safely out of the way.
A senior member of Iraq's national security council said freshly trained Iraqi soldiers would join American troops in an all-out offensive to occupy the city should peaceful efforts to disarm the insurgents fail.
"We've got to deal with Fallujah before elections [in January]. The fact that Fallujah and other cities are controlled by insurgents is not acceptable to the Iraqi government," said the senior Iraqi official. A senior American commander suggested that operations could begin as early as November or December so that order could be restored before a Jan 31 deadline for elections.
"We would like to end December in control across the country," he said.
Give him a fair trial, treat him decently in the meantime, and then hang him by the neck until he is dead.
I doubt it will be a hanging. Arabs behead the condemned.
Not THAT'S a video I won't cringe at while watching.
It would be nice of them to let President Bush behead him
on TV as an October surprise. :P
You are damn straight! And the world needs to be reminded of the heinous crimes of Saddam (just like the Nuremberg Trials)...
"You'll be given a fair trial, followed by a damn fine hanging."
- Brian Dennehy's character in "Silverado"
A thousand cuts and if he isn't dead 1001, 1002, 1003 all the while play back to him his recorded screams, blood transfusions to keep him alive and may he last for weeks.
I think we should be fair to Saddam, give him an option.
Death by beheading or hanging with slow strangulation. This the least we should do.
"OK, it was the right war but in the wrong place and the wrong time."
But Senator, could you fight Saddam somewhere other than Iraq?
"OK, it was the right war in the right place but the wrong time."
Senator, what would be the right time?
I'll not have you attacking my patriotism. I served in Vietnam you know.
I question the timing of all this........;^)
Once Saddam has been given a fair trial and executed, the new regime will have a lot more credibility with the Iraqi people, which is exactly what it needs.
I have a feeling he won't be executed.
Saddam's execution.....when it happens, the symbolism will deliver a powerful rebuke to those who opposed the Iraq war. The thrust of their pretzel logic has involved the claim that the Iraqi PEOPLE didn't want this intrusion, that Iraq represented no harms to us, oblivious to the harm Saddam was doing to the Iraqis themselves. When the people of Iraq execute this man, the LIBERATION will be clear to the whole world, and put the lie to the "wrong war" claims, IMHO.
Could be.....Justice would probably require shredding but you are right........Who knows what is going to happen?
I don't think he's in a position to negotiate.
While I'm all in favor of the death penalty, I take a great deal of satisfaction that he has been reduced to a cell with a fold-up bed and a plastic chair.
It is probably worse than physical torture or death for him. Didn't I read somewhere that there is a picture of President Bush hanging on the wall? LOL
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