Just for you Saddamie:
Happy Bleeping Birthday!
Posted on 04/28/2005 11:43:35 AM PDT by West Coast Conservative
Ousted dictator Saddam Hussein marked his 68th birthday in a US-run jail unlikely to be showered with gifts -- only the knowledge that Iraq has turned the page on his brutal regime with its first freely-elected government in half a century.
His Iraqi lawyer Khalil Dulaimi said Saddam -- awaiting trial on charges of crimes against humanity -- was enjoying "good health and high morale."
But an Iraq Special Tribunal spokesman laughed when asked if Saddam would receive anything special for his birthday, and declined to say if would be allowed to watch television or call his family.
It is the dictator's second birthday behind bars at a US base near Baghdad airport since his capture in December 2003 near his hometown of Tikrit.
Saddam faces a number of charges of crimes against humanity for his regime's campaign against the Kurds and the brutal suppression of a Shiite Muslim uprising in 1991. No date has been set for his trial.
"If there is any arrangement for his birthday, I will let you know, but I think it's not logical," said Ayad, the tribunal spokesman, declining to give his last name for security reasons.
Iraq's 15-million-strong Shiite majority, long oppressed under the ousted dictator, has grown frustrated over the delays in bringing Saddam to trial. Many are clamouring for him to receive the death penalty.
However, Iraq's new president, Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, said earlier this month that he opposed the idea of Saddam being sentenced to death.
Iraq's parliament marked the occasion by voting in a new democratically elected cabinet, three months after millions turned out to vote in landmark elections on January 30.
"If we made him an imaginary cake, Halabja should be written on one piece, another could be the drained Arab marshes in the south, another would be mass graves, another chemicals, another the invasion of Kuwait, of Iran," said outgoing human rights minister Baktiar Amin.
Amin has spearheaded efforts to gather evidence from mass graves around Iraq to be used in trials of Saddam and other former regime leaders.
Chemical weapons were used to kill hundreds of Kurds in Halabja in northern Iraq in 1988, according to rights groups who gathered evidence on the deaths.
Iraqis have found at least 290 mass graves filled with thousands of people, many still unidentified, since the fall of the former regime, Amin said.
Dulaimi, who met his client on Wednesday, described his client a in good spirits, spokesman Ziad Khassawneh said in a statement in Amman.
It was the second time the two met, Khassawneh said, adding that details of the meeting would be issued in the next few days.
Meanwhile, people in Baghdad remembered the former president's ostentatious birthday celebrations with a mixture of pride and irritation.
"Saddam's birthday cake used to touch the ceiling in the presidential palace while Iraqi people were eating wood dust mixed with the ration flour," remembered Ibrahim Saadoun, 45, a shopkeeper.
Under international sanctions against the former regime, Iraqis received food rations as part of the UN-administered oil-for-food program in which the country's crude oil sales were used to pay for food and other humanitarian items.
Abdul Hussein Maari, another shopkeeper, remembered the huge parties with bitterness, saying that while Saddam enjoyed himself, his people suffered.
But a young woman remembered a more patriotic side to Saddam's fetes.
"I used to feel enthusiasm while listening to his televised speeches," said Salma Fuad, 19. "I wish he would be set free, as he is an old man."
In his one and only court appearance until now, Saddam in July, staring the investigative judge in the face, challenged the court's legitimacy.
After the judge told him the court had been appointed by the US-run occupation, Saddam smirked: "This means then that you are an Iraqi representing the forces occupying your country."
Seems like there was another dictator who had a birthday in April.
Hey, Saddam! Up your nose with a rubber hose!
May you have no more birthdays, except on the planet Zongo.
"May you have no more birthdays, except on the planet Zongo."
LOL! He's already had 2 since being captured!
What an insult to our troops who gave their lives to remove this asshat from power so that the rest of us can watch him have 3 meals/day and a roof over his head.
Almost 4 years and $200 billion after 9-11, both Saddam and Osama still breathe.
If you're genuinely wondering, Hitler was born on April 20.
I apologize if I missed your sarcasm. :)
I swear they time this stuff just to piss off Saddam.
Good!
bush's fault!
Just for you Saddamie:
Happy Bleeping Birthday!
A trial will prove nothing that is not already certain, just as it would have served no purpose to try Mao or Stalin -- just hang him and be done with it.
Did President Bush send his regards?
No! No! First there must be a false and phony crucification of 2nd Lt. Ilario Pantano, U.S.M.C. !!!
That's all right. Of course two days from now is the anniversary of Hitler blowing his brains out. I don't think Saddam will have the opportunity to do the same thing.
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